Daylight Carnival Photographs by Jim Linderman

Photographs by Jim Linderman 2014

One Man Play? Bizarre Fetish? Magic Trick? Performance Art? Interrogation? Mystery Snapshot

A curious snapshot comes by way of a friend.  One Man Play?  Bizarre Fetish?  Magic Trick?  Performance Art?  Interrogation? 

Gene Bilbrew Draws Bettie Page as a Costume

It's time to start preparing for Halloween again.  Here, Gene Bilbrew, African-American fetish artist most prominent in the 1950s and 1950s shows what you will need to show up as Bettie Page. See also the book TIMES SQUARE SMUT  for more about the illustrator.

Antique Homemade Handmade Folk Art Paper Dolls collection Jim Linderman

A recently acquired set of homemade folk art paper dolls from the 19th Century with collaged women's faces from period fashion magazines.  This gives me the opportunity to link to the Folk Art Magazine article Costumed by Hand: Yesterday's Best-Dressed Paper Dolls, which illustrated numerous folk art paper dolls which used to be owned by yours truly.  The essay by Francine Kirsh, I believe, remains the best piece on paper dolls which were made by hand, not those from commercial sources.  Enjoy!

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Bizarre Napoleon Welded Folk Art Sculpture

Bad art from the 1950's.  Too good to be good...not bad enough to be bad.  A cut and welded Napoleon with tiny head, giant hat and rusty epaulets.  It's a horrible mid-century bad painting come to life!  From a bicycle repair shop in Michigan, and obviously one which didn't get enough business.

The hat is callled a bicorn (which means twice as corny) and rivals only the beret in Frenchiness.  Why the bicorn didn't catch on with the beats is a mystery. 
 
I am inclined to say the worst art is that made by trained yet amateur artists who are trying to be funny, at least during the "beatnik" modern art years, when things French were almost cool.   I really don't know why he was satirized in art so often, except that he was a relatively short man who sent taller men into war.  Apparently, he died a natural death of arsenic poisoning. 

Strange Handmade "Folk Art" Napoleon Circa 1950?  Collection Jim Linderman   

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The Measure of a Man Articulated Antique Folk Art Sculpture

The Measure of a Man  Articulated Antique Folk Art Sculpture collection Jim Linderman

Erotic Folk Art Drawings by Ace Moore

Erotic Folk Art Drawings by Ace Moore Collection Victor Minx

Stick your Head Here Comedy Novelty Foreground Photographs

Taking a road trip with the kids?  I'm sure, even today, you could pull over and find a tourist trap which will let you stick your head in a plywood painting and take a goofy picture.

Cutout novelty photographs were invented by the same guy who first painted dogs playing poker. That astounding fact may just be enough for you to purchase this, the most curious of books, but collector Jim Linderman throws in a few more encouragements. One, all the photographs included in the book predate 1930, and two, all are from Argentina. Cassis Marcellus Coolidge is credited with creating "comic foregrounds" which put a sitter behind a caricatured painting. Staple of carnivals, "just off the exit" rest stops and anywhere one wants to have fun looking stupid. Argentina Tintamarresque, as odd as it may seem, collects 70 pages full of them.  OUT OF PRINT:  Jim Linderman current books are available HERE

Canadian Boys in Dresses

Will Forsyth's twin sons Arther and Earle.  Photo by J. H. Blome from Ashcroft, British Columbia circa 1900. According to the site HERE Blome "... operated as a photographer in Ashcroft in the 1895-1896 period and appeared in Kamloops for a short time beginning in November 1898. He also worked in Clinton and traveled throughout the Okanagan and Nicola valleys. Dempsey shows a Blome working as an itinerant in Canmore in September 1896. Blome's obituary called him " an artist of more than average ability."
Collection Jim Linderman

Peace and Prosperity on our 60 Acre Farm 1906 Collection Jim Linderman

Sheesh...we seem to be moving backwards.  Not only is the feed hormone-free and the seed not from Monsanto, but there is rapid transit right nearby!  Rural Illinois Heaven depicted by a child on a postcard in 1906.  Unfortunately, there is a good chance ten years later, the child who drew this would have their life changed by World War One.  American Flag postmark is a bonus.

