Billie Holiday, 1949: Harlem and writer-photographer Carl Van Vechten

Billie Holiday, 1949
Originally uploaded by Marquette University Archives

Carl Van Vechten (1880 – 1964) was an American writer and photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein, says Wikipedia.[1]

Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he graduated from Washington High School in 1898,[2] and later the University of Chicago[3] in 1903. In 1906, he moved to New York City. He was hired as the assistant music critic at the New York Times. His interest in opera had him take a leave of absence from the paper in 1907, to travel to Europe to explore opera.[1] While in England he married his long time friend from Cedar Rapids, Anna Snyder.

He returned to his job at the New York Times in 1909 and then became the first American critic of modern dance. At that time, Isadora Duncan, Anna Pavlova, and Loie Fuller were performing in New York City. The marriage to Anna Snyder ended in divorce in 1912 and he wed actress Fania Marinoff in 1914.[4]

Although Van Vechten was married to Fania Marinoff until the end of his life, he was either homosexual or bisexual.[5] Some of his papers were kept under seal for twenty-five years after his death, and when they were examined after that time, they were found to include scrapbooks of photographs and clippings related to homosexuality.[6]

Several books of Van Vechten's essays on various subjects such as music and literature were published between 1915 and 1920. Between 1922 and 1930 Knopf published seven novels by Van Vechten, starting with Peter Whiffle: His Life and Works and ending with Parties.[7]

Van Vechten was interested in black writers and artists, and knew and promoted many of the major figures of the Harlem Renaissance, including Langston Hughes, Ethel Waters, Richard Wright, and Wallace Thurman. Van Vechten's controversial novel Nigger Heaven[3] was published in 1926. His essay "Negro Blues Singers" was published in Vanity Fair in 1926.

In the 1930s, Van Vechten began taking portrait photographs. Among the many individuals he photographed were Edward Albee, Judith Anderson, Marian Anderson, Pearl Bailey, Josephine Baker, James Baldwin, Tallulah Bankhead, Barbara Bel Geddes, Thomas Hart Benton, Jane Bowles, Marlon Brando, Paul Cadmus, Erskine Caldwell, Truman Capote, Bennett Cerf, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dalí, Ruby Dee, Jacob Epstein, Ella Fitzgerald, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Lynn Fontanne, John Hersey, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Horst P. Horst, Mahalia Jackson, Philip Johnson, Frida Kahlo, Eartha Kitt, Gaston Lachaise, Sidney Lumet, Alfred Lunt, Norman Mailer, Alicia Markova, Henri Matisse, W. Somerset Maugham, Henry Miller, Joan Miró, Ramon Novarro, Georgia O'Keeffe, Laurence Olivier, Christopher Plummer, Leontyne Price, Diego Rivera, Jerome Robbins, Paul Robeson, Cesar Romero, George Schuyler, Beverly Sills, Gertrude Stein, James Stewart, Alfred Stieglitz, Ada "Bricktop" Smith, Bessie Smith, Alice B. Toklas, Prentiss Taylor, Gore Vidal, Evelyn Waugh, Orson Welles, Thornton Wilder, and Anna May Wong.[8][9]

Herb and Dorothy, a documentary film by Megumi Sasaki; You don't have to be a Rockefeller to collect art

Robert Mangold '1/2 Blue-Gray Curved Area'
Originally uploaded by hanneorla

Herb and Dorothy is a 2008 documentary film by Megumi Sasaki, says Wikipedia.

The film tells the story of two middle-class collectors of contemporary art, Herbert and Dorothy Vogel, and the enormous and valuable collection of conceptual art and minimalist art they amassed.[2]

Many artists are interviewed in the film, including Christo, Chuck Close, Robert Mangold, and Pat Steir.

Series of lectures and videos on street art

Banksy street art
Originally uploaded by scottroberts

- Banksy, British master of the witty, detailed, stenciled paste-ups.

- Shepard Fairey, American poster maker and oft-arrested street artist.
- JR, artist, the French photographer and winner of the 2011 TED Prize.

- MTO, the Garman artist behind "fast Life" and "Dr Robinson," in Sarasota, Fl.

- Blek le Rat, the "father of stencils" on the streets of Paris.

Parcours - the acrobatic form of rebellious street art in movement.
See more on street art.

A second set of stencils / fine arts survey

Stencils / fine arts survey
Originally uploaded by trudeau

Please purchyse or borrow an Xacto knife for next class

Wheatpaste @ Thou Art
Originally uploaded by milfodd

Street art: stencil cutting.

You need an xacto knife, which is a versatile tool to have around the house. Please buy or borrow one for next class.

Once called graffiti, the term today is Street Art

Street Art
Originally uploaded by spdl_n1

We have 3 street artists on the fine arts agenda this week:

- Shepard Fairey, a former skater and RISD grad.
- Banksy, the secretive British master of the witty stencil. He has travelled globally to paste up his visual meditations. Even to New Orleans.
- JR, the artist. This anonymous French photographer has been internationally lauded for his aid to developing nations and slums via his photo-based street art.

Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarotti

Davinci vs Michelangelo
Originally uploaded by trudeau

How to tell the two Renaissance Men apart:

- One page project.
- Three images each.
- Each image includes brief, identifying factoids.
- Vivid title.