After some conservation work, the museum plans to put it on display outside.
‘Snoopy’ sculpture outside Thompson Center moves to Art Institute
Jean Howard’s Iconic Photography Showcased in UW AHC Exhibition
A new exhibition featuring photographs from Jean Howard, a Hollywood icon whose lens
captured the essence of the golden era of cinema, is now on display through Saturday,
Sept. 30, at the University of Wyoming American Heritage Center (AHC).
The exhibition, titled “Jean Howard’s Hollywood: The excitement, the glamour and the
good times,” highlights a selection of her exceptional photography, and it offers
a captivating glimpse into the glamour and allure of Hollywood’s golden age.
Howard’s journey in Hollywood began in 1930, when she landed her first role as a showgirl
in the Florenz Ziegfeld movie musical “Whoopee!” She then moved to New York City,
where she participated in two additional Ziegfeld productions before securing a contract
at MGM studios. Returning to Hollywood in 1933, Howard appeared in a variety of films
in the 1930s and 1940s, including “The Prizefighter and the Lady,” “Claudia” and “The
Final Hour”; she also appeared on Broadway.
Howard’s life took an unexpected turn in 1944, when a graphologist examining her handwriting
discovered her remarkable gift for photography. Initially skeptical, Howard decided
to explore her newfound talent and enrolled at the Art Center in Los Angeles. At the
time, she did not know that the decision would shape her illustrious career.
Her innate ability to put her subjects at ease, combined with her connections to Hollywood’s
elite, allowed Howard to capture candid and intimate moments that would become iconic.
Her stunning portraiture graced the pages of esteemed publications such as Life magazine,
Vogue, Look magazine and Harper’s Bazaar. Notable photographs include legendary Hollywood
stars such as Marlon Brando, Grace Kelly and Marilyn Monroe.
“This exhibition at the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming provides
a glimpse inside the Jean Howard Collection held here at the center,” says AHC Director
Paul Flesher. “Ms. Howard’s materials are just one of the many AHC collections featuring
Hollywood stars, directors, composers and other influential figures in the history
of film. Join us at the American Heritage Center as we pay homage to the indelible
legacy of Jean Howard, a visionary photographer whose talent continues to captivate
audiences today.”
For more information about the exhibition and the AHC, visit www.uwyo.edu/ahc/.
Take 5: An Inclusive Activity Zone, Cutting Mat Socks, Rose Delights, + More
When I happened upon SLAS Architects’ Activity Zone in Chorzów, I wondered whether this was yet another fanciful project conjured by AI using Midjourney prompts for “create an urban park with activities divided into geometric and colorful shapes.” I came to realize the section of Chorzów City in Poland was once dedicated to military activity (thus the “activity zone” moniker) that has been transformed into a colorful construct of concrete, landscaping, and a myriad of recreational features accessible to all ages, the disabled, and everyone within the surrounding community. It’s like a playful cousin to Isamu Noguchi’s California Scenario sculpture garden, especially when viewed from overhead, and now I’m obsessed with visiting it IRL one day.
I still get all the feels when I see a brand new green grid cutting mat. Numerous thick self-healing mats followed me from high school through college, used daily with an X-Acto blade in hand while cutting frisket film for airbrushing, collaging, or assembling product model mock-ups. Those mats followed me well into my career as an art director before everything went fully digital. While I still have and use two, currently stored to the left of me under my desk, I don’t rely upon them like I once did while working as a book, packaging, or toy designer. Yet I’d still welcome the opportunity to tread upon the buoyant fond memories of those days donning these socks designed by Nik Bentel for Boolean Brands (fans of Sakura Micron pens should also check out their Pen Hat). Green and grids are forever.
Of all the brands I’ve tried, I often recommend Rose to the cannabis curious friends who want to feel a touch of “oh, that’s nice” without the desire to fly too high, sort of like the cannabis equivalent of a glass of rosé. The brand distinguishes itself from other cannabis purveyors with an ingredient-driven approach to their CBD-only and THC-infused offerings, and their team regularly collaborates with distinguished California chefs and farmers to produce enticing flavored delights infused with ingredients. Think Nashi pear and gochugaru (Korean red chili pepper flakes), tangelos with fresh chrysanthemum greens and a honey-sweetened Hallabong vinegar, or Gravenstein apple cider with ume plum syrup. That said, if you like your plant material in flower form, their new 1/8 ounce box and glass jar packaging is a truly gift-worthy effort, with a captivating organic-sculptural adorned box that might convince the recipient a luxury skincare product is contained within.
There’s a bit of the impossible made possible communicated in the works of Kyoto-based artist, Toru Kurokawa. When I imagine theoretical astronomers and physicists postulating the possibility of folding time and space, I imagine those abstractions similarly to the tense, complex, and seemingly alive sculptural forms formed by Kurokawa. Other works seem like the remnants of the interior of seashells, the intricacy of diatoms blown up to scale, or the latticework of fungi. His Instagram profile bio says it all: “Art is Physics.”
