Ordinary finds

The ‘eight wonder of the world’, New Zealand’s Pink and White Terrasses (silica formations) were destroyed in a volcanic eruption on June 10, 1886, when Mount Tarawera wiped out several villages (killing over 100 people) and turning the famous tourist attraction into a crater (which later became Lake Rotomahana)…

Photo from 1885 of the Pink Terrasses…

Images

Gustave Courbet (June 10, 1819 – 1877) led the Realist movement in 19th-century French painting.

His programme:

“I am fifty years old and I have always lived in freedom; let me end my life free; when I am dead let this be said of me: ‘He belonged to no school, to no church, to no institution, to no academy, least of all to any régime except the régime of liberty.” - Letters of Gustave Courbet, 1992, University of Chicago Press, Translated by Petra Ten-Doesschate Chu

Gustave Courbet’s finest:

L’Origine du Monde, 1866 - Musée d’Orsay 

Already preoccupied with the well-springs of all things:

Gustave Courbet: The Source, 1862

Courbet’s The Source, painted in a naturalistic style and devoid of the trappings of academic allegory, may have been a response to Ingres’s La Source (1856; Musée d’Orsay, Paris), which was exhibited at the Galerie Martinet in 1861. Courbet’s version is thought to date to 1862. (MetMuseum)

Courbet and the flesh:

The Sleepers, or Sleep (Le Sommeil), 1866 - Musée du Petit Palais, Paris, France (Commissioned by the Turkish diplomat Khalil-Bey)

Previously by Courbet on OF: 1

André Derain (June 10, 1880 – 1954) was a French painter and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse…

“I do not innovate. I transmit” & “The substance of painting is light.”

Photo of Derain by Man Ray, 1933

André Derain: The Bathers

“More eager than exacting, he wanted to include in a picture all the gains of modern painting, the discoveries of Impressionism, of Gauguin, of Van Gogh, and the influences of his friends Matisse and Vlaminck. It was this ambition that led him to paint The Bathers (1907), a work that seems to be a summary of the achievements of a quarter of a century.” (Source)

André Derain: The Houses of Parliament by Night, 1906

“Derain and Matisse worked together through the summer of 1905 in the Mediterranean village of Collioure and later that year displayed their highly innovative paintings at the Salon d’Automne. The vivid, unnatural colors led the critic Louis Vauxcelles to derisively dub their works as les Fauves, or “the wild beasts”, marking the start of the Fauvist movement. In March 1906, the noted art dealer Ambroise Vollard sent Derain to London to compose a series of paintings with the city as subject. In 30 paintings (29 of which are still extant), Derain put forth a portrait of London that was radically different from anything done by previous painters of the city such as Whistler or Monet. With bold colors and compositions, Derain painted multiple pictures of the Thames and Tower Bridge. These London paintings remain among his most popular work.” (Wiki)

André Derain: London Bridge

“He knew all the glamour of colour, and yet continued to pay careful attention to form and construction. That is why he executed some of the best Fauvist paintings: Westminster Bridge, A Corner of Hyde Park, his landscapes of Collioure and of L’Estaque, and Woman in Deck Chair.” (Source)

June 10, 1829 - The first Boat Race between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge takes place. This event was faithfully televised in Denmark in my childhood, where the one and only TV-channel available broadcast every sporting event on British soil they could lay their hands on. Now, of course with 50 to 100 channels in every Danish home not one of them bothers with this type of classic event….

Photo of the 1829 Oxford boat which won the inaugural race.

Fairfield Porter (June 10, 1907 - 1975) was an American painter and art critic. Though educated at Harvard, he was largely self-taught, and produced representational work in the midst of the Abstract Expressionist movement.

