HAPPY BIRTHDAY: JAMES DEAN WOULD BE 80 ON FEBRUARY 8, 2011

Richard C. Miller: James Dean during the making of "Giant"

James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955)

"I, James Byron Dean, was born February 8, 1931, Marion, Indiana. My parents, Winton Dean and Mildred Dean, formerly Mildred Wilson, and myself existed in the state of Indiana until I was six years of age. Dad's work with the government caused a change, so Dad as a dental mechanic was transferred to California. There we lived, until the fourth year. Mom became ill and passed out of my life at the age of nine. I never knew the reason for Mom's death, in fact it still preys on my mind. I had always lived such a talented life. I studied violin, played in concerts, tap-danced on theatre stages but most of all I like art, to mold and create things with my hands. I came back to Indiana to live with my uncle. I lost the dancing and violin, but not the art. I think my life will be devoted to art and dramatics. And there are so many different fields of art it would be hard to foul-up, and if I did, there are so many different things to do -- farm, sports, science, geology, coaching, teaching music. I got it and I know if I better myself that there will be no match. A fellow must have confidence. When living in California my young eyes experienced many things. It was also my luck to make three visiting trips to Indiana, going and coming a different route each time. I have been in almost every state west of Indiana. I remember all. My hobby, or what I do in my spare time, is motorcycle. I know a lot about them mechanically and I love to ride. I have been in a few races and have done well. I own a small cycle myself. When I'm not doing that, I'm usually engaged in athletics, the heartbeat of every American boy. As one strives to make a goal in a game, there should be a goal in this crazy world for all of us. I hope I know where mine is, anyway, I'm after it. I don't mind telling you, Mr. Dubois, this is the hardest subject to write about considering the information one knows of himself, I ever attempted."


"My Case Study" to Roland Dubois,
Fairmount High School Principal, 1948

Richard C. Miller



James Dean had one of the most spectacularly brief careers of any screen star. In just more than a year, and in only three films, Dean became a widely admired screen personality, a personification of the restless American youth of the mid-50's, and an embodiment of the title of one of his film "Rebel Without A Cause." En route to compete in a race in Salinas, James Dean was killed in a highway accident on September 30, 1955. James Dean was nominated for two Academy Awards, for his performances in "East of Eden" and "Giant." Although he only made three films, they were made in just over one year's time. Joe Hyams, in the James Dean biography "Little Boy Lost," sums up his career:


--"..There is no simple explanation for why he has come to mean so much to so many people today. Perhaps it is because, in his acting, he had the intuitive talent for expressing the hopes and fears that are a part of all young people... In some movie magic way, he managed to dramatize brilliantly the questions every young person in every generation must resolve."

Richard C. Miller

Richard C. Miller

Richard C. Miller

Text Source: The Official Site of James Dean

All photographs ©  Richard C. Miller Trust

BORN FEBRURAY 6, 1895: BABE RUTH

The Babe Bows Out, Yankee Stadium, June 13, 1948 © 2004 Nat Fein Estate

 
George Herman Ruth Jr. was born on February 6, 1895 in Baltimore, Maryland to parents George Sr. and Kate. George Jr. was one of eight children, although only he and his sister Mamie survived. George Jr.’s parents worked long hours, leaving little time to watch over him and his sister. The lack of parental guidance allowed George Jr. to become a bit unruly, often skipping school and causing trouble in the neighborhood. When George Jr. turned 7 years old, his parents realized he needed a stricter environment and therefore sent him to the St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys, a school run by Catholic monks from an order of the Xaverian Brothers. St. Mary’s provided a strict and regimented environment that helped shape George Jr.’s future. Not only did George Jr. learn vocational skills, but he developed a passion and love for the game of baseball.
 
 

Ralph Morse: Babe Ruth in uniform at Yankee Stadium, 1948

Irving Haberman: Babe Ruth signing autographs for adoring fans, New York

Ralph Morse: Baseball great Babe Ruth, in uniform, addressing crowd and press during final appearance at Yankee Stadium (shortly before death). This rare color image of Babe Ruth leaning on his bat for his final appearance at Yankee Stadium on June 13, 1948

Read more from  BabeRuth.com, the official website of Babe Ruth.

Exhibition Reframes Works From Depression-Era WPA

By Kathaleen Roberts

Albuquerque Journal Staff Writer

The public art created with federal support during the Depression anchored the New Mexico Museum of Art's permanent collection in an innovation that would become iconic.

