Layers

The actual layers of clothing George 

Mallory was wearing when his body was discovered in 1999

Andrew Irvine and George Mallory in 1924
just before climbing Mt. Everest

Ma viande rouge

Vintage French butcher charts

Now, go stand in the corner

Corner portraits by Irving Penn

Marcel Duchamp

Joe Louis

Truman Capote

Georgia O'Keeffe

Igor Stravinsky

Spencer Tracy

Marlene Dietrich

Deep blue

Ethereal images by Daniel Balda

Studies

I especially love when a painting is exhibited with its studies. This almost never happens.

Herbert James Draper, Ulysses and the Sirens 1909

Homer's description of the sirens was rather vague. Draper depicts them as mermaids and young women. We see a crew of virile sailors apparently terrified by three nude girls. As they boldly climb aboard the vessel,  the sirens change from mermaids into women.

Herbert James Draper, The Sea Maiden 1894 

Inspired lighting

Erich Ginder glass pendant light

Devo energy dome headgear

Laugh riot

How many of these sold over all the years since they were first created?

Who can it be now?

French poster for Sorry, Wrong Number, 1948

Poster for Dial M for Murder, 1954

Vintage packaging for Western Telephone, circa 1940's

Light delight

Bedroom: A Merry Mishap

 Block light

String light

A deep homesickness

Debbie Millman on starting now...

Disposable

Circa 1968

A rare set of graphic designer Harry Gordon's paper dresses is available for 

purchase on 1stdibs.  Originally priced at $3.00 each, be prepared to pay a bit more.

Looking good on paper

This latest acquisition leaves me grinning.

Circles, check.

Numbers, check.

Black, white and red, check, check, check!

Night vision

I cannot walk through the suburbs in the solitude of the night

without thinking that the night pleases us because it suppresses

idle details, just as our memory does.

—Jorge Luis Borges

Le cigne noir, 1895

La maison aveugle, 1892

Nocturne au Parc Royal de Bruxelles, 1897

Magical night paintings by Belgian artist William Degouve de Nuncques  (1867-1935)

Eros and Thanatos

In 1951, photographer Philippe Halsman posed 7 models to form a human skull for his 

portrait of artist Salvador Dali. The title, In Voluptas Mors, roughly translates

to the voluptuous death. In Greek mythology, Voluptas was the goddess

of pleasure.

It took hours for Halsman to arrange the models

as Dali had envisioned in his drawing. Hours of direction,

contortion and prodding seems to have eliminated any

eroticism. In the behind-the-scene photos, the models look exhausted and bored.

Freud theorized that two instincts motivate people: Eros- sexuality and the drive for life, and Thanatos-aggression and the will for destruction.  The conflict of both impulses (pleasure/death) appears in nearly every episode of this season's Mad Men.