His subjects were primarily landscapes, domestic interiors and portraits of family, friends and fellow artists, many of them affiliated with the New York School of writers, including John Ashbery, Frank O’Hara, and James Schuyler. Many of his paintings were set in or around the family summer house on Great Spruce Head Island, Maine. (Wiki)

Photo of Porter in Maine, c. 1946

Fairfield Porter: Forsythia and Pear in Bloom, 1968 - oil on canvas (Smithsonian)

“This composition shows a white-flowering pear tree in the center, with the bright yellow flowers of forsythia bushes in the background. The building just visible beyond the foliage is Porter’s home in Southampton, New York, which was the setting for many of his paintings. The natural environment featured prominently in Porter’s work, and he and his brother, the photographer Eliot Porter, were keen environmental campaigners. The critic Hilton Kramer coined the phrase “the art of conservation” in reference to Porter’s painting, and compared his position in the art world to the place “our parks and gardens and surviving areas of unmolested countryside stand in relation to our overdeveloped urban centers.” (Spike, Fairfield Porter: An American Classic, 1992)” - Smithsonian label

Elaine de Kooning (1918- 1989): Fairfield Porter, 1954, oil on canvas - Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO.

Fairfield Porter: Portrait of Elaine de Kooning, 1957

Jane Freilicher and Fairfield Porter in Water Mill, N.Y., in 1959. Photo by John Jonas Gruen/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Fairfield Porter: Portrait of Jane Freilicher, 1952 - Oil on canvas (The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY, Gift of Jane Freilicher)

Photograph of Fairfield Porter with a painting of his yellow Chevrolet van, ca. 1962. (Source)

Fairfield Porter: Portrait of James Schuyler, 1955

[Woods], between 1950 and 1991 / James Schuyler, photographer. Photographic print : 1 item : b&w ; 21 x 26 cm. Fairfield Porter papers, 1888-2001 (bulk 1924-1975). Archives of American Art.

From the title poem of James Schuyler’s first major collection, Freely Espousing - dedicated to Anne and Fairfield Porter.

“the sinuous beauty of words like allergy
the tonic resonance of
pill when used as in
“she is a pill”
on the other hand I am not going to espouse any short stories in which lawn mowers clack.
No, it is absolutely forbidden
for words to echo the act described; or try to.”

Schuyler lived with Porter and his family in Southampton, Long Island, and at their summer home on a coastal Maine island for twelve years from 1961 to 1973, a time he described in 1981 as “much the happiest period in my life.” He appears contented, usually seated reading, in several of Porter’s domestic paintings. Porter contributed dust jackets for The Crystal Lithium (1972) and Hymn to Life ; he also illustrated Schuyler’s A Sun Cab (1972). Although many knew him as a resident of the Hotel Chelsea in lower Manhattan, he claimed to be happiest and most productive when living in the country or in small villages. Schuyler received the Longview Foundation Award in 1961, the Frank O’Hara Prize from Poetry in 1969 for Freely Espousing , and the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1981 for The Morning of the Poem . He was a Guggenheim Fellow, and a fellow of the American Academy of Poets. He died in Manhattan at the age of sixty-seven following a stroke. (Source)

Clayton Pond (b. June 10, 1941): Flower Man, 1969 - color serigraph on paper (Smithsonian)

“Clayton Pond’s paintings and prints glorify the simple subjects of his immediate
environment by isolating objects in monumental grandeur. He utilizes high
intensity colors to create a dramatic and intriguing overall composition which
demands respect for otherwise obscure themes, including sails, radiatiors,
bathtubs, and toilet paper. Pond’s fascination with the interplay of color
relationships reflects his cheerful optimism and underlies his semi-satirical sense
of humor, while adding an extra dimension of human content to his statements on
American living and leisure activities.

Though said to have Pop and Optical influences, Clayton Pond’s style is all his
own. After receiving his BFA at Carnegie-Mellon (1964) and his MFA from Pratt
Institute (1966), he moved to the warehouse district in Lower Manhattan, which is
now the center of the SOHO art district. He achieved noteriety by expanding the
silk screen medium through the use of a high gloss varnish over his already
unique images, printed in thick layers of bright, contrasting colors. Attaining
immediate acclaim by winning national art awards, Pond established important
connections with major New York galleries, such as the Martha Jackson Gallery.” (Source) 

