octopus_coquus

[huariqueje]

Night Pool #7   -   Alice Brasser , 2023.

Dutch , b. 1965  -

Oil on canvas , 24 x 30 cm

[silvaris]

Westcave Outdoor Discovery Center [x]

[alifeingrain]

Brecon Beacons, Wales - October 2019 Pentax K1000 on Kodak Portra 800

[sxcvghjm]

I thought the earth remembered me, she took me back so tenderly, arranging her dark skirts, her pockets full of lichens and seeds. I slept as never before, a stone on the riverbed, nothing between me and the white fire of the stars but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths among the branches of the perfect trees. All night I heard the small kingdoms breathing around me, the insects, and the birds who do their work in the darkness. All night I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling with a luminous doom. By morning I had vanished at least a dozen times into something better.

(mary oliver, sleeping in the forest)

[arresting-gear]

Alfred Kubin (1877 – 1959) was no stranger to mental illness.  His paintings were most likely expressions of his psyche.  The top image ‘the way to hell’ has to be my favorite of his.  They are all so odd and creepy.  I’m sure he’s inspired countless others with his eclectic art.  

[50watts]

Hinko Smrekar, from The Seven Deadly Sins series, 1927 via the National Gallery Slovenia (the top one is Envy)

[50watts]

Louise Janin, Cosmogramme

[50watts]

Sasaki Maki detail

[50watts]

Welle Design (”Freak Out Collection”)

[1five1two]

Portrait of novelist and Hollywood screenwriter Vicki Baum. Kay Nielsen. 1934.

[capturingdisney]

[lagaleriapopurri]

Kay Nielsen

[the-evil-clergyman]

The Chasm, from The Book of Death by Kay Nielsen (1910)

[thefugitivesaint]

Robert Anning Bell (1862-1933), “Jack the Giant-Killer; Beauty & The Beast”, 1894 Source

[the-evil-clergyman]

“I fear thee, ancient Mariner!” from Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Willy Pogany (1910)

[the-evil-clergyman]

Illustrations from The Tale of Lohengrin, Knight of the Swan after the Drama of Richard Wagner by Willy Pogany (1913)

[uwmspeccoll]

Plates from Dekorative Vorbilder

Normally, when compiling images for these decorative arts posts I focus on gorgeous patterns, but today I wanted to show some of the weirder and more figurative art found in these books. Including a rather bizarre rendering of Triton, the god of the sea and a mermaid.

The Dekorative Vorbilder, was a decorative arts periodical published by Julius Hoffman in Stuttgart, Germany from 1890 until the late 1920s. The series featured work from a variety of artists, and it was described by the press as “a compilation of figurative representations, applied-art embellishments, plastic ornaments, decorative animal and plant studies, allegories, trophies, heraldic motifs, club insignias, coats of arms for guilds, festive ornaments, etc.” Other titles by Julius Hoffman include Der Moderne Stil, or “The Modern Style” a periodical printed from 1899-1905, and Die Kupferstiche des Meisters, “The Engravings of the Masters” published in 1911.

The Dekorative Vorbilder was issued in monthly installments. The images we are featuring this week are from Volume 22, printed in 1911. One of the artists featured in this volume is Willy Pogany, a prolific Hungarian illustrator who we have posted about in the past. 

View other posts from this title here.

View more posts about decorative arts and pattern books.

–Sarah, Special Collections Graduate Assistant