ARTES

Whether in his sumptuous images for advertising or his soft-hued nudes, Paul Outerbridge (1896–1958) was an alchemist of desire. Color was integral to his aesthetic allure, embracing the complex tri-color-carbro process to create a seductive surface of texture and tone. His quest was for “artificial paradises”―a perfection of form, with a surreal edge. This concise monograph introduces Outerbridge’s unique aesthetic and its commercial and artistic trajectory, from his professional peak as New York’s highest-paid commercial photographer through to his retreat to Hollywood in the 1940s after a scandal over his erotic photography. With key examples from his oeuvre, the book explores Outerbridge’s innovative style through Cubist still life images, magazine photographs, and his controversial nudes, as well as his interaction with other avant-garde photographers, such as Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, and Man Ray. Along the way, we recognize Outerbridge’s particular ability to transform everyday objects into a quasi-abstract composition and his pioneering role in championing the expressionistic, as much as commercial, potential of color photographs.

This first comprehensive survey of the life and work of Luigi Lucioni (1900–1988) places him in the context of fellow Regionalist painters Grant Wood, Charles Sheeler, and Maxfield Parrish. Lucioni is known for meticulously rendered still lifes, landscapes, and arresting portraits drawn from his close-knit circle of queer New York artists and cultural figures, including Paul Cadmus, Jared French, George Platt Lynes, and Lincoln Kirstein. In the early 1930s, Lucioni discovered Vermont, whose landscapes reminded him of northern Italy. It was there that he met Electra Havemeyer Webb, who was to become his single most important patron. For more than 50 years, the New York City–based artist spent every summer painting landscapes of trees, barns, and buildings in Vermont with sharply observed realism and a cool, precise style. Key scholars examine Lucioni’s oeuvre, materials, techniques, and his role in American modernism.

Christian Bérard worked freely in many artistic circles and fields as a painter, designer of theater and film sets and costumes, fashion designer, interior designer, masterful draftsman, and colorist. His iconic drawings epitomized the Paris fashion world and graced the covers of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Women’s Wear Daily in the 1920s and 1930s. Tracing his eccentric and colorful life of encounters and artistic partnerships with the greatest creatives of his time—Jean-Michel Frank, Christian Dior, Gabrielle Chanel, Jean Cocteau, Boris Kochno—this book includes more than two hundred of his paintings, drawings, photographs, intimate correspondences, and interior decorations, along with portraits of Bérard by Cartier-Bresson, Horst, and Schall.

Los asombrosos testimonios gráficos recogidos en Visiones del paraíso acercan a nuestras almas facetas y sensaciones desconocidas de cuanto hay de divino en el mundo. Complementadas por artículos de destacados escritores y por los recuerdos de los propios fotógrafos, cada imagen es un irresistible reflejo del cielo en la Tierra, y también un llamamiento casi desesperado a todos nosotros para que salvemos el planeta.

El 12 de julio de 1962, los Rollin’ Stones ofrecieron su primer concierto en el Club Marquee de Londres. Poco después, se añadió una «g», se encendió una chispa y su destino quedó sellado. Ya no había marcha atrás. Estos cinco chavales blancos británicos se proponían tocar música afroamericana. Perfeccionaron un estilo rebosante de matices de blues mezclados con oscuras insinuaciones a las mujeres, al sexo y a las drogas. Denunciados como «corruptores de la juventud» y «mensajeros del diablo», crearon algunas de las canciones más electrizantes jamás grabadas. Su sonido y actitud parecen ahora más fuertes e influyentes que nunca. Elvis ha muerto y los Beatles ya pasaron, pero Jagger y Richards dominan el mundo. Contradiciendo al proverbio inglés, puede que acumulen musgo, pero son culos de mal asiento y no pueden dejar de rodar. Sin embargo, ¿cómo se convirtieron estos sumos inadaptados antisistema en la marca global que hoy conocemos? ¿Quiénes fueron sus víctimas? ¿Cuál es el legado olvidado? ¿Alguna vez realmente puede el artista separarse del arte?