Thomas Höpker (b. June 10, 1936): Muhammad Ali, ca. 1970 - Smithsonian

“There are just a few Germans among the members of the legendary photo agency MAGNUM. Since 1989 Thomas Höpker, 71, has been a member. From 2003 to 2006 he was even its president. For this position he was qualified through his matchless carrier, which started in 1960 when he worked as a photojournalist at the German newspaper “Münchner Illustrierten Presse”. Afterwards he took on a position as a correspondent for the German weekly newspaper “Stern” in East Berlin and New York. During this time many of his famous photos and reportages were published, amongst them the one of Mohammed Ali. From 1978 till 1981 he was responsible for the Department of Photography and Design of the American edition of “Geo”. From 1986 till 1989 he worked as art director at “Stern”. But Thomas Höpker was not just a photographer, he also recently shot several documentary movies. In total he has published over 20 illustrated books. He now lives in New York and Berlin.” (Source)

Howlin’ Wolf (b. Chester Arthur Burnett) (June 10, 1910 – 1976) was an influential American blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player.

With a booming voice and looming physical presence, Burnett is commonly ranked among the leading performers in electric blues; musician and critic Cub Koda declared, “no one could match [Howlin’ Wolf] for the singular ability to rock the house down to the foundation while simultaneously scaring its patrons out of its wits.” Many songs popularized by Burnett—such as “Smokestack Lightnin’,” “Back Door Man” and “Spoonful”—have become standards of blues and blues rock.

At 6 feet, 6 inches (198 cm) and close to 300 pounds (136 kg), he was an imposing presence with one of the loudest and most memorable voices of all the “classic” 1950s Chicago blues singers. Howlin’ Wolf’s voice has been compared to “the sound of heavy machinery operating on a gravel road”. Although the two were reportedly not that different in actual personality, this rough edged, slightly fearsome musical style is often contrasted with the less crude but still powerful presentation of his contemporary and professional rival, Muddy Waters, to describe the two pillars of the Chicago Blues representing the music.” (Wiki)

Below: Smokestack Lightning, performed live in England 1964 (with Willie Dixon and Hubert Sumlin)

“João Gilberto (b. June 10, 1931) is a Grammy Award-winning Brazilian singer and guitarist. He is credited with having created the bossa nova beat and is known as the “Father of Bossa Nova.” His seminal recordings, including many songs by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, established the new musical genre in the late 1950s.” (Wiki)

Gilberto’s bossa quickly travelled to the US and cross-pollinated with cool jazz - thanks not least to Stan Getz…

Below: Stan Getz (w. Jim McNeely, Marc Johnson, and Victor Lewis), playing a medley of Gilberto’s Desafinado and Jobim’s The Girl from Ipanema:

Judy Garland (June 10, 1922 – 1969) was one of the brightest stars of the screen and the musical stage…

“Saul Bellow (June 10, 1915 – 2005) was a Canadian-born American writer of Russian-Jewish origin. For his literary contributions, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature (1976), and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only writer to have won the National Book Award three times, and the only writer to have been nominated for it six times.

In the words of the Swedish Nobel committee, his writing exhibited “exuberant ideas, flashing irony, hilarious comedy and burning compassion… the mixture of rich picaresque novel and subtle analysis of our culture, of entertaining adventure, drastic and tragic episodes in quick succession interspersed with philosophic conversation, all developed by a commentator with a witty tongue and penetrating insight into the outer and inner complications that drive us to act, or prevent us from acting, and that can be called the dilemma of our age.” His best-known works include The Adventures of Augie March, Herzog, Seize the Day, Humboldt’s Gift and Ravelstein. Widely regarded as one of the twentieth century’s greatest authors, Bellow has had a huge literary influence.” (Wiki)

Bellow was a cultural conservative and not terribly sensitive to non-Western literary achievements. He was also politically right wing and misguided in his patriotism. Still a great writer, in the old-fashioned Bildungsroman tradition…

“I feel that art has something to do with the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos. A stillness which characterizes prayer, too, and the eye of the storm. I think that art has something to do with an arrest of attention in the midst of distraction.” - from Bellow’s Paris Review interview, 1966

Photo: Bellow in the NY Subway, 1975

Saul Bellow by Chris Felver