Opening Friday, "Conserving Public Art: The New Deal Artwork of Gene Kloss and B.J.O. Nordfeldt" presents the prints of two of the state's renowned artists, many newly re-matted and framed for protection. The conservation work was funded by the WPA Federal Art Project.

Although technically still owned by the federal government, the prints fall under the museum's responsibility for their care and conservation.

"A lot of them had never been matted," curator Joe Traugott said. "When the artist (brought) in the material, a lot of them ... came between two pieces of corrugated board."

Others had been sandwiched between high-acid materials. The acid in the wood pulp fibers can scorch the artwork.

The exhibit includes an image of the chapel at Rancho de Chimayó that is instantly recognizable as one of Kloss' signature prints.

"It's probably her best work," Traugott said. "It's just an incredibly powerful work in black and white that's so iconic of work in New Mexico that it just draws people in."

Kloss first visited New Mexico in the 1920s with her husband, Phillip. They summered here regularly until moving to Taos permanently in 1929.

Kloss became a drypoint printmaker of uniquely New Mexican compositions, particularly of religious scenes. Her prints offer dramatic contrasts of light and dark passages and rising diagonal lines, often referencing winter rituals from northern New Mexico. These prints were first displayed in post offices, libraries and schools.

The Nordfeldt prints depict vignettes of classic local New Mexico village scenes from the 1930s.

Nordfeldt "has an incredible reputation built on pieces he did here in New Mexico in the late teens through the early '20s," Traugott said. "They were heavily influenced by Paul Cezanne's work in France."

Nordfeldt's New Mexico works form some of the most pivotal woodcuts made during the 20th century, Traugott added.

"Kloss' reputation is of course more local than national," he continued. But the artist's work has risen astronomically in price.

Like Gustave Baumann and Raymond Jonson, Nordfeldt came here from Chicago during the late teens. His classic painting "Antelope Dance," from 1929, is on display in "How the West Is One" exhibition on the museum's first floor. Nordfeldt's lithographs from the 1930s are less known, reflecting the world-weariness of the Depression, when jobs were as scarce as tourists.

Conserving Public Art:The New Deal Artwork of Gene Kloss and B.J.O. Nordfeldt



Public art produced with federal support during the Great Depression represents an important component of the museum’s collection. The federal government still owns these works, but the museum is responsible for their care and conservation. Unfortunately, many were not matted, or had been improperly matted in the 1930s. Recently a grant from the NM Chapter of the National New Deal Preservation Association enabled these works by Gene Kloss and B.J.O. Nordfeldt to be matted properly for protection and preservation. These works demonstrate the museum’s commitment to conservation and best museum practices.

For more information, check the website:  http://www.nmartmuseum.org/site/explore/current/conserving-public-art.html

Twin opening with Cloudscapes: Photographs from the Collection Friday, Feb 4, with a reception hosted by the Women’s Board of the Museum of New Mexico from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Admission is free.

FARRAH FAWCETT'S ICONIC RED SWIMSUIT DONATED TO THE SMITHSONIAN

Bruce McBroom

Farrah Fawcett's Red Swimsuit Going to Smithsonian
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: February 2, 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) — The red swimsuit that helped make Charlie's Angels actress Farrah Fawcett an icon is going to the Smithsonian in Washington.

Fawcett's longtime companion Ryan O'Neal will donate the swimsuit and other items to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History on Wednesday. A 1976 poster of Fawcett in the dampened red swimsuit sold millions of copies.

Also going to the Smithsonian are Fawcett's copies of scripts for the first season of Charlie's Angels and a 1977 Farrah Fawcett doll.

The items will be part of the museum's popular culture history collection.

Fawcett died in 2009 at the age of 62 after battling cancer.

ABOUT THE MAKING OF THE ICONIC PHOTOGRAPH

The image was released in 1977 as a poster, the same year as when she played Jill Munroe on the TV show Charlie's Angels. It went on to sell a record 12 million copies making it one of the most famous pin-ups ever.


Mike and Ted Trikilis dropped out of Kent State in 1967 to open an art gallery that sold posters. A shipment of anti-war posters soon became their number one bread winner and so they sold the store and became the Pro Arts Inc. They struggled for a few years but then a poster of the Fonz sold more than a quarter-million copies which bumped Pro Arts in the big leagues.

