Picasso and the Allure of Language was an exhibition at the Yale University Art Gallery a couple years ago. The volume above, Le chant des morts (The Song of the Dead), was on display, and it consists of forty-three poems by Pierre Reverdy. It’s a wonderful example of the combination and juxtaposition of the textual and the visual arts—Reverdy hand-wrote the text and Picasso created accompanying lithograph illustrations. When Picasso received Reverdy’s handwriting, he remarked that it was “‘almost a drawing in itself.’ Consequently, the artist decided against figurative illustrations, which might repeat the curved quality of the poet’s hand, in favor of abstract decorations in the manner of medieval manuscript illumination.”

Though Alexander Calder is known for his mobiles and public sculptures, he also created these wire portraits of iconic figures and close friends. I recently saw an exhibition of these portraits, and there’s a wonderful interplay between the dimensionality of the sculpture and the shadows they cast on the wall.

Below are some of the photographs that graphic designer and photographer Herbert Matter took of Calder’s work and his studio. Matter’s photographs are purposefully dark, focusing on the shadows and play of Calder’s work.

There’s also a fantastic volume on the relationship between Calder and Miró:

Everything is a Remix is a four-part video series on covers, sampling, remixing, and copying across a number of platforms. The first video is about cover songs (Led Zeppelin in particular), the third video is a brief history of computer copying (Xerox Parc, Macintosh, etc.), and the fourth video is on copyright, memes, and intellectual property.

I’ve included the second video in the series below, which is about direct homage and remixing in film. This video focuses on Star Wars and Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, but the video above is an extensive documentation of all of the homages in Kill Bill. By showing the comparative footage, one sees how Tarantino’s films are just as much about the history of cinema and cross-referencing his own oeuvre, as they are independent works.

I’ve been researching photograms lately—here are a few photograms (or rayographs) by Man Ray and Lazslo Moholy-Nagy from Man Ray Rayographies and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy: The Photograms.

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy:

Josef Albers

Alberto Giacometti

Malcom X

Arthur Miller

Marilyn Monroe

Landscape photography by Cody Cobb.

Lolo Gimenez captures a familiar perspective—glancing over to the driver alongside you. But during his daily one hour commute, Gimenez captures seemingly private moments of isolation and introspection. View the entire series here (which has a nice horizontal scroll).

Cushing was a fascinating character: he was dedicated to advancing the field of brain surgery at a time when most neurosurgery was fatal. He meticulously and obsessively documented each case, making drawings immediately upon leaving the surgery area, and most notably, photographing his patients both before and after surgery. While the brain specimens are on display in the gallery, the Center also shows a small sampling of the thousands of photographs that Cushing collected. Though no one knows who took the photographs (it was most likely several different photographers), they display a remarkable humanity that I find almost unparalleled for such a stark, scientific, subject matter.

The photographs have not been digitized yet, so I later went back and shot a few of the photographs on display.

Cushing himself, shot in the same manner as his patients.

Textile designs by Suzanne Antonelli. Reminiscent of Pawling Print Studio.