Friday, September 08, 2006

Mexican Muralist


Jean Charlot
Shepherds
Pastoras
Date 1964
Media Oil on canvas


Born in France in 1898, Jean Charlot studied at the Ecole de Beaux-Arts in Paris and served as an artillery officer at the end of the first World War. Soon after, he moved to Mexico and by the 1920s he had established himself in the art community of Mexico City. He befriended Diego Rivera, Jose Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, all main figures in the Mexican Mural movement of the early 1920s. For two years, he concentrated on mural paintings in fresco and became an assistant to Diego Rivera.

Charlot produced a series of small woodcuts and oils, primarily portraits of many of his contemporaries. In 1933, he completed a series of lithographs with printer, George Miller, among them “Great Builders I” and “Great Builders II”.

He moved to New York in 1928 and his work was shown in the Mexican government- sponsored group exhibition at the Art Center during the same year. He also participated in group exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art and the Fogg Museum.

Charlot met the printer Lynton R. Kistler in Los Angeles in 1933 and together they completed a color lithograph, which led to the publishing of “Picture Book”, a collection containing thirty- two color lithographs. In 1938, he taught extensively, at Choiunard Art School, Stendahl Galleries, Disney Studios and, in New York, at the Art Students League, Columbia University and the Brooklyn Museum.

Charlot is the person who singlehandedly resurrected the work of Jose Guadalupe Posada, the great Mexican engraver of popular art - especially the "Day of the Dead" skeleton figures that are so well known today.He moved to Hawaii to teach at the University and remained there for about thirty years until his death in 1979. He won many awards for his work.

Tortilla Maker
Tortillera
Date 1967
Media Oil on canvas


Dance of the Malinches
Danza de las malinches
Dated 1948 Media Oil on canvas


Mother Carrying Child on her Back

Madre Cargando Niño en sus Espaldas
Dated1934 Media Color lithograph
Have a wonderful weekend everyone! Comments are always appreciated.

N Posted by Rain at 9/08/2006 01:20:00 PM

Thursday, September 07, 2006

California's Jazz Scene


Hollis Gentry
1954-2006

Legendary saxophonist Hollis Gentry has died. Hollis Gentry III is one of the founding members of Fattburger, and the other musicians (keyboardist Carl Evan, bassist Mark Hunter, drummer Kevin Koch, and guitarist Steve Laury) . Tommy Aros joined the band as their percussionist and in the early '90s, when Laury started a solo career and Evan Marks became Fattburger's guitarist. Fattburger found a home on the Shanachie label, releasing a string of well-received albums into the 21st century.

Gentry helped create the sound that changed Southern California's jazz scene forever. There is no better word to describe his mastery of the saxophone and his improvisational dynamics, which music critics frequently compare to legends like Coleman Hawkins, Sonny Stitt, Johnny Griffin and John Coltrane.
Gentry was nine when he first picked up a saxophone. While attending Crawford High School he and the band (Power) he formed were on tour with Barry White's "Love Unlimited Orchestra." During that time, Gentry and his band also collaborated briefly with the legendary Cannonball Adderly. He attended San Diego State University and during the second half of the 1970s had opportunities to play straight-ahead jazz with Bruce Cameron.
As the first-ever jazz artist to perform with the renowned San Diego Symphony Orchestra, he opened doors to performance for an eclectic array of artists to the delight of symphony goers and jazz fans.
He has collaborated around the country with the top names in jazz including Freddie Hubbard, Jimmy Smith, Mel Torme, Stanley Clarke, Nancy Wilson, Randy Crawford, Bobby Hutcherson, David Benoit, Joe Sample, Al Jarreau, Phil Upchurch and Larry Carlton.
It is indeed a sad day for San Diego's music scene. Rest in peace Hollis.

N Posted by Rain at 9/07/2006 07:12:00 AM

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

A Day At the Beach


Have a good day everyone!

N Posted by Rain at 9/06/2006 12:26:00 AM

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Labor Day Weekend

Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat


Wow what a wonderful weekend! I went to the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park to see a Andy Warhol double feature "I Shot Andy Warhol" and "Basquiat" with my friend Candy. "I Shot Andy Warhol" tells the life story of feminist Valerie Solanas (played by Lill Taylor), who shot Warhol in 1968. The second film, "Basquiat," follows the rise and fall of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, who Warhol propelled onto the art scene. David Bowie plays Warhol in "Basquiat," and Benicio Del Toro plays Benny, Basquiat's (Jeffery Wright) drugged-out friend, with some great one-liners; "Willie Mays" Willie Mays!" If you get a chance to see these two movies in your local area I highly recommend both of them.
American Indian
by Andy Warhol

We also went to the San Diego Museum of Art which is featuring an exhibit “Andy Warhol’s Dream America: Screenprints from the Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation.” This was a first for Candy, she has never had the opportunity to see any of his works “live”. I am so glad that I was there to experience it with her and see his work through her eyes.


Florence, 1983
by Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat was a graffiti sprayer in New York who became a celebrated artist. His works are among the most powerful and intense to come out of the 1980's art scene. He painted in layers, using fragments of daily life, words, simple symbols and stick-man figures in order to create a form of art that all could understand and that all could practice. His work can be described as original, primitive, authentic, "an attempt to renew and revitalize art itself".

Source: Emmerling, Leonard. Jean-Michel Basquiat 1960-1988. Köln : Taschen, 2003.


The rest of the weekend was spent at a campsite with my family and friends at Silver Strand Beach in Coronado. We went swimming, surfing and played volleyball. We found lots of silver dollars and many other kinds of seashells. Everyone who came brought food and every time I turned around I was being offered more to eat. It was a dieters nightmare come true and I was in pure bliss. I read a trashy novel and people watched. It was truly one of the most relaxing weekends that I have had in a long time.



Now it is time for us to go back to work and school. It is all good, only four more days until the weekend!

I hope each of you had a safe and happy Labor Day Weekend. Goodnight everyone! Comments are always appreciated.

N Posted by Rain at 9/05/2006 01:13:00 AM