sunshine & noir
jessica simmons is an artist living and working in los angeles
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The earliest surviving letter from Oscar Wilde’s passionate (and tragic) relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas, known to friends and family as Bosie. (via)
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Paul Sietsema, Event drawing, 2009. Ink and enamel on paper
52 x 47 3/8 in
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Untitled, 2012. Ink, charcoal, graphite, and pigment on paper
66 x 44.5 inches
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Sketching of the Transit of Venus, 1769.
Today, the Earth, Sun, and Venus became perfectly – albeit briefly – aligned in such a way that the sister planet appeared as a black dot transiting the disc of the sun. Venus transits are among the rarest of astronomical phenomena. They occur in pairs 8 years apart, however these cycles are separated by over 120 years. Today’s transit was the last until 2117 – the first transit of the cycle was in 2004, and the previous ones in 1882 and 1874 respectively.
In 1769, Capt James Cook observed the transit of Venus from the island of Tahiti during his first voyage around the world, and, alongside British astronomer Charles Green, recorded his observations in a series of drawings. Commissioned by the Royal Society of London, his mission to observe and record the transit was actually the voyage’s official purpose – the underlying purpose was the secret search for the elusive terra incognita, or supposed southern continent.
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“The abstract paintings shown here are not by Kazimir Malevich or Paul Klee but by Hindu tantra devotees from Indian cities like Jodhpur and Chomu, the anonymous heirs to a pictorial tradition that dates to the 1600s. Painted on salvaged paper and rarely measuring more than a foot high, the images possess a strange kinship with 20th-century art. And their agelessness cast a spell over Franck André Jamme, a French poet who nearly got himself killed tracking down these works across the deserts of Rajasthan…”(more)
(via triplecanopy)
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Untitled (discarded), 2009
Monoprint, pencil, and ink on paper
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Julie Mehretu, Auguries, 2010. 12 panel aquatint with spit bite. 87 x 180 in. Edition of 24
The making of a stunningly complex Julie Mehretu print at Gemini G.E.L in Los Angeles. Each sheet of paper is printed with 48 different plates, and twelve sheets comprise the full work.
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Installation shot: Untitled I and II, 2008. Monoprints on paper
