I have successfully entered the 21st century, and I am now wired in to post on Twitter and Facebook remotely! Look for Century Guild on Facebook, and at twitter.com/centuryguild as I’ll be posting updates from the Dave McKean signing and the Nitrate and Kinogeists exhibition in Los Angeles this weekend…!
xO
T
Ok, so it started with Jack in the outer office, and then the neighbors; everyone wondering, “Call 9-1-1?” or thinking “Oh, now he has finally lost it, and lost it good.”
I know that you are concerned, and I’ve stopped twitching enough that I can now share my tale.
Nosferatu - F. W. Murnau (1922) - Dave McKean (100 cm x 100 cm, mixed media, 2010)
I have to preface this by saying I was never a “huge” Dave McKean fan. I appreciated him, to be sure, and was always aware of his work, but if someone said “fan” I don’t know how I would have responded, probably not so strong a word. I found the worlds he explored with Neil Gaiman to be intriguing, but a little gentle and cerebral for my tastes. Again: massive respect, but not as much passion as I had for, say, Walter Schnackenberg or George Grosz.
But of late, this man will not stop affecting me, and really REALLY deeply.
The Haunted Castle - F. W. Murnau (1921) - Dave McKean (100 cm x 100 cm, mixed media, 2010)
I thought that there was a chance that his Nitrate series would be his pinnacle, but looking at his paintings for The Coast Road blew that idea away; as a painter, as a storyteller, I genuinely believe now that McKean is an artist that will be in the history books. His style reveals his influences with grace, and shows that he has wrestled them into a hand that is completely his own. This is not decorative art, this feels to my senses- to my gut- the way the things that prove to be genuinely important do.
…
I’ll explain what that means, to me: This blog is very loose and vulgar, but a large part of my income comes from sharing my opinion with museum buyers. “This Dalpayrat with a Colonna mount has a perfect form and glaze- plus the original paper label!” or “This Georges de Feure is indescribably rare, and a perfect example of his early Japonist period- you must have it!” leads to me visiting things in the Art Institute of Chicago that used to be on my dining room table. Basically, I have to curb my commentary when I’m in social situations, because my generally opinionated demeanor keeps being reinforced by institutions, which as you can imagine is a dangerous place to be unless you want to come off as a fine art Simon Cowell. Luckily, I was raised by Italians. (Actually, now that I think about it, they’re even more loud and opinionated than I am. So, I’m not sure what happened.)
Greed - Erich von Stroheim (1924) - Dave McKean (100 cm x 100 cm, mixed media, 2010)
I have no idea what I was talking about, because I’ve had two phone calls as I was trying to finish that last paragraph. My point was something like: I’m an art snob at heart; I have exceptional taste, and you should believe me because large museums pay me to choose things for their collections; and I would without a second’s hesitation, or any reservations whatsoever, go to bat for Dave McKean with anyone, anytime. I am deadly serious: in fifty years, these will be important representations of art in 2010. Mark my words. Forget anything you ever thought you knew about McKean if you know him from The Sandman, and look at the painting for Greed: the horse bucking its rider is violent, bleeding with sacred geometry, and texturally challenging- it’s a perfect ten, not only graphically, but artistically. And, if you’ve never picked up a graphic novel, I bet you’ll see this even more clearly. This is a great artist. And we are lucky that he is alive, and creating, right now.
Want to see why my neighbors are convinced I’m finally ready to be locked up? Come to Billy Shire Fine Arts in Culver City on February 13th and see for yourself:
Weird Tales - Richard Oswald (1919) - Dave McKean (100 cm x 100 cm, mixed media, 2010)
Paintings, ink drawings, and edition prints are available.
If you want to make the step and own one for yourself, drop me a note at
THOMAS – AT – CENTURYGUILD – DOT – NET.
In doing some pre-Spring-cleaning, we have been sorting, sorting, sorting… and unearthing.
