Christo & Jeanne-Claude - wrapped trees
“People think our work is monumental because it’s art, but human beings do much bigger things: they build giant airports, highways for thousands of miles, much, much bigger than what we create. It appears to be monumental only because it’s art.” – Christo
Barrels Structure“The Wall” (Project for 53rd between 5th and 6th Avenues). 1968
Pasted photographs and synthetic polymer paint on cardboard
A present under a Christmas tree can be the most intriguing object. Not knowing what is inside is the appeal. The imagination runs wild - we judge it by its form, texture and feel. Often when the present is opened the mystery is gone. Christo and Jeanne-Claude have spent over 40 years wrapping objects and making them disappear - and in the process making us notice them. They started with small objects like magazines -
They worked with larger objects, until eventually they wrapped public buildings. They believed art should be experienced by the public in places other than museums.
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The actress Gloria Swanson (1924) byEdward Steichen
Mario Giacomelli(1925-2000)
A landscape wrapped in snow. A ring of monks dance in a circle, their black robes contrast with the white ground. Their figure seem like a collection of black triangles floating on a white back ground. The pose is reminiscent of Matisse's 'The Dance' 1909. Both images seem simple yet show the sense of joy felt by people in the middle of a dance - their figures creating a circle.
This series of photographs are so iconic that were made into a beer advert. The advert used the high contrast black and white look to give their brand a sense of authenticity and tradition.
Mario Giacomelli
Mario Giacomelli
Mario Giacomelli
Mario Giacomelli was a true local, tied to his region, town, and its rhythms and traditions.
He was self taught and even in his artistic expression he was influenced by his homeland. We can see this in his landscapes showing signs of man’s labour, with folds like wrinkles on a person’s hands, landscapes that speak of faces and things living in the soul. The story goes that Giacomelli would borrow his neighbors tractor to make the tracks go in another direction to create the perfect graphic, semi abstract photograph. He printed all his work in a trade mark high contrast style. For Giacomelli, photography was above all love, the image telling a poem of the heart which continues to surprise and move us (he originally trained as a poet and a painter).
He was self taught and even in his artistic expression he was influenced by his homeland. We can see this in his landscapes showing signs of man’s labour, with folds like wrinkles on a person’s hands, landscapes that speak of faces and things living in the soul. The story goes that Giacomelli would borrow his neighbors tractor to make the tracks go in another direction to create the perfect graphic, semi abstract photograph. He printed all his work in a trade mark high contrast style. For Giacomelli, photography was above all love, the image telling a poem of the heart which continues to surprise and move us (he originally trained as a poet and a painter).
Olivia Parker 'Pods of Chance' 1977
Olivia Parker would often use the frame of the photograph to mirror the frame of a box. In this image Parker has used a tight composition to capture a row of peas in a pod. There is a rhythm to the way the peas have grown inside the pod, a natural order. Parker has laid the pods horizontally above one another creating a sense of repetition. The third pod from the bottom tries to break free disruption the composition but also adding a twist - a kink in the order of things.
The pods wrap the peas like clothes wrap people. Fashion reflects the ideas, politics and trends of it age. Different fashions create different moods and identities-
John French, Fashion Photograph, 1965
Image from The V&A's 'Cold War Modern'
The 1960's Retro Futurism
Irving Penn -Chanel Feather Headdress (New York, September 19, 1994), 1996
The highly sophisticated Fashion Photography of Irving Penn.
Invisible Shoe,Andreia Chaves
