A Journey Round My Skull

Crouching and Screaming

2018-05-14T21:29:00.001-04:00

Wonderful 1978 illustrations by Outi Markkanen (Finland, b.1951) on Kuriosas. Visit the link for many more illustrations from Kurnau ja Kamaluu.

Histoire de Magali

2018-05-13T10:30:00.000-04:00

Illustration by Madeleine Charléty for Histoire de Magali (1930) by André Chamson (Amaz link)

Druillet in America

2018-05-10T14:00:00.000-04:00

It's nice that legends like Druillet are being published in the US more and more.

René d’Harnoncourt, The Painted Pig and Mexicana

2018-05-09T09:30:00.000-04:00

René d’Harnoncourt, from The Painted Pig and Mexicana (1930-31)

Evan M. Cohen

2018-05-07T09:30:00.000-04:00

Loving the work of Evan M. Cohen

Kazys Šimonis, Mirages of Dreams

2018-05-05T13:16:00.000-04:00

Kazys Šimonis (1887 – 1978, Lithuania)

via the exhibit Mirages of Dreams at ciurlionis.lt

Marcus Behmer, Nobody Can Resist His Fate

2018-05-04T11:00:00.000-04:00

See my big post on Marcus Behmer from a few years ago.

If I'm interpreting the auction house correctly, "Niemand kann wider sein Schicksal" is a picture story (for adults) on a single sheet made by Marcus Behmer in 1905 (printed later?) and dedicated to Harry Kessler (see Journey to the Abyss: The Diaries of Count Harry Kessler, 1880-1918 and Berlin in Lights: The Diaries of Count Harry Kessler, 1918-1937).

Mount Analogue 1960

2018-05-03T18:06:00.000-04:00

Mount Analogue

binding illustration, first American edition, 1960 Pantheon

Read it!

Karl Wirsum

2018-05-02T01:39:00.000-04:00

Karl Wirsum (from Karma International gallery, Zurich).

See more here: “Chicago Imagists” at Karma International

Previously: Smoke Hairy Who
Also see the book Chicago Imagists
(I have not yet seen the documentary Hairy Who and The Chicago Imagists.)

Antonio Fernandez Reboiro

2018-05-01T20:32:00.000-04:00

Antonio Fernandez Reboiro, 1979, Poster for documentary film by Idelfonso Ramos (Debemos Saber, We Should Know) via MOMA (some reproductions of his work on Amaz)

Jo Daemen cover designs

2015-03-26T21:43:00.001-04:00

From the collection of Anne Aalders

I read about Johanna Maria Hendrika Daemen (1891–1944) on feuilleton and then found some book covers she designed. These are from 1928 to 1930.

Der Widiwondelwald

2015-03-11T21:12:00.001-04:00

I try not to think about how much I would pay for a copy of Hilde Krüger's 1924 children's book Der Widiwondelwald. Some links (in German): one, two, three -- see the full book as smaller images at the last link to the kibook blog.

[Update: this was briefly in print last year -- might still be able to find it.]

I kept coming across this book when working on my Kinderbuch series over the years.

Mr. Frog Went A-Courting

2015-02-13T15:49:00.000-05:00

Mr. Frog Went A-Courting by Evelyn Lambart, National Film Board of Canada

Also see: The Frog Who Would A Wooing Go

SEKIJI NO KUBI WO KIRU

2014-01-01T20:56:00.002-05:00

Bookseller's description: "[AVANT-GARDE POETRY] HINO Shunsuke. Shishû SEKIJI NO KUBI WO KIRU. Tôkyô, Erosu-dô. Shôwa 4 [1929]. 18.5 x 12.7, bound Western-style in wrappers with illustrated covers, book design and illustrations throughout by Iguchi Masao. A product of the Nagoya avant-garde. The illustrations and design of this "CUTTING THE BABY'S THROAT" are jarring, some of the poems sound and feel like they were written while falling down a flight of stairs. The paper is browned and some pages a bit edgeworn but a very good copy overall of this ephemeral production."

Two by Massimo Scolari

2013-02-26T12:17:00.001-05:00

Massimo Scolari, The Sick Square, 1971

See my Scolari post on But Does it Float. I'm looking forward to the recent book collecting these works (Amaz link) -- these come from the old book (most b/w).

Massimo Scolari, Sardinia North East, Cape Boi, 1973

Weltkrieg

2013-02-24T12:16:00.001-05:00

Willi Geiger, 1914

See the new post on recto-verso: Weltkrieg: German Artists Respond to the Great War

Bettina von Arnim

2013-01-23T00:42:00.000-05:00

Manhole, 1972

La ligne jaune, 1972

Labyrinth, 1980

Auf Polls Spuren, 1976

Die Eisenbahnen haben einen Schnupfen, 1983

A, 1976

Most of these works by Bettina von Arnim (b. 1940) come from Galerie Poll, though I have trouble navigating to them directly from their website. The rest come from expired auction listings. I gave titles when I could find them. I would love to see more of her work (and proper reproductions).