I can’t believe what’s in some of these trunks! We found something really special this past weekend:
Our friend Bart Harris might have had an illustrious past, to be sure, but even photographing Michael Jordan for the Wheaties box couldn’t match working with Gail Potocki. Bart photographed Gail’s paintings for her book The Union of Hope and Sadness, and shortly thereafter pulled these prints as the beginnings of a proposed series of edition prints.
Clockwise, from upper left: Three Fates, No Witness in the Slaying of a Memory, Silence, and No Witness (framed)
This fell by the wayside, as things do, and so these are very limited, indeed- even more than was intended, which is a unique bonus.
We have:
Silence: Edition of 5
No Witness in the Slaying of a Memory: Edition of 4
Three Fates: Edition of 3
No Witness in the Slaying of a Memory (with frame): Edition of one
All prints are 22 x 17 on heavy art paper, and pencil signed & numbered. They will be GORGEOUS framed, I have one hanging in my hallway.
PLUS: Moving forward, all the prints we have planned are for newer works, so for some of these images these might be the only copies ever available.
PRICE: These were just gathering dust in a drawer, so the price is only $100 each, plus $20 packing/ shipping within the US- (this is lower than cost, so please don’t ask us in the future to make prints at this price point!) Send a note to thomas At centuryguild dot net if you want to pick one up!
All prints are archival, and were stored with tissue guards, so the surfaces are clean and sharp.
Antique Medical Equipment electrical therapy: The Polysine Generator.
Roaming the wilds of the Midwest, where the economy flourished in the days of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, I came across the remains of a lovely woman who lived to the ripe old age of 92 years. “My success in the arena of longevity,” she insisted, “is due to my attention to health, regardless of public conception as I subscribe to only the most modern of medical advances.”
Well, that’s what she said in 1910. Shortly thereafter she changed her motto to “If you find something that works, stick with it.”
One prong of her two-pointed attack at warding away the Grim Reaper was a sophisticated Hydrotherapy machine. The other, a Polysine Generator.
Arrow Indicates Positive Pole...
Complete with Asbestos pads and metal hand-bars which connected to the terminals and delivered a gentle electric shock, this is the equivalent of a home Electroshock Therapy Machine were one to turn that beautiful voltage controller uppppppppppp someplace a little more… aggressive.
Red jewelled power light; modality selector; voltage controller...
Steampunk? Perhaps. Revolutionary? Certainly.
This will be disassembled here at some point in the near future, as its brilliantly designed modality selector and polysine generator combination appears to be perfectly suited to electrically exploring specific frequencies aligning with the aetheric plane, which according to the notes I acquired- in the hand of Thomas Edison, no less- could facilitate audio communication with what he referred to as “the dearly departed”.
We shall see.
TWO posts in one night?!?!?!
I’ve decided to get nothing else done tonight and get these things out in the world where they belong.
Four of the twenty acres of the Century Guild Farm have organic blueberry bushes...
Gail Potocki has moved her studio to a gorgeous, secluded farm, and is working (hard? or hardly?) on a series based on the Freak shows of the early 20th century.
Jack and I are preparing a book collaboration with Jim and Bébé Rose of circus sideshow fame and Mr. Cursed Pirate Girl himself, Jeremy Bastian, and spending a lot of personal time sculpting it (because we love Bébé so much!!!) while Cursed Pirate Girl blazes through printings and can’t keep up with demand- the third printing of #1 is officially all gone, and watch for a new Haven Distribution Exclusive second printing of #2- with an all new “the other side of the mirror” cover- in stores November 11! (Retailers- contact havendistro.com for orders.)
Even when appearing to- as they say- sit still, Dave McKean vibrates at an intense frequency, making capturing him in a detailed photograph quite impossible.
I’m hard at work on the book on Silent Films for the Dave McKean show at Billy Shire Fine Arts in February, and back in England, Dave is as busy as ever and getting ready to spend the winter on the Nitrate paintings for the show- if we could devise a machine to follow him around and harness a fraction of what he radiates, we could power a second world country, quite easily.