In April of 1976 Ted was working on his farm with the neighbor's son Pat Partridge when Pat wondered  if Pro Arts would make a poster of Farrah Fawcett. He admitted that he and his friends had been buying women's magazines just to get pictures of her from the Wella Balsam shampoo ads. Ted had never heard of Farrah but knew that if students were using ads of her then a poster would be a big seller. He soon got in touch with Fawcett's agent Rick Hersh and tried to get a deal. After Ted finished talking Hersh was puzzled and asked, "What type of product is Farrah to be selling on the poster?" "We want to sell Farrah on the Farrah poster," Ted explained.

Hersh passed the idea on to Farrah who thought it was "cute" and said she had a photographer she like to work with.

When the photo was taken Farrah Fawcett was still an unknown actress wanting to make it big. She hadn't yet signed on for her hit show Charlie's Angels but got some work doing commercials. Bruce McBroom was a freelance photographer who had worked with Farrah before and so Pro Arts agreed to hire him for the shoot. They wanted a bikini shot of the blond beauty.

The shoot was at Farrah's Bel Air, Calif., home of her and then-husband, actor Lee Majors. She did her own hair and they took the photos behind the home by their pool. She modelled several different swimsuits but McBroom didn't get excited about any of the pictures he shot. When she came down in the now famous red one piece swimsuit to cover a childhood scar on her stomach McBroom knew he had something. For the backdrop McBroom grabbed the old Indian Blanket covering his car seat and hung it up, "I should have told people I styled this," McBroom says, "but the truth is it came off the front seat of my '37 Chevy."

©Bruce McBroom/MPTV

He took a number of shots, using his Nikon, including a sultry Farrah eating a cookie but Farrah chose the final frame that would make her one of the most famous people of the 70's. In the early summer of '76 McBroom sent a package of 25 shots of Farrah indicating which one Farrah wanted to use.

©Bruce McBroom/MPTV

"I've since heard that when the guy in Cleveland got the pictures, he went, "First of all, where's the bikini?" He told me he wasn't ever gonna pay me, because he hated the pictures. But I guess he showed them around to people in his business and they changed his mind. It was Farrah's pose, Farrah's suit, Farrah's idea. She picked that shot. She made a lot of money for him and for herself, and made me semifamous."
--Bruce McBroom

McBroom was paid $1000 for the assignment but is happy to be associated with such a cultural icon. In 2006 on the 30th anniversary of the image, Fawcett, said "I was a little self-conscious [of the image], probably because my smile is so big, but it always more 'me' than any other photograph out there."

Bruce McBroom went on to work as the still photographer on over 65 movies, including "The Godfather Part Two, The Hunt for Red October, ET, City Slickers, Ghost Busters, Sleepless in Seattle, and many more. He now lives near Santa Fe, New Mexico, and his photographs can be seen at Monroe Gallery of Photography.


Related: "Bruce McBroom Remember The Iconic Poster Shoot" interview from Entertainment Weekly

Time Magazine: Fawcett Photographer Recalls an Iconic Shoot


Source: Famous Pictures: The Magazine

American Modern: Abbott, Evans, Bourke-White

THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO
February 5–May 15, 2011


Galleries 1–4

Overview: In the 1930s, photographers pushed the genre of documentary photography to the forefront of public culture in the United States and onto the walls of newly opened museums and art galleries. That historic development receives new insight with this exhibition focusing exclusively on the work of American photographers Berenice Abbott, Walker Evans, and Margaret Bourke-White.

 

 Walker Evans. Posed Portraits, New York, 1932. The Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of Mrs. James Ward Thorne. © Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.



Photographic activity flourished in America in the 1930s during the Great Depression, and the genre of documentary emerged as a mode of understanding contemporary events. While the world was in a turbulent state—national and international economies were being severely tested, political systems were in flux, and Europe was preparing again for war—Americans recognized their own viable cultural heritage and sought to record and expand that heritage. Indeed, the country’s literary, artistic, and architectural traditions were fortified in the period’s explosion of popular literature, the founding of new art museums, and the establishment of New Deal government-funded arts programs.

At the same time, advances in technology, production, and distribution transformed mass media in this country: Americans enjoyed weekly picture magazines, radio broadcasts, and popular movies in unprecedented numbers. Photography played an especially critical role in contemporary culture, appearing in books, newspapers, and magazines as well as being accorded exhibitions in art museums and galleries. Photographs crossed the boundaries between public and private use, impersonal documentation and expressive creation, and popular visual culture and fine art.