There’s a funny thing about living in Southern California’s Mediterranean climate during the summer. While it can get blistering hot during the day, once the sun sets, the temperature can take a considerable, double-digit dip. While a propane powered heat lamp does the job, they’re fugly (I know, because I have one I bought during lockdown when we weren’t going anywhere beyond the confines of our backyard). Which is why I’m holding out hopes of adding one of these propane tank fire tables in time to safely and stylishly add an element of warm illumination that can do double duty as a table. The sculptural rounded design and inclusions of lava rocks will be a natural fit for our mid-century era abode.
This post contains affiliate links, so if you make a purchase from an affiliate link, we earn a commission. Thanks for supporting Design Milk!
Zno Review for Online Photo Galleries and an Online Store for Photographers
SLR Lounge helps over 1.5 million photographers master their craft. Real world education & resources from the most successful wedding photography studios in the world.
Watch anywhere
Learn online, anywhere, anytime.
Access Tutorials & Resources
Exclusive content and more!
Submit to awards
Have your work recognized.
Join the Conversation
Ask questions, seek inspiration
and contribute to our community.
Coke helps festival-goers drop a track with generative AI music studio
Miranda Lambert’s Vice? Shutting Down Flash Photography
She’s like a locomotive. She don’t run out of steam. She’s headed for any concertgoers who are taking disruptive pictures of themselves during her performance, reaming them out. Miranda Lambert, country superstar, stopped the show during her Las Vegas residency on July 17 to chastise some audience members who weren’t paying attention. “I’m gonna stop right here for a sec,” Lambert said, halting her song “Tin Man,” as shown in a video posted to TikTok. “These girls are worried about a selfie and not listening to the song, and it’s pissing me off a little bit.”
One of the fans, who was taking the picture, Adela Cain, later posted the pic anyway, with the caption, “These are the 2 pictures we were talking when Miranda Lambert stopped her concert and told us to sit down and not take selfies 😱.” “It was 30 seconds at most,” Cain, an influencer, told NBC News. “It felt like I was back at school with the teacher scolding me for doing something wrong and telling me to sit down back in my place.” However, another TikToker later posted some extra context, saying, “This started several minutes before Miranda stopped the show. And then continued with more people AND flash into Tin Man, which was distracting to everyone around them during one of the most powerful moments … Everyone around them was happy Miranda addressed it.” Cain’s explanation does allude to the length of the photo session: “We just couldn’t get one good picture,” she says at one point. While we won’t take sides, we will have to point out that either way, those pictures are simply not selfies. It is a photo taken with flash. The Chainsmokers and Miranda Lambert need to stop slandering the selfie’s name.
From Dawn to Dusk and Back Again, Stephen Wilkes Pursues Natural Drama in Remarkably Detailed Panoramas
All images © Stephen Wilkes, courtesy of Taschen, shared with permission
Whether atop a 40-foot lift truck in the center of Paris, in a small house on a far-flung island, or perched beside a Serengeti watering hole, photographer Stephen Wilkes certainly has patience on his side. Sitting in one spot for hours on end, he sets up his camera to capture a single scene over the course of a full day or more, tracking the dramatic movement of weather and the sun over expansive landscapes. Day to Night, a new book published by Taschen, highlights 60 of the artist’s most compelling images, from U.S. National Parks to iconic international landmarks to remote wilderness brimming with wildlife.
Wilkes carefully selects his location and takes more than 1,500 exposures from a fixed angle to follow the gradual changes in light and the bustling activity of humans and animals. To get the scene of visitors at the Grand Canyon just right, for example, he slept in a watchtower during a 36-hour shoot. “There was, of course, no artificial light, so I had to wait for the moon to light the canyon. I had only one hour of exposure to get this right,” he says. When he returns to the studio, he painstakingly filters all of the images into a single composition, producing pieces akin to distilled timelapses.
Day to Night will be released next month and features panoramas taken between 2009 and 2022, many with hidden stories that Wilkes describes throughout. You can pre-order a copy on Bookshop, and see more of his work on his website.
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article From Dawn to Dusk and Back Again, Stephen Wilkes Pursues Natural Drama in Remarkably Detailed Panoramas appeared first on Colossal.
Review | Robert Houle retrospective probes a proud if beleaguered heritage
The small 1970 painting that provides the title of Robert Houle’s retrospective at the National Museum of the American Indian, “Red Is Beautiful,” is a hard-edge geometric abstraction with two mirrored forms in four shades of red. The picture is indebted to the styles of such European-born, 20th-century formalists as Piet Mondrian and Josef Albers. But Houle is a First Nations Canadian (Saulteaux Anishinaabe, Sandy Bay), so for him, red is more than just a color. It’s a symbol of the proud if beleaguered heritage addressed throughout this multilayered show.