If you’re not following Dave on Twitter, visit http://www.twitter.com/davemckean and add him- he posts lots of great photos and work-in-progress photos! (Fans of Mirrormask will be happy to know that a recent tweet mentions that Dave’s second full-length film LUNA may be one step closer to completion…)
……….
What else is there to update? I’ve been decimated by this new invention of the 22st century called “Acid Reflux” which I am currently deconstructing by maintaining a paleolithic diet of meats, fruits, and vegetables while I undo decades of bad (i.e., American) eating habits and try to rebuild my healthy flora. I actually saw more improvement AFTER I threw away the prescriptions for acid suppressors and started the more holistic approach. It doesn’t sound like a big deal (or so I would have been the first to say BEFORE I experienced the hospital stays), but it’s made me pretty incommunicado for the last season. The good news is that I’m learning a lot about being responsible for my health in a way that I never have, and it’s making sense in all parts of my life. I suspect this- if it doesn’t in fact kill me- will reveal itself to have been a massive learning experience about what we are “fed”- the propaganda of consumption- for the next phase of my life, and will improve my productivity and focus a thousand fold. Plus- at long last- the analog recording studio here will be finally tweaked with the final install touches next week. (That’s ten weeks in fewer than ten sentences! Whew!)
……….
Speaking of focus, the kind of focus that makes electrons shudder, imagine being at the top of your game for decades. Say, being one of the go-to artists on something as seminal and powerful as Neil Gaiman’s epic graphic novel cycle The Sandman. Imagine at the close of that era professional and personal difficulties decimating that ledge overlooking the valley, and as you fall down, hitting every rock and branch on the way down- no, the rocks weren’t leaping out of their way to break skin, it only felt like it- and reaching a point creatively where you were forced to examine the root, the core of what you believed in as an artist.
Now imagine living in seclusion for three harsh years of constant self-examination, painstakingly scripting, curling lines and tiny crosshatches with pen and ink on paper, each page never quite done for weeks on end… And at the end of three years of determination and dedication, with over two hundred pages, twenty or so not making that final culling of the scythe. Imagine THAT kind of focus.
Michael Zulli, foreshadowing...
What Michael Zulli has crafted with his masterpiece The Fracture of the Universal Boy is- and I say this without the slightest hesitation- more aligned with Symbolist literature such as Joris-Karl Huysman’s 1891 novel Le Bas (“Down There” or “The Damned”) than anything else I can think of. The poet Stéphane Mallarmé articulated the scope of the term Symbolism, stating “Suggestion, that is the dream”, and the dream/awake//surreal/hyper-real elements that make up The Fracture of the Universal Boy have absolutely NOTHING to do with anything I’ve ever seen happen in comics.
I don’t know yet how to sum it up in a brief passage, but the random fragments in my head are this:
(1) People- “comic readers” especially- will generally hate this book. Angel raping? Check. Drug fiends under the swamp water? Check. False “happy” endings, and eviscerated eye sockets? Oh, yes… Seriously, it’s commercial suicide.
(2) Like Schiller said (and Klimt repeated), it is the artist’s duty to RAISE and EXPAND the consciousness of the public, not to feed them whatever smooth flavors they order. See #1.
(3) This is not an easy read. It’s harsh, melodramatic, overbearing, passionate… and captures in crystalline fashion EXACTLY the experiences of the artist- saying everything, while revealing nothing. In short- this is, by definition, a perfect piece of ART. Its sentiments are literally timeless, but it could only have been created today. Its message would be equally as potent in 1810, 1910, 2010, and 2110.
Zulli has done a rare thing, which is brought the elements that made Symbolism an important movement, and found a way to make it relevant and contemporary. Even if you feel the Pre-Raphaelite leanings of his commercial stories with Neil Gaiman are too saccharin, if you are honest with yourself when you read The Fracture of the Universal Boy you will be forced to admit that in this book the ink brush has cut completely past the velvet, through the twitching muscle, cracked the bone, and gone down to the very marrow of the artist-
And THAT is a RARE and PRECIOUS thing.
