Cubomania

R(apture)In recent days I was meant to enter Illustrators Australia’s annual 9x5 exhibition. In emulation of nineteenth century artists who painted on cigar boxes, each year every member is given a piece of plywood to paint, draw on, or otherwise decorate.

This year’s theme was ‘Rapture’. Now that had me flummoxed for quite a while, and by the time I thought of a concept to do with fireworks (to execute in paint and collage), I had simply run out of time.

During research for the third issue of the IA magazine Outline, I discovered the Surrealist method of collage making called ‘cubomania’, where an image is dissected into squares, then mixed up and reassembled. It’s a bit like one of those sliding tile games I had when I was a child. (There are some rather cool ones out there if you do a Google image search – here’s an amusing one to read about.)

So I thought I’d whip together one of those according to the 9x5 theme. I ended up doing two, which you can see here, with the missing square a letter from the word. Fortuitously there are exactly seven rows, just enough to spell out the word ‘rapture’ (if I was mad enough to chop up seven images and bore you with them). I’ve included the originals, one a perfume ad for Gucci Guilty, and the other for Moët & Chandon, featuring Scarlet Johansson. 

(r)A(pture)

CUBOMANIA UNCUT

Picture Within a Picture

I can’t believe it’s October already. This year is flying by! Before you know it, it’ll be Christmas. There are Christmas things in the stores already, perhaps that was a common ploy even in the 1930s when this cover was published, with its red, green and white colours?

This illustration Paris Openings, is by André-Edouard Marty, and was first published in September 1932. It is such a lovely, cool-weather cover: the soignée woman nestled in her deep, cosy armchair, huge lamp throwing light in a darkened room. She is reading the magazine she is on the cover of. I was always fascinated by these Escher-type ‘picture within a picture within a picture’ images when I was a child. I even used to stand in front of a mirror with a hand mirror to mimic the effect!

Until the mid 1940s, Vogue covers featured an illustrated masthead, matching or complementing the theme of the cover image. It’s one of the most enjoyable aspects of the covers in the early twentieth century. I can understand why magazines today stick to the same masthead, but they do lose so much liveliness thereby (not to mention the stock-standard glossy, highly-polished photographs of Hollywood actresses – yawn – and an exaggerated proliferation of coverlines). They just don’t make them like they used to…

Until next month then – only two more illustrations to go!

Collage Special

Cover illustration by Danny SnellYesterday my third issue of Outline was published. It was part two of the collage special (last issue I had so much material that I had to split it in half).

A Capsule History of Collage. Click on image for larger version.I wrote a little capsule history of collage, and discovered some interesting things, for instance: I had no idea that Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso coined the term (taken from the French, coller, to glue). And who has heard of cubomania?

Opening spread of a profile on Tanya Cooper. Click on image for larger version.There are three profiles on Australian illustrators who specialise in collage: Tanya Cooper (above), Danny Snell and Ron Monnier. Danny gave us a little 'how-to' tutorial and Ron created a collage of his studio especially for the occasion!

Ron Monnier’s studio; illustration by Ron Monnier

Collage website reviews and opening page of enterprising illustrators-turned-fine-artists. Click on image for larger version.

Then the Enterprise section profiles five illustrators who have segued into fine art: Graham McArthur, Lisa Coutts, Michel Canetti, Jacqueline Gwynne and Sonia Kretschmar. Researching new blogs and websites is always fun too. Naturally these all focus on collage, including random poetry. Kohlage is a good one – like Flickr for collage artists.

Opening spread of an editorial on Sonia Kretschmar. Click on image for larger version.There is also a special feature on Sonia Kretschmar, whose first major portrait of authour Cassandra Gold made it into the Archibald Prize. She tells us about the painting process and her experience as a finalist.

Profile on Franz RohAnd on the back page in the Vintage section I profile Franz Roh, a fascinating collage artist who worked with old engravings in the 1930s. His work is whimsical and clever.

I've already had some great feedback from my readers and that is always encouraging to hear. Onto the summer issue!

British Art and Turkish Coffee

‘Hylas and the Nymphs’, by John William Waterhouse, 1896It’s afternoon coffee time, yay! On the afternoons when I work from home I make a little pot of Turkish coffee (from fresh-ground beans). For years I have been using the same Scottish-made stoneware mug that was a birthday gift from my sister Star. It is printed with the John William Waterhouse’s painting Hylas and the Nymphs.

The caption on the painting in my book The Pre-Raphaelites, by Christopher Woods (Weidenfeld and Nicolson London, 1981) reads:

Hylas was squire to Heracles, one of the Argonauts. When they stopped on the island of Cios, Hylas went off in search of water, but was lured to his death by water nymphs. This picture is now Waterhouse’s best-known work, and has become one of the key images of the femme fatale in late Victorian art. Waterhouse’s style is a uniquely personal blend of fantasy and reality, and he is one of the few Victorian artists to paint the Greek myths convincingly.

And now my coffee’s finished already, boo!

No More Coffee :: Hornbecker // DreamCanvas // No flash

Swap Cards and Card Sharks

A wood of snowdrops, a childhood favourite. Image: superminx

Today’s glorious weather instantly reminded me of summer holidays, and childhood, and, by a convoluted route, collecting swap cards. 

I had a huge collection of swap cards, and among my favourites (and every little girl that I knew) were the Sarah Kays. If you managed to swap an inferior card for one of those, you could be considered a serious trader, a force to be reckoned with. Holly Hobby cards on the other hand were second-rate, the poor man’s version of Sarah Kay. I disdained them. 

A selection of Sarah Kay cards. My sister Star would write amusing captions on the reverse, in the style of a family album: “Joseph and Deb on their first date”. Image: superminx

But I was not always so canny. When I first started out as a swap-carder, I fell into the hands of a card shark, a seven-year-old swindler who took advantage of my extreme youth (I was about five). She fast-talked me into swapping some covetable card for a gaudy piece of tinsel (possibly a playing card masquerading as a swap card). Luckily, one of my cousins was keeping an eye on me, and no sooner than she discovered the sting, she swooped upon the unhappy perpetrator and with much haranguing made her swap it back. After that I learned. 

See more in the Flickr group 1970s Vintage Swap Cards.