American Modern examines the practice of documentary photography through the work of three of the most important photographers of the decade, each of whom contributed a fundamental, independent, and novel idea about documentary to the common pool of artistic practice. For Abbott, it was the notion that photography was a means of critical dialogue and communication. Evans thoroughly investigated the idea that photography has a unique and essential relationship to time. And Bourke-White’s documentary practice fused the logic and pageantry of modern industry with the drama and individual narratives of its subjects.

Catalogue: A lavishly illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition.

Sponsor:

This exhibition is co-organized by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine.

The exhibition and accompanying publication have been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for the Arts, and the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.

Support for the Chicago presentation of this exhibition is generously provided in part by the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Generous support is provided by members of the Exhibitions Trust: Kenneth and Anne Griffin, Thomas and Margot Pritzker, the Earl and Brenda Shapiro Foundation, Donna and Howard Stone, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Sullivan, and an anonymous donor

SANTA FE WINTER FIESTA 2011



The first annual Santa Fe Winter Fiesta takes place February 18 - 27, 2011 throughout Santa Fe's historic streets and in the nearby Rocky Mountains. Each day will be a celebration of the season with daily special events focusing on Santa Fe's bountiful outdoor opportunities, Native American and Spanish cultures, the region's savory and diverse cuisine, the city's performing arts, and Santa Fe's endless fine arts. See here for details. Ticket information here.


The festival will conclude with the 14th Annual ARTfeast, one of Santa Fe's most popular annual events. ARTfeast is the annual fundraising event for ARTsmart, which was founded in 1993 to address the lack of funding for art programs and supplies in Santa Fe public schools. In a city built on and sustained by the arts, ARTsmart is committed to funding the creative thinkers of tomorrow.  ARTsmart has distributed just under $835,000 through 2010 to ARTsmart projects, public school programs, art related organizations and endowment funds.

Be sure to get an early start on the Fiesta and join us February 11, from 5 - 7 PM, for the opening reception for Richard C. Miller: A Retrospective at Monroe Gallery.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948

Margaret Bourke -White: Gandhi, 1946

On January 30, 1948, Gandhi was shot while he was walking to a platform from which he was to address a prayer meeting. The assassin, Nathuram Godse, was a Hindu nationalist with links to the extremist Hindu Mahasabha, who held Gandhi responsible for weakening India by insisting upon a payment to Pakistan. Godse and his co-conspirator Narayan Apte were later tried and convicted; they were executed on November 15, 1949. Gandhi's memorial at Rāj Ghāt, New Delhi, bears the epigraph "Hē Ram", (Devanagari: हे ! राम or, He Rām), which may be translated as "Oh God". These are widely believed to be Gandhi's last words after he was shot, though the veracity of this statement has been disputed. Jawaharlal Nehru addressed the nation through radio:

"Friends and comrades, the light has gone out of our lives, and there is darkness everywhere, and I do not quite know what to tell you or how to say it. Our beloved leader, Bapu as we called him, the father of the nation, is no more. Perhaps I am wrong to say that; nevertheless, we will not see him again, as we have seen him for these many years, we will not run to him for advice or seek solace from him, and that is a terrible blow, not only for me, but for millions and millions in this country."

RICHARD C. MILLER: 1912 - 2010

We are very pleased that our forthcoming exhibition is featured in the February/March issue of The Santa Fean magazine, just out this week.

ART

openings  reviews  people



The Monroe Gallery of Photography (112 Don Gaspar, 505-992-0800, monroegallery.com), where this Richard C. Miller picture of a relaxed-in-her-gorgeousness Marilyn Monroe (from the set of the 1959 Bill Wilder classic Some Like It Hot) can be found, specializes in iconic imagery: Ellis Island in its neglected beauty, the Civil Rights movement, the famous, the infamous. But as with this color image of Marilyn, the photographer(s) at Monroe's rarely if ever seek to capitalize or promote celebrityhood or nostalgia, they're after those ineffable Garry Winogrand-type moments of the unexpected, the off-guard, the interstitial, which reveal far more about time, place, and people than anything posed or staged, such as this very human, very lovely side of a woman whose fans and handlers rarely allowed to be human or lovely. -- Devon Jackson

RICHARD C. MILLER: 1912 - 2010

A RETROSPECTIVE

Fenruary 11 - April 24

View the exhibition here.