I know that was a bit of a ramble, but even though I’ve read the book a half dozen times, I still don’t have my head around it. It’s like reading Carlos Castaneda, or like the Anti-Jonathan Livingston Seagull. (It’s almost The Holy Mountain of graphic novels, if H. P. Lovecraft channelling Oscar Wilde had scripted Jodorowsky’s film.) It’s venom on a curved blade, and dandyism, and fear, and surrender and transcendence- and it is literally palpable.
Buy it. Read it. You’ll likely hate it. And like strong medicine, that should tell you something- this is good for you. Read it again. One day a light bulb will click- and you’ll THANK him.
Coming this Spring:
THE FRACTURE OF THE UNIVERSAL BOY. From Olympian Publishing, and Century Guild.
Damn.
Yes. That is a newborn baby with hookah pipes as umbilical cords.
Harpies, shrieking downward-
The nature of Dreams.
Falling through Earth; a poppy field.
Heart, torn from a ribcage- and a primal scream.
... the Universal Boy, about to learn something about Fractures.
Be careful what you wish for...
Because, sometimes...
The Thing You have wished for is thrust upon You.
Meditation, prayer, fasting- whatever it takes.
Start getting ready.
First of all, I just read the title that Jack put on our new soon-to-be announced sister blog, and laughed so hard that if I were drinking milk it would have come out of my nose.
As in the confessional: “please forgive me; it’s been nearly eleven weeks since our last proper update.”
(1) The event at La Luz de Jesus was a wild success, thank you to everyone who showed up!
(2) We had a fantastic show at the Merchandise Mart which was an even bigger success… we tried something a little more “accessible to the masses” and it was a good move- the giant Pagliacci poster was a standout favorite of a number of celebrity designers, as was (of course) the legendary Verdi poster.
(3) COMING UP: Winnetka Modernism (Nov 6-8), yes; and GAIL POTOCKI at BILLY SHIRE FINE ARTS! November 14th opening, all new great works! Please tell your friends!
Here are photos from the Merchandise Mart, another update is imminent. Thanks for reading.
Laugh, Pagliacci, laugh... circa 1910. Gigantic, rare... and breathtaking.
Merchandise Mart Fall 2009: Art Nouveau, Opera, Gothic, and 1950s masters.
Thomas Negovan loves purple striped slacks from Savile Row.
1880-1920 now becomes 1880-1960...! Edmond Lachenal meets Invasion of the Star Creatures, Hermann August Kahler meets X, The Man With the X-Ray Eyes.
Guiseppi Palanti
The only time Stuart Tomc sat down the entire weekend.
Envy, an Italian silent film, 1911.
(Because purple striped slacks deserve an encore.)
I had a sad moment yesterday.
I’ll start at the beginning; we published a beautiful hardcover book- one of a proposed two volume set- a few years back that was not only fine art, but sequential as well, or for the peanut gallery, “comic art”.
We want every book that comes out under the Olympian Publishing heading to be more than just a pile of papers- we focus on the hand of the paper, the weight, the surface, the translucence, and compare these factors to the material soon-to-be impressed onto their surface. We try to find print houses that will do things that they might not have been asked to do in a hundred years or so, and pay whatever it costs to retool their setups to make something old new again.
For this book, a halloween themed graphic novel, we wanted it to feel like an old leather bound book. So we found a top quality “leatherette” (wholly animal friendly, of course), had heavy metal die stamps made to deboss the cover for gold foil in a way that wouldn’t rub off in our lifetime, even had special endpapers made that had raised cobwebs, to ensure that from those very first pages the reader felt as though they were stepping into a musty library. We used paper that had a textured high gloss, so that it gave the appearance of high gloss but with the utmost readability. The interior material we had to work with was Master Level, and we applied the most sophisticated and respectful of design around it to give it a full cinematic presentation.
