Archie Rand and John Yau, Z from The Alphabet Paintings, 1987-94, acrylic on gold lamé, Courtesy of the artists
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Max Jacob
French poet, writer, painter, and critic Max Jacob was a key player in the modern poetry movement. At the beginning of his artistic career, he shared a room in Paris with Pablo Picasso and the two became fast friends (Jacob is depicted as the monk in Picasso’s Three Musicians). Picasso and Jacob influenced each other’s work, both of them pushing the boundaries of their respective mediums and ushering in a new era. Jacob’s poetry focused on his spiritual gripes and personal history. Born to a Jewish family, Jacob converted to Catholicism after claiming to receive a vision of Christ in 1909. He believed this would save him from his Queerness. Much of his work that remains today holds a desire for paradise and a deep fear of damnation. In 1944 after moving outside of Paris, Jacob was arrested by Nazi police and transported through multiple internment camps. Before he could make it to Auschwitz, Jacob died of bronchial pneumonia in the infirmary of the Drancy internment camp. His work continues to be relevant in the writing world, inspiring modern poets like John Ashbury and Frank O’Hara. Artists Archie Rand and John Yau honor Jacob’s legacy with their piece Z from The Alphabet Paintings. As the last piece in the series, the imagined moment of Picasso and Jacob hugging goodbye in front of a train suspends the inevitable and holds a sentimentality that Jacob was known for. Learn more about Max Jacob and his legacy with the link below, and find Z from The Alphabet paintings in the Main Gallery of the Schneider Museum of Art.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/max-jacob
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Richard Hull and John Yau, Philip de Chirico/Giorgio Guston II, 2023, monotype in oil and water based media media on Arches Cover paper, courtesy of Manneken Press
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Giorgio de Chirico
Regarded as a major influence to the Surrealism movement and pioneer to the revival of Classicism, Giorgio de Chirico’s artistic career ran an interesting course. His early work was heavily influenced by his childhood in Greece with Italian parents, leaning into the classical style while invoking new emotions like homesickness and longing. The haunting scenery coupled with his array of symbols made him popular in early Surrealist circles. As the Surrealists went more avant-garde, Chirico started finding inspiration from Baroque and Renaissance-style art. His late works were disregarded by his contemporaries in Surrealist spaces and critics, causing him to fall to the margins in the 1920s. His work was later revisited in the 1980s, inspiring a new wave of Italian artists. Artists Richard Hull and John Yau pay homage to Chirico in their piece Philip de Chirico/Giorgio Guston II. Yau combines Chirico’s name with American Canadian painter, printmaker, and muralist Philip Guston, another artist who walked the line between classical and contemporary. Learn more about Giorgio de Chirico with the link below, and find Philip de Chirico/Giorgio Guston II in the Main Gallery of the Schneider Museum of Art.
https://www.moma.org/artists/1106
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Norman Bluhm and John Yau, Sam Spade Haiku, 1987, acrylic on paper, courtesy of John Yau
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Sam Spade
Known as the blueprint of the stoic detective archetype, Sam Spade was originally a character written by Dashiell Hammett in his novel “The Maltese Falcon”. The book was released in 1929 and stayed in the pop culture sphere until the 1950s. From radio shows and television to comics, the determined, morally upright, and no-nonsense private investigator took the genre of crime fiction beyond the literary world. His left-leaning politics may have been unpopular during the Cold War, but his impact on the genre continued beyond the cancellation of his show. Early this year, Sam Spade’s character was revived in a French series titled “Monsieur Spade” which takes place 20 years after the events of the original novel. Crime fiction and detective novels are something artists Norman Bluhm and John Yau bonded over. Their piece Sam Spade Haiku is one of two pieces dedicated to the character, and both can be found in the Heiter Gallery of the Schneider Museum of Art. Learn more about Sam Spade with the link below, and visit us before December 14th to see all the allusions to crime fiction in Disguise the Limit.
https://theconversation.com/my-favourite-detective-sam-spade-as-hard-as-nails-and-the-smartest-guy-in-the-room-149295 |
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From the Archive
(VIDEO) Creative Industries Discussion: John Yau & Stuart Horodner
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