A Life Remembered

Shirley Blackwell's death was completely ordinary. She died on the day after Christmas 2020, at the age of 70, after long term kidney and lung issues. The event was reported in the local paper in Alliance, Ohio, dispassionately listing the usual things that are printed when a beloved member of a community dies: where she worked, who she is survived by, and details about where the celebration of her life would be held. Nothing was mentioned about the infamous pictures that she appeared in as part of a series for Life magazine, an event that would alter the course of her family forever. Nothing was said about the struggle she had faced for years trying to find money for college. And nothing certainly was mentioned about the time her mother’s dreams were put on hold after being fired from her job for participating in the magazine spread. Instead, niceties appeared in her small hometown paper and the death of the little girl in her Sunday best standing alongside her aunt outside of a “Colored Only” entrance in 1956 was ignored by the national media.

This Gordon Parks photo was taken in Mobile, Alabama, next door to my father's department store.  I was touched by Ms Blackwell's obit and wanted to share the legendary, Life magazine, photo. 

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Black and White Spider Award

Dobson's Boarding House, Mobile, Alabama

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

16TH ANNUAL BLACK AND WHITE SPIDER AWARDS HONORS PHOTOGRAPHER PAULA BARR FROM USA

LOS ANGELES 12/2/21 - Photographer Paula Barr of USA was presented with the 16th Annual Black and White Spider Award in the category of AMERICANA at a prestigious Nomination & Winners Photo Show streamed Saturday, November 6, 2021. 

BLACK AND WHITE SPIDER AWARDS is the leading international award honoring excellence in black and white photography. This celebrated event shines a spotlight on the best professional and amateur photographers worldwide and honors the finest images with the highest achievements in black and white photography. www.thespiderawards.com

"As always the Black & White Spider Awards showcases the work of talented professional and amateur photographers that may until now have been somewhat hidden from view. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to discover these new and exciting images." Conrad Hechter, Correspondent at Goldsmiths, University of London commented. 

"It's an incredible achievement to be selected among the best from the 6,211 entries from 75 countries we received this year" said Basil O'Brien, the awards Creative Director. "(Name)'s "(Title of Photograph)," an exceptional image entered in the (Category) category, represents black and white photography at its finest, and we're pleased to present (her/him) with the title of (Award Title)." 

The live online gala was attended by industry leaders and the photography community from around the globe who logged on to watch the climax of the world's premier event for black and white photography. 16th Annual Jury members included captains of the industry from Galerie Springer, Berlin; HackelBury Fine Art, London; DROGA5, New York; Artfactory Club, Vienna; Portuguese Center of Photography, Porto; Spurs Gallery, Beijing; Aeroplastics Contemporary, Brussels; The Guardian, London; Istanbul Museum of Modern Art; Alessia Paladini Gallery, Milan; ADK Creative One Inc., Tokyo; Hiroshima MOCA, Japan; Conny Dietzschold Gallery, Sydney; Silvan Faessler Fine Art, Switzerland; Goldsmiths, University of London; Alfred Ehrhardt Foundation, Berlin; NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale; Cassina Projects Gallery, Milan; David Clarke, London; Paola Anselmi Contemporary Art, Perth; Chiara Badinella, Art Advisory & Appraisals, Milan; MWWM, New York; and Galerie Bugada Cargnel in Paris who honored Spider Fellows with 596 coveted title awards and 935 nominees in 33 categories

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Conversations in Drawing: Seven Centuries of Art from the Gray Collection at the Morgan Library

 

An amazing exhibition of drawings. This Van Gogh is an example of the gems to be seen. 

Van Gogh seems to have been inspired to make this melancholy drawing after reading “Tristement” (Sadly) by the French writer François Coppée, known as “the Poet of the Humble.” The poem describes a mourning widow proceeding along “a very long lane of giant, half- denuded plane trees.” Time has enhanced the drawing’s autumnal mood. The irongall ink that Van Gogh used, once black, has faded to a dark brown and imparted a golden tone to the paper, and the hatched pen lines have bled and merged. The effect overall is a more muted contrast between light and dark.

