Previously on Skandalon

About The Burt Britton Collection of artists’ self-portraits:

Picking up a bartending shift at the Village Vanguard, the famous New York jazz joint where he usually worked the door, Burt Britton found himself alone at last-call with just one final patron, Norman Mailer. After pouring the esteemed author a final drink, the question was put to Burt, “What do you want from me, Kid?” Exasperated at the end of the long shift, Burt inexplicably responded, “draw me your self-portrait,” handed him a piece of folded paper, and that, simply put, is how it all began.

That night in the mid-Sixties Mailer produced and gave to Britton an amazing object of self-expression, the first of hundreds to come, a self-portrait of the author more revealing than 1000 words. Inspired by Mailer’s product, Britton started to collect. Still at the Vanguard, he gathered self-portraits by Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock after landmark 1966 concerts, he even got a portrait from a New York high-school basketball phenomenon, Lew Alcindor, later the champion Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Moving to the legendary Strand bookstore in about 1968, Britton encountered novelists, poets, journalists, and critics, both the highly regarded and those just starting out. He would respectfully ask local and visiting literary luminaries such as Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams and Jorge Luis Borges to add their self-portrait to his album with the same democratic spirit that he offered the young John Irving, just months away from the fame that came with The World According to Garp. (Bloomsbury’s auction catalogue : PDF)

Bloomsbury’s catalogue contains every items in the Burt Britton Collection along with details and explanations about the Collection in general and some specific explanations about each self-portrait as well. Alternatively, one can browse the collection over at the Bloomsbury Auctions official website. Back in 2009, there was a story about this collection in The New York Times: “Self-Portraits Speak More Than Words” by James Barron, September 23th, 2009.

Previously on Skandalon : Don DeLillo

Takashi Murakami was born in Tokyo in 1962. He’s a contemporary Japanese artist. About the Mushrooms:

For me they seem both erotic and cute while evoking – especially for the Western imagination – the fantastic world of fairy tale. I thought that, by uniting the eroticism and the magic side of mushrooms, I could use them as motifs in my work. (read more)

Some of Murakami’s work is being exhibited in the palace of Versailles and it’s creating something of a controversy: see “Takashi Murakami takes on critics with provocative Versailles exhibition” (by Lizzy Davies, The Guardian, September 10th, 2010) and “Murakami’s Creations Invade Versailles” (by Rooksana Hossenally, The New York Times, September 13th, 2010. Visit the Chateau de Versailles official website for more info on the exhibition.

Roger Ebert seems to think this documentary is authentic. Others are speculating that it could be a big artistic hoax, something similar to Banksy’s Exit Through The Gift Shop documentary. But Casey Affleck says it’s all true (Time). Watch the trailers and visit the official website.

Previously on Skandalon

Artist’s statement:

In my work this romantic ideal of union with the natural world conflicts with our contemporary impact on the environment. These pieces are in part responses to environmental stressors including climate change, toxic pollution, and gm crops. They also borrow from myth, art history, figures of speech and other cultural touchstones. In some pieces aspects of the human figure stand-in for ourselves and act out sometimes harrowing, sometimes humorous transformations which illustrate our current relationship with the natural world. In others, animals take on anthropomorphic qualities when they are given safety equipment to attempt to protect them from man-made environmental threats. In each case the union between man and nature is shown to be one of friction and discomfort with the disturbing implication that we too are vulnerable to being victimized by our destructive practices. (read on)

First spotted via Who Killed Bambi.

Previously on Skandalon

Silver Snail is a comic book store in Toronto. Currently, Adam Hughes

is the monthly cover artist to DC Comics title Catwoman […] [He] is most commonly known for his stylized renderings of women; super heroines, damsels in distress, figures in fantasy. About the time Adam began making waves in art circles and his artwork really began to be noticed, the term “Good Girl Art” had been coined, and it best describes exactly what Adam does. He is considered by many to be one of a new generation of Good Girl artists inspired by Petty, Vargas and Elvgren. (more)

Previously on Skandalon: Christoph Niemann

About Richard Estes:

“Richard Estes (born May 14, 1932 in Kewanee, Illinois) is an American painter who is best known for his photorealistic paintings. The paintings generally consist of reflective, clean, and inanimate city and geometric landscapes. He is regarded as one of the founders of the international photo-realist movement of the late 1960s, with painters such as Ralph Goings, Chuck Close, and Duane Hanson.” (wikipedia)

Gisele Amantea: Barrière, [detail: pole and chain link], black flock on silver paper, 12.7 x 25 ft, 2003

“Gisele Amantea is an artist who lives in Montréal, Canada. Her work is known for its innovative use of materials and formats drawn from popular culture, such as flock, graphic narrative and commercial film, and its exploration of questions related to women, class, nostalgia, history and memory. Materially and visually rich, her work also considers notions of ornament and decoration in relation to domestic architectural space.” (more)

About Mr. Fish:

Mr. Fish (mrfish@clowncrack.com) lives in Los Angeles, California. He never asked to be born. Occasionally, he laughs his head off. His mother has no idea what he’s up to. She cries easily. For more information, date him. (source)

Previously on Skandalon : Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal

About Bob Staake:

Bob Staake (born September 26, 1957 in Los Angeles, California) is an American illustrator, cartoonist, children’s book author, and designer. He lives and works in Chatham, Massachusetts on the elbow of Cape Cod. (wikipedia)

I first came to know Bob Staake through this video, were he demonstrates how he uses a subtraction process in Photoshop 3.0 to create his illustration. Visit his official website (and discover a lot more about his art).