Much of this exhibition of works made between 1970 and 2021, organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario, is devoted to canvases such as “Red Is Beautiful.” These tweak color-field painting with references to First Nations history and culture. That’s not the 76-year-old, Manitoba-born artist’s only strategy, however, as can be seen from the two large pictures hung in the hallway outside the show’s entrance.
Both are variations on Benjamin West’s 1770 historical painting, “The Death of General Wolfe.” The epic vignette depicts the aftermath of the 1759 Battle of Quebec, in which British forces defeated their French adversaries but lost their commander. West’s fanciful treatment of the scene includes a Native warrior who gazes thoughtfully at the dying Wolfe.
In one of Houle’s remakes, all the colors have faded to beige, save for the Native man’s clothing and headgear. In the other, the Indigenous man takes the same pose, but he’s alone and looking at the Bay of Montreal, with no Europeans in sight. The first of these versions is bracketed by two color blocks, one blue and the other red; these refer to color-field painting but also to the uniforms of the French and British, respectively. Houle titled the picture “Kanata,” the Huron-Iroquois word for village and the likely origin of the name Canada.
Another history lesson is contained in “Paris/Ojibwa,” a three-dimensional tableau that includes four portraits on an array of wooden panels that simulate two walls and the floor of an ornate, French-style drawing room. The 2010 installation memorializes 11 Ontario Natives who toured Europe in the 1840s. The setting appears elegant, except for one ominous design motif: Under each painting are renderings of the smallpox virus that took the lives of six of the transatlantic visitors.
Beyond this imposing piece are several galleries of color-oriented pictures that initially appear coolly abstract, yet are freighted with meaning. A set of 13 collage paintings that incorporate porcupine quills represent Jesus and his disciples and are keyed to verses from the Gospel of John. In a series of monochrome canvases, each is paired with text from British or Canadian laws, treaties or proclamations related to First Nations people. Eight vertical canvases, each coated entirely with a different shade of green, represent the British forts captured during Pontiac’s War in 1763.
Most of Houle’s works are serene and meticulous, even when they incorporate talismanic natural objects or address such outrages as the British army’s alleged distribution of smallpox-infected blankets to Native Americans. (A 1763 letter from a British officer endorses the idea, but historians disagree on whether it was put into practice.) Paintings based on First Nations designs or beadwork also emulate the orderliness of Germany’s Bauhaus school and the Netherlands’ de Stijl movement.
The composure that characterizes most of Houle’s art vanishes when the subject turns autobiographical. Like many Indigenous Canadians, the artist was sent as a child to a boarding school designed to erase his traditional culture. Suppressed memories of the abuse he suffered there ultimately surfaced in powerful expressionist drawings made with oil stick. The loose, impassioned renderings of shadowy predators are balanced by ones of “dream shamans” conjured to protect him.
The show’s newest entry is “Transforming Blue Thunder,” a picture of the thunderbird, which embodies thunder and lightning in Native American lore. “Blue Thunder” is Houle’s spirit name, and so this is a symbolic self-portrait. In no small part, “Red Is Beautiful” is a journey through Houle’s ancestry and influences to a place of self-understanding.
Robert Houle: Red Is Beautiful
National Museum of the American Indian, Fourth Street and Independence Avenue SW. americanindian.si.edu.
Dates: Through June 2.
Prices: Free.
Kick Back With the Reissued Jumbo Lounge Chair
Originally designed in 1958 by Finnish interior architect Olof Ottelin, the distinctive Jumbo lounge chair has been reissued by Fasetti. Released as a “backrest chair” and named after Ottelin’s eldest son – well, his nickname – it was a trendy addition to open fireplaces and low brick terraced homes of the time. The updated Jumbo lounge chair respects the designer’s choices of materials and colors, while subtly adapting them to contemporary standards. The seat height has been raised, while maintaining the proportions of the original chair, and redwood has been replaced by native birch.
Jumbo’s frame is made up of curved wooden sections that lead into the legs of the chair. Fasetti’s craftsmen chose pine for the wood-toned version, honoring Ottelin’s extensive pine furniture production and his love of traditional leisure home furnishings.
“Olof Ottelin’s design combines many aspects that we value, like an understanding of carpentry and refined detailing and functionality,” shared Fasetti craftsman, Esa Niiranen. “The addition of Jumbo to the new production is a logical extension of our series of domestic design treasures ranging from the 1940s to the 1970s.”
The Jumbo lounge chair’s frame is available in natural pine, opaque red, dove gray, or charcoal black. Upholstery options include Makalu, a soft Lauritzon’s teddy fabric in pine, Hallingdal, a Kvadrat classic wool fabric in red, and Coda, a soft three-dimensional, two-tone woven fabric by Kvadrat in dove gray and black. All versions feature armrests in vegetable-tanned and un-dyed Sörensen leather.
To learn more about the Jumbo lounge chair, visit gestaltnewyork.com.
Ikea gives a peek into college life with TikTok anime series
