Author: cparker
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MagazineArt.org
MagazineArt.org is a trove of magazine covers and advertising illustration from the decades around the turn of the 20th Century. Though a number of names of illustrators from that era have become familiar, many many more are still obscure, rarely featured or highlighted. The illustrations in the MagazineArt.org archives are heavy on the latter, light…
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Ruo Li
Seascapes are rarely subjects that capture my attention. The seascapes of Ruo Li, however, are striking exceptions. Sweeping carpets of foam vibrate over rough edged rocks, throwing up volumetric plumes of spray; or quietly seep through crevices and channels on their way back to join the greater sea. Flat planes of water lay against the…
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Mattias Adolfsson (update)
Since I wrote about Mattias Adolfsson back in 2009, he has continued to fill his blog, Mattias Inks, with his marvelously whimsical illustrations, sketches, drawings and watercolors. They range from finished illustrations, a number of which are for Wired, through complex Moleskein drawings to simple but charming doodles. He has recently collected a variety of…
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Rooms with a View: The Open Window in the 19th Century
As blockbuster exhibitions have become more prohibitively expensive to mount, museums have had to work to fill their exhibition schedules with more modest shows, usually based on a fairly specific theme. Far from being disappointing, I’ve found this trend to be filled with unexpected delights and often enlightening twists on how the works and artists…
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M.C. Escher: Impossible Realities
One of the things that visual art does at its best is allow us to see the world through fresh eyes, reframing the ordinary as extraordinary. Sometimes, however, the artworks become so iconic and familiar as to need reframing themselves in order to be seen freshly. M.C. Escher, despite being treated for years by art…