These were very very costly to produce, but we wanted to make sure that fans of this artist received something really, really special. And we were able to do so for a retail price of only $29.95.
Nine out of ten people, I feared after watching the crowds for a year or so, couldn’t tell the difference between what we had made and a paper sack. But every now and then, someone in the book or art industry who I respected would glow profusely and articulately on how much they appreciated the attention to detail that we had applied, and this made the shrugs from the other 90 percent worth it.
When we parted ways with the artist of this book, a very successful publisher was happy to complete the two volume set, and the artist stated publicly that this publisher would be applying the same level of quality to the second volume. This made me happy- I am a fan of these books first, and was very excited to hear that they would be following our lead.
But I had the opportunity yesterday to finally see this Volume 2, new in stores this month.
No special endpapers, just flat black paper; the extensive sections previously published in black and white that we wanted to see properly colored to make this a special edition stand out as boringly stark in their original black and white format on such glossy paper. They echoed our design of the first volume just enough that it looks more like the same book than something completely different, but I was heartbroken that the sensitivity of the book design, the materials from the cover to the interior paper, even the interior layout all are what can only be called mediocre. Even the beautiful logo, debossed and foil stamped on our cover, appears on this one as if it began rubbing away the moment it left the printer. And to top this aesthetic insult-of-packaging off? The retail price for this affront to taste was HIGHER than the first volume.
Should I be happy that this makes our edition look SO much finer? No. Because, like Oscar Wilde (and perhaps Hugh Hefner), I want to live in a world of Beauty.
Should you still buy the second volume, if you’re a fan? Absolutely.
But I just had to post a rant:
Still not sorted out from San Diego, we’re loading up the caravan again to head to Los Angeles for an exhibition of our most disturbing and sexy posters at the legendary La Luz de Jesus.
Billy Shire, founder of La Luz de Jesus, is Godfather of the whole LA art scene. He was instrumental in the careers of Joe Coleman, Shag, The Clayton Brothers, Glenn Barr… his resumé reads like a “Who’s Who” of art legends. Our favorite Gail Potocki shows at his elegant BSFA space, and he is one of the most gentle and inspired human beings I’ve had the honor and pleasure of meeting. We’re holding our 2010 Dave McKean/ silent cinema exhibition at his BSFA space, but to properly appease the raunchy Gods of Victorian Sex and Murder, we need to be in- where else?- Hollywood…!
Syphilis, 1918
Voluptuaries & Vivisections:
A Celebration of DepravityGuest Curator: Thomas Negovan
August 14 – 30
Opens Friday, August 14, 2009
8 – 11 PMThese are images that burned themselves into the minds and hearts of unwitting late 19th/early 20th century citizens, inciting unparalleled controversy all over Europe and beyond… and promise those same reactions in those who cross paths with them today. Decadence, dandyism, sex, and murder: more than mere posters, these are windows into the darkest corners of human compulsion.
In an event curated by Thomas Negovan and Century Guild, a Chicago gallery known for museum quality Art Nouveau and Symbolist Art, La Luz de Jesus invites you to be a part of an unprecedented event that explores the taboos that have titillated and tormented since the turn of the century. Masterpieces of lithographed poster art from 1880-1940 illustrating subjects ranging from seminal S&M literature to STD warnings to serial killers will be shown, all of which shall be sure to incite reactions of lust, terror, anger, nausea, and inspiration. NOT TO BE MISSED!
The Haunted Castle, 1921
I would heartily agree with the “not to be missed” aspect… here are some of the other images that will be on display… No excuses, get over to this show and say hello!!!
Carriage No. 13, 1926
Mistresses of the Pope, seminal S&M literature from 1884
Grand Guignol, c 1920
White Slavery, 1927
I feel as though there should be some celebration for post number 13. A party around a cauldron, perhaps?
