Archive for the ‘Art and fashion’ Category
Friday, May 17th, 2013
You’ve probably heard all of the news about the clothing company Abercrombie & Fitch lately, how CEO Mike Jeffries has said that “a lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.” And now there’s a lot of talk about a video where a guy buys the clothes and gives them to people on Skid Row as his means of protest. We noticed something else when taking a look at the A&F website – they’re ripping off Roy Lichtenstein! Check out this tee-shirt and compare it to Lichtenstein’s painting … looks pretty similar, wouldn’t you say? I did a Google search, and don’t see any reference to Abercrombie & Fitch having a licensing agreement with the Roy Lichtenstein Estate. But then again, one could say that Lichtenstein “ripped off” the original comics which he copied for his paintings … what do you think?
Tags: Abercrombie & Fitch, Mike Jeffries, Roy Lichtenstein
Posted in Art News, Art and fashion
Wednesday, April 17th, 2013
I’m not a “sneakerhead,” the term used to describe people who obsessively collect sneakers, but I could easily be persuaded to buy some of these Basquiat-inspired Reboks. I had no idea that Rebok made Basquiat sneakers, but considering that I could never afford one of his paintings, maybe this is the way to go. One could say that this is “selling out” his legacy, but I think they’re pretty cool.
Tags: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Rebok, sneakers
Posted in Art We Like, Art and fashion, Products We'd Like To See
Tuesday, April 9th, 2013
I saw this sign in Kralendijk on the island of Bonaire today … it’s for a children’s clothing store, and they want you to believe that their clothes are so great, that kids like this one are really pumped up to go clothes shopping. Look at this kid, he’s pumping his fists, and his expression makes it look like he’s saying “Oh yeah! We’re going shopping for new clothes.” It just made me laugh, because I don’t think I’ve ever seen a kid get very excited about shopping for clothes, certainly not like this!
Tags: Bonaire, children's clothing, funny sign, Kralendijk, pumped up kids
Posted in Art That Makes You Go "Huh?", Art We Like, Art and fashion, Exploring art in other cities, Found Art, Odd and funny signs, Photo of the day
Wednesday, March 27th, 2013
Is it just me, or do you think the artist who created the mannequin (below left) had Modigliani in mind when creating that look? The eyes, the long neck, the narrow face? What do you think?
Tags: mannequin, Modigliani painting, NYC, Upper East Side
Posted in Art That Makes You Go "Huh?", Art and fashion, Photo of the day
Saturday, February 23rd, 2013
Looking for some “bling” to ramp up the cool factor on your iPhone? Check out these two iPhone cases that I saw in NYC in a storefront in Chelsea yesterday. The one on the left, with its diamond-covered skulls, is certainly inspired by Damien Hirst, and his 2007 sculpture titled “For the Love of God.” I haven’t decided yet whether I consider these to be ridiculous or cool … there’s an element of both in them.
Tags: Damien Hirst, diamond covered skulls, For the Love of God, iPhone case
Posted in Art That Makes You Go "Huh?", Art and fashion, Photo of the day, Products We'd Like To See, sculpture
Thursday, January 10th, 2013
People of a certain age know what the “hair bands” of the 1980’s looked like, with these examples of Winger and Ratt, below. But art historians know that Frans Hals (c. 1582 – 26 August 1666) and the subjects of his paintings were rockin’ the hair band look about 300 years ago … check out his paintings below:
Tags: 80's hair bands, Frans Hals, Ratt, Winger
Posted in Art That Makes You Go "Huh?", Art and fashion, Music
Tuesday, January 1st, 2013
I saw this interesting large-scale photograph at the 2009 Armory Show (don’t ask why I’m digging through 3 year old pictures). At a quick glance, it looks like a colorful abstraction, but in reality it’s a photograph showing a large sneaker collection, with all of the shoes turned on the shelves so that their colorful soles face outward. When one thinks about the immense variety of sneakers being made, it’s not too surprising to think that one could come up with a semi-abstract image like this.
Tags: Armory Show, Photography, sneaker collection
Posted in Art We Like, Art and fashion, Photography, The Armory Show
Thursday, December 20th, 2012
I was looking through some old family photographs from a trip years ago to St. John, and came across this somewhat-odd photograph, below at top left. Suddenly it occurred to me – “hey, this looks like something Seydo Keita might have photographed!” If you need an introduction to the work of this photographer, he was a legendary African portraitist who lived in Bamako, Mali from 1921 to 2001. A self-taught photographer, he opened a studio in 1948 and specialized in portraiture. As you can see from these 3 examples of his work, his subjects often had very elaborate patterned clothing. At the time that I took my photograph, I certainly wasn’t intending to make a picture with him in mind, it’s only now looking back that I can see this connection. For more on Keita and his work, check out his official website here.
Tags: African artist, Photography, Seydou Keita
Posted in Art We Like, Art and fashion, Photo of the day, Photography
Sunday, December 9th, 2012
I was going through a pile of junk mail, which included a number of holiday shopping mail-order catalogs, when I happened upon one from NFLShop.com, which featured this woman, below left, on their cover. My initial reaction was “send this catalog straight to the recycling pile,” without any inclination to even open the catalog, but then I noticed that hair. I mean, really, what is going on here? How does one make hair go straight out, wide and flat like that? How is it even possible to make hair act like that? And then I made a visual connection: I guess it’s not drastically different from Sandro Botticelli’s Venus and her crazy hair, as seen below right. Do you think NFLShop.com was using this as inspiration or as a reference point? Nah, I doubt it …
Tags: Birth of Venus, Botticelli, crazy hair, NFL
Posted in Art In Advertising, Art That Makes You Go "Huh?", Art and fashion
Thursday, November 22nd, 2012
We hope you’re all enjoying the Thanksgiving holiday today. We did a feature on Pilgrims and Art a few years ago – there wasn’t much concern about making art for those early settlers, contrary to the funny image we put together at right – they were too busy getting prepared for their first winter to think much about making art.
According to a National Geographic story which I found today, even my depiction of the Pilgrim’s clothing is inaccurate; the story says: “The settlers didn’t have silver buckles on their shoes. Nor did they wear somber, black clothing. Their attire was actually bright and cheerful. Many portrayals of this harvest celebration also show the Native Americans wearing woven blankets on their shoulders and large, feathered headdresses, which is not true. The Englishmen didn’t even call themselves Pilgrims.”
Hmm, considering how many images like this are always passed around as historical fact, I’d like to see some pictures that are considered 100% realistic of what that first Thanksgiving looked like. Anyone have any good links to share to help set the record straight?
Tags: Pilgrims and Art, Thanksgiving
Posted in Art and fashion, Arts Education
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