MARK SHAW "VANITY FAIR" PHOTOGRAPHS

As published in Hemispheres and Sky magazines

Several friends of the gallery have pointed out that the January issues of the in-flight magazines of United (Hemispheres) and Delta (Sky) feature one of Mark Shaw's photographs from his Vanity Fair campaign. The photograph was published for the recent Photo LA fair, but regrettably did not credit Mark Shaw. Here is some information about the photograph and the award-wining Vanity Fair campaign it was shot for.

Mark Shaw worked as a top print advertising photographer until his untimely death in 1969 at the age of 47. Some of Mark Shaw's most beautiful work was shot for Vanity Fair's lingerie advertising campaign; fellow fashion and portrait photographer Richard Avedon  contributed concurrently to this well-known, long-running campaign. This series of images was created over a ten-year period. It garnered yearly recognition by the prestigious Art Director's club. In his later years, Mark Shaw began filming commercials for television, which also won him several awards.

The chief model for the Vanity Fair campaign was Carmen Dell' Orefice. A few months shy of her fourteenth birthday in the summer of 1945, Carmen Dell’ Orefice, an introverted, skinny kid of Italian-Hungarian extraction (father a musician, mother a dancer) walked over to the Vogue studios at 480 Lexington Avenue in Manhattan and reported for work. Her first pictures – by the underrated Clifford Coffin – show a serious, disconcerting beauty with an intense gaze, a dancer’s elongated lines and a swimmer’s athletic shoulders, and on the strength of them Vogue offered her an exclusive $7.50 an hour contract.

Within weeks Carmen was working with the defining fashion photographers of the era: Cecil Beaton, who introduced her to Dali, Irving Penn, who dubbed her ‘Little Carmen’ and shot her as Snow White, Cinderella and Red Riding Hood, Erwin Blumenfeld who saluted her talents as a “great actress” and Horst P. Horst who rhapsodized over her “American beauty of another, antique age”. The $7.50 an hour went dutifully home to her mother on Third Avenue. By 1947, 1947, Carmen got a raise to $10–$25 per hour; by 1953 $300.

Mark Shaw is perhaps best known for his photographs of Jacqueline and John F. Kennedy, which he shot originally for LIFE magazine and later as the Kennedys' "unofficial" family photographer. He developed a strong friendship with JFK and Jackie and regularly visited the White House during their time there. After JFK's death, a selection of Mark Shaw’s photographs was published as a best selling book, The John F. Kennedy's: A Family Album. The book was re-published in 2000 by Rizzoli with new additions.

Jacqueline Kennedy swinging Caroline in surf, Hyannis Port, 1959

Mark Shaw also began working for LIFE in 1952. In his 16 years with the magazine, he shot 27 covers, more than 100 stories which included the magazine's European fashion collections. As a leading fashion photographer, he also worked for Harper's Bazaar, Mademoiselle and a host of other publications. He was one of the first photographers to use color when shooting the runways and "backstage" at the couture shows

After his death, most of his work was hastily put into storage. All but a small number of photographs remained unseen for almost 30 years. In 1999, his only child, David Shaw, and David's wife, Juliet Cuming, moved the collection to Vermont. It is housed in an off the grid straw bale structure which they built themselves following sustainable principles. The building is powered by wind and solar energy. Monroe Gallery exhibited a major retrospective of Shaw's photographs in 2008, and is pleased to represnt the Mark Shaw Photographic Archive.

EXHIBITION LOOKS TO THE BEAUTY OF ICE AND SNOW

Eddie Adams: Hill and Gully Riders, New Kensington, PA, 1958

 As January wanes and winter endures over most of the Northern hemisphere, snow is covering much of the United States and many regions will experience the coldest temperatures of the season this weekend. With one week remaining in our current "'Tis The Season" exhibition, here is a selection of classic photographs with a winter theme or setting. Bundle up!

Harold Roth: Fulton Fish Market, New York, 1946

Ruth Orkin: White Stoops, New York, 1951

Verner Reed: Trees In Snow Storm, Stowe, Vermont,1971

Peter Keetman: Self-Portrait, 1962

John Dominis: Southern Pacific Engine, Donner Pass, California, 1949

Afred Eisenstaedt: Evergreen Trees at -51 Degrees Mt. Tremblant, Canada, 1944

View the full exhibition here.