We are getting ready for the LA exhibition, things aren’t slowing down a bit, and I have to get something up about San Diego Comic Con so that I can write a post before leaving for California again- we are all racking up the frequent flyer miles, that is certain.
Crowds begin to form at the San Diego Convention Center, from Dave McKean's hotel window
Ummm… what do I remember? Setup was long but not too difficult, opening night was upon us before we could blink. The big news opening night? Kildanny.
I have footage somewhere of Jeremy Bastian’s expression of surprise when he saw his character come to life thanks to my friend Lex Rudd of Primal Visions. We publish Jeremy’s book Cursed Pirate Girl, and Kildanny is a character in a tale that Cursed Pirate Girl weaves to scare some young boys. (Cursed Pirate Girls are known to like to scare boys. For fun.) Cameras were flashing NONSTOP all weekend, and the amount of photos online are wonderful. Here’s one:
The dreaded pirate Kildanny, from Jeremy Bastian's Cursed Pirate Girl
Jeremy Bastian, comparing moustaches with Kildanny-come-to-life
So as you can imagine, he was very happy, which made me very happy!
The rest is a bit of a blur. We’ll make a formal announcement soon about our new artists, but in brief: Lisa Black’s sculptures were a massive hit and everything sold, with them entering some pretty impressive collections. Boingboing.com and Wired put them in their Comic Con review, and io9.com listed them under “The 17 most expensive things at Comic Con“…
Lisa Black's Fawn, from her Fixed series. Taxidermy, metal and clockwork parts, 2007
I was very happy that my sister/sweetheart/partner-in-crime Sioux Sinner drove in from Las Vegas to help out. Her Doctor Who-related tattoos of a Dalek and an Adipose were quite the conversation starters for the boys. Something that happens a lot at these shows is that pretty girls get hired to be “booth babes” and pass out postcards for whatever crap someone is promoting, so the ongoing joke with how successful our show was that obviously all we needed was a booth babe. (Just to be clear, that was a joke. Sioux is very smart and was there for non-booth babe reasons.)
Reason number one being David Tennant, current lead in the legendary BBC programme Doctor Who, who was at the show, along with producer Russel T. Davies and cast members from the fantastic spin-off Torchwood, which has become massively successful in the US.
Doctor... Tennant? Not really. (Notice the girl in the back pointing at him?)
I am one of the people who has come to like Torchwood perhaps even MORE than Doctor Who, and was happy that Sioux brought star John Barrowman (affectionately known to the world as Captain Jack Harkness) to our booth. He had just watched the movie “Freaks” with his sister, and was SO excited about Gail Potocki’s new Freak series that I wish I had it on camera… he was very charming, and explained that as he and his sister watched the film they looked up facts on the internet. Gail had done quite a bit of serious research, and he knew trivia that even she didn’t about her subjects!
The charming John Barrowman discussing Gail Potocki's Freak paintings
'Pip' from Gail Potocki's new Freaks series. (Who, thanks to John Barrowman, we now know was incontinent- hence the dress...)
During set-up, we teased Gail that her Freaks prints were going out in the hallway because she was “old news” behind Jeremy Bastian and Dave McKean. After the hysterical fun that the VERY charming John Barrowman brought into our booth she joked, “Don’t underestimate Pip- he saved the day! Even though you tried to stick me out in the hallway.”
John Barrowman joking with Gail Potocki
Founding members of the Freak Appreciation Society
Of course, the painting “Destiny” by Dave McKean was a huge hit, and the Transmission Atelier prints of Dave’s Nitrate series sold VERY well. When Dave approached the booth, he said, “Hmmm… I like my billing- over Klimt, not too bad!”, something Gail had joked about during set-up…
Dave McKean's 'Destiny' painting (plus that guy Klimt). Jeremy Bastian and Jack help a customer, Emily appeears to be... reading? I'm not sure.
Century Guild booth: Opium, Cocaine...
