Celebrate Easter With Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick!

Posted on April 1, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

To those who observe the holiday, happy Easter!

Above, we have a picture of Edie Sedgwick and Andy Warhol posing with two rabbits. I’m not really sure whether or not this picture was actually taken for Easter but let’s pretend like it was. Andy certainly doesn’t look very happy with his rabbit.

Fortunately, he appears to be in a better mood in the picture below, which also features both Edie and Catherine Deneuve.

And, finally, in this next picture, Andy is finally actually smiling. How couldn’t you smile with that many rabbits around? Seriously, rabbits are incredibly cute.

Finally, let’s end this with Andy Warhol’s 1982 painting, Eggs:

Artwork of the Day: New York Movie

Posted on November 26, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

New York Movie (1939, Edward Hopper)

I could never work in a movie theater.

Don’t get me wrong. I love movies, as anyone who has spent any time reading this site should know. I consider both the Alamo Drafthouse and the Dallas Angelika to be a second home. But, even if I didn’t have a degree and I was totally alone in the world and I desperately needed a job, I could never work at either one of them. I would be scared that, if I did, the act of going to the movies would lose its magic. My love of film would be destroyed by the drudgery of employment. (For that same reason, I could also never work in a book store.)

That’s something that I find myself thinking about as I look at Edward Hopper’s New York Movie. As a writer, it’s impossible for me to look at any painting or photograph without immediately trying to turn it into a short story. While the theater’s the audience is sucked into the fantasy of cinema, the usher stands to the side and appears to be lost in thought. Much as I’ve looked at John French Sloan’s Movies, Five Cents and subsequently spent hours considering who the woman in the audience is looking at, New York Movie has inspired me to spend hours wondering what the usher is thinking about while the audience watches the movie. Is she bored or is she sad? Is she thinking about the movie or the audience or about what she’s going to do when she gets off work? Does she like the movie, does she hate the movie, or has she reached the point where she doesn’t even notice the movie?

Edward Hopper’s best known work was Nighthawks, that famous painting of four people in an all-night diner. Hopper’s model for New York Movie‘s usher was his wife, Jo, who posed under a lamp outside of their apartment.

Artwork of the Day: Movies, Five Cents

Posted on November 25, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Movies, Five Cents (1907, John French Sloan)

How long have movies been an important part of life? Well, consider this. The painting above, John French Sloan’s Movies, Five Cents, was painted in 1907! It depicts what most of us, up until a few years ago, would have considered to be a fairly modern scene. A group of people sit in a theater and watch a movie. Well, almost all of them are watching. The center of the painting is the one woman who is not watching the movie but who instead appears to be staring straight at the observer. Is she watching us or has she caught us watching her?

Of course, today, things are changing. There are so many new ways to watch movies that it’s hard not to feel that the whole ritual of going down to a theater to see the latest release will soon be as passé as dial-up internet or having a landline phone. Right now, you look at this painting and you marvel at the very idea of being able to see a movie for five cents. In the future, we may find ourselves marveling at the idea of actually leaving the house to watch a film. We may look at this painting and say, “This painting reminds me of what it was like when movie theaters still existed.” And then our children will say, “What’s a painting?”

That’s life.

Til then, I love this painting. Movies, Five Cents is a prime example of the Ashcan School of art. Inspired by socialism and Marxism and all that stuff, The Ashcan School rebelled against both impressionism and academic realism and instead, attempted to capture scenes of real life, especially among the poor. John French Sloan was one of the leading artists in the Aschan School and he remained a fervent socialist for his entire life.

Is there a political subtext to Movies, Five Cents? Honestly, who cares? I’m more interested in trying to figure out what movie they’re watching. It looks romantic!

Artwork of the Day: Disco Dilemma

Posted on November 21, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

By Mort Kunstler

Do a google search for “Disco Painting” and this is one of the first images to come up. Entitled Disco Dilemma, it was painted by Mort Kunstler and, according to what I read online, it was used as the cover for the January, 1968 edition of a magazine called For Men Only.

(As my friend, Mark the Australian hippy, once pointed out, Kunstler is German for artist.)

A part of me wonders if that date is correct. Did they have discos in 1968? To me, this seems more appropriate for 1978 than 1968. Just check out that ascot on the bearded man over on the far left side of the picture. (The bearded man, incidentally, bears a vague resemblance to Charlton Heston. Heston famously wore a similar ascot all through Soylent Green.) According to Wikipedia, For Men Only published from “at least the 1950s to the 1970s,” which is pretty damn vague for the internet’s go-to source for information. Wikipedia also states that it started out as a “men’s adventure” magazine before going pornographic in 1970. Personally, I just think it’s amusing that there actually used to be a magazine called For Men Only. Is that a threat or a dare? If I found an old copy of For Men Only and I opened it, would it lead to some sort of Ark of the Covenant-style divine retribution?

(“CLOSE YOUR EYES! DON’T LOOK AT IT!”)

Well, regardless of when this was actually painted or if I would even be allowed to be in the same room as the actual magazine, here’s Disco Dilemma!

(Speaking of disco, be sure to check out my reviews of Skatetown USA, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Saturday Night Fever, Prom Night, Staying Alive, and Thank God It’s Friday!)

(And remember…if I can’t have you, I don’t want nobody, baby….)

(…’Cause we’re living in a world of fools. Breaking us down when they all should let us be. We belong to you and me…)