Wearable Photography

Appealing photo-prints from  Agnès B ...

My Week With Marilyn: AAF, AIPAD, SVA

The photo hanging at AAF is Dream in Color by Richard Heeps.

It will probably be a while (like a few hundred years) before she outdoes the Virgin Mary for ‘most-depicted woman in art,’ but you can be sure that wherever there is an abundance of contemporary art and photography, you will find images of Marilyn Monroe. While the ratio of Marilyn-per-hundred-images might vary by venue, I think you’d be hard pressed to visit an art fair and not see her.

The 'Marilyns' here were sighted during last week’s alphabet-soup of visual events—AAF, AIPAS, SVA.

AAF Affordable Art Fair

The possibilities are endless when it comes to the artistic interpretation of a cultural icon. The sphere, is a recurring motif in the work of Belgian artist Tigi Van Gil. The collage portrait below is by Marius.

AIPAD Association of International Photography Art Dealers

The gorgeous Bert Stern portraits of Marilyn were at Staley-Wise Gallery

David Winter , whose inventory is absolutely astonishing, had a wonderful photo of Marilyn and Clark Gable (must have been Misfits). The above photo of her swimming was on his website.

SVA D-Crit School of Visual Arts, Design Criticism

Ms. Monroe even made a surprise appearance at the SVA D-Crit lecture by British critic and photographer Rick Poynor. She graced one of three covers he showed of J.G. Ballard’s The Atrocity Exhibition.

The Antiques Garage  TAG?

No shortage of Marilyn here.

Slow-Action Painting

It was around noon on this bright, trying-to-be-spring day, when I stopped to admire the masterpieces spread before me on Columbus Avenue.

Both drop cloths catching paint from a signpost being painted were lovely, but I especially liked the one that was thickly encrusted with black and yellow splatters.

“That one took 28 years to make,” said one-half of the plein-air painting duo. “All the paint makes it really heavy and it doesn’t blow away.”

He then started shooing me away, while the other one asked, “you mean you would you put this on your wall?”

“Of course, I replied.

He shook his head and laughed, “you’re the fourth person so far to say that today!”