Gerard Way, singer for My Chemical Romance and author of The Umbrella Academy, appreciating the Symbolist artifacts
Sioux seemed to run into the most random people while she wandered; Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, cast members from Torchwood, True Blood, Twilight… the best story of all is when she pushed Stan Lee’s wheelchair around, but it’s sunrise here and I need to sleep.
Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer (creators of The Venture Brothers) with Sioux Sinner, right after she unknowingly crashed their interview- Not kidding.
I keep waiting to make a post until I’m properly recuperated, but it doesn’t seem that it’s ever going to happen; the leviathan of Century Guild is rolling forward, picking up velocity and branches and leaving happy kids everywhere, just as Sammy Davis, Jr. predicted. If I don’t take a moment now I’ll never catch up.
After weeks of preparation for the one-two punch of Nitrate and Kinogeists in Chicago and SDCC in San Diego (the materials headed for SD had to be prepared packed to leave well in advance), Dave McKean arrived on Thursday July 16th, which was the beginning of the public phase of the military operation. We stopped for a moment at home, then on to the book store. The signing at Challengers was wonderful, lots of friendly faces (as evidenced below!)
At the end of the night, Jack cornered me on the subject of this being the beginning of a long, long two weeks of public appearances…
The next morning, Dave and I met artists Alex Ross, Doug Klauba, and filmmaker John Terendy for a magnificent lunch at a dramatically underrated Logan Square restaurant, Real Tenochtitlan. (Dave knew how to pronounce it, I didn’t.)
Then off to the Portage Theater to begin the weekend…
Marquee at the Portage Theater (photo, Jeff Millies)
When Dave and I arrived, the line stretched all through the theater; he hadn’t prepared to be signing as we thought the first day would be a casual artist’s reception, but he was graceful and everyone left more than a little bit happy. We were lucky that Allen Spiegel sent us a nice selection of rare and out-of-print Dave McKean material; treasures were found by all. In addition to the exhibition of five massive Nitrate paintings by Dave McKean, this event also launched the Transmission Atelier editions of Dave’s homages to early cinema, the Nitrate series. (For the earlier post on these breathtaking prints, see here.)
Dave McKean signing books at the historic Portage Theater
Dave signing his Tarot books; (here and above photographed by VAM- go to aisforaccident.com and visit him, you'll be glad you did.)
The night (d)evolved into a wonderful cocktail party, one of the nice things that can happen in an old theater that serves up alcohol. A huge sea of friendly faces wandered through, studying the giant Dave McKean paintings and rare antique European Silent Film posters, and after a few hours we all moved into the theater. The three photos below were taken by Dave, from his twitter:
'Original 1926 poster and my painting of The Student of Prague.' -DM
Oona Tramps and Michelle L'Amour performing onstage before Faust
'Faust painting and the moment in the film that it is based on, the live organist is the dot of light below right.' -DM
The high point of the weekend for Dave was learning from John Terendy the name of the film for the painting that until now had been called “Méliès (Untitled)”. Thanks to John, original materials were presented to Dave that showed the still that inspired the painting to have come from the 1901 film La phrénologie burlesque. Both Dave AND the painting were happy!
Copy #1 of the now properly titled 'La phrénologie burlesque', Transmission Atelier edition on special paper- a gift to John Terendy for his sleuthing.
More photos below; thanks to everyone who came. It was a wonderful weekend!
Signing the first Faust print (photo, Jeff Millies)
Oona Tramps (photo, Jeff Millies)
Dave McKean and Thomas Negovan (photo, Jeff Millies)
Guitarist David Cano and Michelle L'Amour (photo, Jeff Millies)
Dave McKean introducing his film MirrorMask (photo by VAM)
Thomas Negovan, David Cano, Michelle L'Amour (photo, Jeff Millies)
Michelle L'Amour (photo, Jeff Millies)
Thomas Negovan, Dave McKean, and Stuart Tomc (photo, Gail Potocki)