Child's Handdrawn Postcard, 1906 Collection Jim Linderman

Hot Chile (Chili) Real Photo Postcard Cyanotype

A Hot Chile restaurant circa 1910.  I spell it Hot Chili but both are correct.  This fellow, (likely owner and chief chile slinger?)  was ahead of the time.  Why?

First of all, as the US population ages, those millions of baby boomers now old as hell...their taste buds like all parts of the body wear out. So we are eating more spicy food.  Secondly, folks from south of the border are coming this way, and they like hot food.  And yes, we have room for them all and they are welcome, so STFU all you scared, white losers.  We are all immigrants, unless you are a member of the 500 nations...in which case your family crossed over through Alaska centuries ago. 

Real Photo Postcard Untitled (Hot Chile cooled off with Cyanotype Blue) circa 1910 collection Jim Linderman

Rudimentary Robin Folk Art Carving

Small folk art carving of a Robin No Date

Layers Guns and Money in Black and White

My newest column is up on Paraphilia Magazine.  Lawyers Guns and Money in Black and White.
Read HERE

A Magnificent Mask of Linen

A mask good enough to wear on the wall.  Linen with stitched ears and printed highlights, circa 1940.  Thanks and a tip "o" the hat to LL.   Collection Jim Linderman  Books and $5.99 Ebooks by Jim Linderman are available for preview and purchase HERE

19th Century Mexican Coconut Shell Carving Likely Veracruz Prison San Juan de Ulua Folk Art Collection Jim Linderman

19th Century Mexican Coconut Shell Carving Likely Veracruz Prison San Juan de Ulua Collection Jim Linderman 

Pipe Smoking Picasso Paints Portraits for Tips Flash Impressions of Atlantic City

A pipe smoking Picasso prepares to pastel a beachcomber in this 1934 snapshot taken in Atlantic City.

Still common, especially in Manhattan where dozens of Asian chalk artists clog the streets, the instant portrait is ten dollars well spent.  Simply pick the one showing off the best drawing of Beyonce or Prince, sit down and you will have a cardboard tube to carry the rest of the day (and to fit in the overhead on the way home)  

Note our painter here has set up next to one of the remarkable sand sculptures covered on the blog earlier.  Atlantic City, Disneyland of the East!

Snapshot of a Portrait Painter 1934 Collection Jim Linderman 

BOOKS AND $5.99 Ebooks by Jim Linderman available HERE.

A Bright Young Artist who Learned Early! Pair of Primitive Portraits Rendered with Deceit

Anatomy lessons are necessary for a realistic artist, but all artists cheat.  Now that the documentary Tim's Vermeer is streaming, you can see one example.  In this pair of 19th Century drawings, an enterprising young artist has come upon a brilliant shortcut.  Anatomy lessons traced for the outline of his figures on the other side of the paper. 

One thing art scholars (and I suspect, the curators at the Met) don't really like to discuss is how the images of our great masters appeared on the canvas.  Maybe we should only look at the surface.  Who wants to wander through a "projection" wing, a "tracing" wing and a "painted over a shallow emulsion of a photograph" wing.  All common. 

This kid just figured it out sooner than most.

Pair of untitled portraits (Soldier and Indian) traced from anatomy lessons.  Circa 1880? Collection Jim Linderman
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Antique 19th Century Whirligig Figure Folk Art

Antique 19th Century Whirligig Figure.  16 inches tall, 23 inches with good paddle upright.  Original paint.  Collection Jim Linderman

Optimist Fireworks Hand Painted Sign

Optimist Fireworks Hand Painted Sign collection Jim Linderman

Uncle Sam Child's Stencil Drawing circa 1946

Uncle Sam Child's Stencil Drawing circa 1946 Collection Jim Linderman