Not related (as far as I know) to previous poster-boys of this blog, Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim (unlike this Bettina von Arnim).

update: Thomas Kümmel (@klbkultur on twitter) left a comment about the artist. Thank you!

Bettina von Arnim (born 1940 at Zernikow) is related to the widely branching noble lineage "von Arnim" although it is not easy to trace her roots.

She is the daughter of Friedmund and Clara von Arnim. Her parents managed the family estate "Gut Zernikow" until it was expropriated by the Soviets. They then fled Eastern Germany for West Berlin in 1945.

Her father, Friedmund von Arnim, was a great-grandchild of Ludwig Achim and Bettina von Arnim (German writer and novelist, Countess of Arnim and sister of Clemens Bretano). Friedmund von Arnim died as a prisoner of war in Russia in January 1946. Her mother, Clara von Arnim, died on May 7, 2009 at the age of 99.

The Future Is Now, 1984

2013-01-16T22:47:00.000-05:00

Filmstudio Limelight / Space Girl
(Schlieren / Schweiz; 1984)
www.vannutt.ch

Click for larger versions at Micky the Pixel's flickr (his light show company is Vannutt)

Those Tinderbox Eyes

2013-01-13T20:43:00.007-05:00

Axel Mathiesen's illustration for H. C. Andersen's "Tinderbox," circa 1928 via twincovercollector.

I apparently can't get enough of bug-eyed dogs...perhaps because the Boston Terrier runt of my teenage years was crazy bug-eyed. See these previous posts: one, two, three.

In the land of dwarfs

2013-01-10T17:13:00.002-05:00

BibliOdyssey mentioned this one way back in 2008 but I keep coming across it and had to feature it. The scans are by flickr user Tomasz and the book is called... W Krainie Karzełków, which Google confidently translates as "In the land of dwarfs." I can't find a date. 1940s? And the sig... Ajo?

Book collector Arthur van Kruining cleared up the mystery: "This book is of Dutch origin. The title is DWERGENLAND (1923). "Ajo" was the pseudonym of Henriëtte Fox-Borel. Unfortunately her books are quite rare." Thanks Arthur!

Google translates "Dwergenland" as "Dwarf Country." See more Ajo here.

Staring Contest

2012-11-27T00:58:00.001-05:00

I'm winning. Tintype from the collection of Frank Suvari via John Demetrick.

More French drugs

2012-11-15T16:55:00.004-05:00

Leftover from a big post of 1930s French pharmaceutical ads on 50 Watts.
Collection of Jérôme Dubois.

Frank Mechau Jr.

2012-11-13T18:34:00.002-05:00

"Frank Mechau Jr. (1904-1946) was a well-known Colorado artist who often painted scenes depicting the Western Colorado mountains he loved."

Stumbled on this artist while googling another Frank Mechau, one who illustrated a book by Aldington in 1931.

See Frank crouching in front of a mural sketch.

Secession

2012-11-11T20:21:00.002-05:00

Things I want based on the cover: "Secession" by Frances Stark

Marvel and misspell

2012-10-30T22:40:00.001-04:00

During the hurricane (not so bad in Philly) I posted some NASA photos of past storms on But Does it Float. (Unusually topical for me, I know.) I used a Goethe quote found in Auden's A Certain World: A Commonplace Book. Here's the full quote:

Many years ago, as now, my mind strove with eager delight to study and discover the creative life of Nature. It is eternal unity in manifold manifestation; the great is little, the little is great, and everything after its kind; ever changing and yet preserving itself, near and far, and far and near, and so shaping and re-shaping itself—to marvel at it is what I am here for.

The reason why I prefer the society of nature to any other is that nature is always right and the error, if any, can only be on my side. But if I hold converse with men, they will err, then I will, and so on forever, and we never get to see matters clearly.

Everything factual is, in a sense, theory. The blue of the sky exhibits the basic laws of chromatics. There is no sense in looking for something behind phenomena: they are theory.

On the next page Auden gives a fun Lichtenberg aphorism:

If nature be regarded as the teacher and we poor human beings as her pupils, the human race presents a very curious picture. We all sit together at a lecture and possess the necessary principles for understanding it, yet we always pay more attention to the chatter of our fellow students than to the lecturer's discourse. Or, if our neighbor copies something down, we sneak it from him, stealing what he himself may have heard imperfectly, and add to it our own errors of spelling and opinion.

Image: Hurricane Dean, 2007, NASA