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
Small folk art carving of a Robin No Date
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
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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. 16 inches tall, 23 inches with good paddle upright. Original paint. Collection Jim Linderman
With the imminent release of the CSNY 1974 box set so carefully assembled by Graham Nash, it is time to acknowledge a Brit we have been lucky to have over here for over 45 years. And why would we do this on a primarily visual arts blog?
First of all, because Nash is a consummate photographer himself who helped promote a revolutionary technique for producing high quality prints. Secondly, he is a consummate collector of vintage photographs, and while I won't tell you what, when or why…he is a collector who I once OUTBID on an image on eBay. IN your FACE Graham! It was a decade ago, and I felt rich for a day!
Since Graham Nash had the loving respect for David Crosby (a personal hero of mine) to stick with him during the dope days is not only laudable, it is a model on how to provide loving respect to troubled friends. He more than anyone has kept the band (or brand) CSNY alive for decades. His autobiography Wild Tales is funny, honest and essential reading. He has compiled box sets of Stephen Stills, David Crosby, his own and now the band which are beautiful reminders of what astounding talents they are…maybe if another hero, the cantankerous Neil Young, were to turn him loose in the vault, he could do it for him too.
For his political activities and beliefs alone, I have admired the man my entire adult life. Remember the Occupy movement on Wall Street? Crosby and Nash were there. Anti-nuke, pro-environment, anti-war, right on immigration…those of you who did not live through the Vietnam War or Richard Nixon's reign can not appreciate how important Nash and his partners were to us back then. I was marching when OHIO came out. Dylan and the Beatles helped create the revolution but it was CSNY who really provided the movement soundtrack, and the 1974 tour was as much celebration and vindication as it was a stadium tour. After ten murderous years, American troops left Vietnam the year before…and when I see the photo above, the cover on the new box set, that is what comes to my mind. Not the greatest assemblage of popular musicians of my generation, but the end of the war. CSNY helped bring that war to an end in ways we have never fully acknowledged, and they have all kept that positive force alive since, whether together or apart.
Mr. Nash sold a large portion of his antique photography collection at Sotheby's in 1990 and it broke records for vintage pictures. Today, even the catalog is prized. The lot of 400 pictures raised $2.4 million dollars, and some of the funds went to a museum. Among the works were a portrait by Diane Arbus, who Nash helped push into world recognition with the sale, the Paul Outerbridge Self-Portrait which was published on the cover, and an iconic Ansel Adams photo.
He has published his own work as well, some in Eye to Eye which is available here.
Nash editions, which once utilized the IRIS Graphic Printer he first purchased (which now resides in the Smithsonian) is HERE. The company produces high quality photograph prints. An affiliate Nash project Manuscript Originals produces prints as well, including this original John Lee Hooker drawing…seldom will you see an artist so perfectly capture his own sound visually.
I have never had the opportunity to thank Mr. Nash in person for allowing me to enjoy his work virtually my entire life, from the magical night I enjoyed a pin-drop perfect concert in Central Michigan performed by Mr. Crosby and Mr. Nash in 1971 to the box set I have ordered and await. There was a time when the quartet was the greatest band in the country. Some of the photos here were cribbed from the promotional clip on Youtube.
Art and Photography Books and Ebooks by Jim Linderman are available HERE.
Lost Art of the Hand Painted Trade Sign Antique Photograph
A nice occupational photograph (it looks like a Real Photo Post Card but is in fact a larger print, on cardstock) of Brown's Sign Shop circa 1900. Note Scaffold rigging rope in back and the giant sign being created at left.)
If you are interested in the folk art of hand painted signs, I can recommend the documentary SIGN PAINTERS which you can find HERE.
Untitled Photograph (Sign Painters) 10 x 12 cardstock, image 6 x 8 Collection Jim Linderman
Antique Man in a Coffin Erotic Folk Art Carved Novelty Handmade Sculpture with Penis and Moving Tongue.
Well, the title says a lot, but not all. I'm going to add a value judgement. Bad taste is evident from every era man has been here, and it's not going away. If a whittler making a statement on mortality and the way we procreate is a problem for you, turn away.
Second, as strange as it may seem, I have collected these little contraptions for years. I have had some with the coffin as large as a shoebox (sold at auction and lost) and as small as a matchbook. I have had them painted and not, manufactured as tourist trap do-dads and whittled on the porch from when radio was the only mass-media other than the local newspaper. I have had them working and broken, in pieces and not. Rubber band operated and with other mechanisms.
But I have never had one with a tongue. It is also unusual to see one with arms which extend, and nearly as far as the wanger. Interestingly, as I write, my spell-checker fails to recognize the word wanger, repeatedly replacing the word danger... while it has been in our vocabulary for decades.
Whether the artist who created this morbid miracle of post-death erection was thinking of "arms to hold you" and a tongue to kiss you is unknown. Still, it is a pretty powerful little object combining life, death and what goes on in-between.
Note also "Rest in Peace" painted on end of the coffin, wire carrying straps, actual linen lining and pencil highlights. Not to mention red color applied in particular places.
Little erotic effigies began in caves. Where they will end is questionable, but they will always be here.
Circa 1930 Handmade Erotic Novelty Man in Coffin Collection Jim Linderman
If you are interested in similar examples or hand-crafted dirty little (and big) objects created as an homage to sexual silliness, the book FOLK EROTICA by my gentleman friend and esthetic miracle man Milton Simpson HERE is a good place to start.
A grumpy man at the end of the street has embellished his "Go either way, but Go" glass reflector road sign with personalized instruction.
Antique Road Sign circa 1930 Collection Jim Linderman
A lovely little trick calligraphic game for the ladies. Each titled object in a women's purse lifts up to reveal a sentiment, a thought, a reminder. For example, lifting up "A Mirror" reveals the answer "Reflection" underneath. "A Relief for Deafness" lifts up to reveal "Attention" and "A General Beautifier" lifts up to reveal "Good Humor" which is, as are all, just as true today as they were when this little folk art piece was made. Likely by a mother as lessons for her child.
Folk Art "Reminder" Paper Game circa 1870. Collection Jim Linderman
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In the Doghouse (Misanthropic Version) Early 20th Century Sexism and the Idiom Vernacular Photograph
In the Doghouse is an idiom. In the case above, a particularly misanthropic mysogynistic representation of dominant male culture of the 1930s or so. I presume it was all in good fun…but we'll never know. An astounding snapshot. You can see the real dog being entertained in the background, the filthy cur. Well, it wasn't his fault. Only a human can treat a human like a dog. As I write a companion blog called Vintage Sleaze, that a woman from the early 20th century would be posed like this comes as no surprise at all. Still, it seems to me an iconic snapshot depicting sexist mores, and believe me, they persist. The BBC has been running a series on Sexual Violence worldwide, and it has been gruesome. The planet certainly has a long, long way to go. One source traces the phrase origin to the book Peter Pan (!) in 1911, when author J. M. Barrie put the father Mr. Darling in the doghouse for not protecting his kids. At least he was a guy.
Anonymous Snapshot circa 1930 Collection Jim Linderman (Thanks and a tip "o" the hat to LL)
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