Vincent van Gogh
Dutch, 1853–1890 
Avenue of Pollard Birches and Poplars, 1884 
Reed pen and iron-gall ink
Richard and Mary L. Gray, promised gift to the Art Institute of Chicago
Gray Collection Trust, Art Institute of Chicago
Photography by Jamie Stukenberg, Professional Graphics Inc.

Today, May 8, is the birthday of Mickey Ruskin, the founder of Max’s Kansas City and a major (and beloved) figure in New York City’s art and music scene in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. Mickey would have been a feisty and delightful 87 today.

From Yvonne Sewall: 

We are celebrating Mickey Ruskin Appreciation Week by reminding friends and --followers of how important Mickey was in our collective creative life.  As the head of the Max’s family and overseer of the scene, he made sure that everyone had a place at the table (and often “free hors d’oeuvres," as Glenn O’Brien of Interview Magazine noted) and that connections, opportunities, and excitement were always on the menu.  

For any of you who experienced those connections and benefited in any way, it is time to give back and keep Mickey's and Max's legacy alive. The Max’s Kansas City Project nonprofit was severely impacted financially by COVID-19. We’re struggling to stay afloat. Become a supporter like he supported you all those years. Go to www.maxskansascity.org and make a donation! 

Feel free to Paadd a photo! 

 

www.maxskansascity.org
www.dropin2maxs.com
845-481-3416

Giovanni Bellini's St. Francis in the Desert is a masterpiece of spiritual poetry

On Sunday, April 11th, August celebrated my birthday with me at the Frick Madison.  It was truly heaven on earth. I finally experienced the exquisite merging of photography and painting. Please see the installation below where the natural light and trapezoidal shape of the window is paired with Bellini's St. Francis in the Desert.

Giovanni Bellini's St. Francis in the Desert is a masterpiece of spiritual poetry that has enthralled generations of visitors to The Frick Collection.

This monumental painting — the largest work on panel at the Frick — portrays Francesco Bernardone of Assisi (c. 1181–1226), the medieval saint who renounced earthly riches to embrace a life of poverty, humility, simplicity, and prayer. Francis founded the mendicant religious order known in Italy as the Frati Minori, or Friars Minor, still flourishing today. In 1224, during a retreat to the Tuscan mountain of La Verna, he was honored for his empathetic faith with the stigmata, the imprint of the five wounds of Christ's Crucifixion

 

Giovanni Bellini St. Francis in the Desert, c. 1475-78, 

oil on poplar panel, 49 x 55 7⁄8 inches,

Summer Solstice, Juneteeth, Pause

"Earnest", 1977

Gulf Coast State Fair, Mobile, Alabama

Earnest proudly resting after he completed installing the tents for the

 fair attendees and exhibitors.

FRANK STELLA

RECENT WORK

The sculptures explode out of the galleries. They seem to have the energy that could push the walls apart...In some works, like Atalanta and Hippomenes (2017), the rigid structure of the grid is broken by the application of large, billowing white forms that seem to weave and expand across the vertical and horizontal planes. Inspired by the ethereal quality of smoke rings—which have long captivated Stella— the abstract form appears weightless despite its grand scale.

This sensation is further accentuated by the way the grid is affixed to the wall, giving it a contrasting feel of solidity. In others, such as Leeuwarden II (2017), the fiberglass grid is suspended within a metal frame, with brightly-colored, almost neon, ribbons dramatically swooping in and out of it, imbuing the work with a vivid sense of motion. The juxtaposition of materials, from colored fiberglass to bare steel to PU-foam, adds further texture and depth to the sculptures and contributes to the shifting experience of the work as one changes position and perspective.

 Frank Stella: Recent Work will be on view from April 25 through June 22 across both of the Marianne Boesky Gallery’s Chelsea locations at 509 and 507 W. 24th Street.