Two girls at the beach, Portugal, 1930

Ilustração, No. 112, August 16 1930 - 33b, originally uploaded by Gatochy.

Click image for 897 x 1284 size. Ilustração, No. 112, August 16 1930.

Great Britain stamp: King George VI coronation, 1937

Great Britain stamp: King George VI coronation, originally uploaded by karen horton.

"c. 1937, in honor of the coronation of King George VI at Westminster Abbey on May 12th, 1937

designed by Edmund Dulac, based on portrait photography by Dorothy Wilding

rejected designs and sketches by Eric Gill"

Allan Kaprow on installation and performance

Now, I think those two words, installation and performance, mark accurately the shift in attitude toward a rejection or sense of abandonment of an experimental, modernist, position which had prevailed up to about, lets be generous, up to about 1968-1969, and began gradually becoming less and less energized. So, I think what you’re getting there is the flavor of modernist exhaustion and incidently a return to earlier prototypes, or models, of what constitutes art. And it’s no accident that the majority of most performance nowadays, there’s not much installation anymore, by the way, the majority of those performances tend to be of an entertainment, show biz, song and dance, in which the focus is on the individual as skilled presenter of something that tends to have a kind of self-aggrandizing, or at least self-focusing, purpose. It is artist as performer, much like somebody is an entertainer in a nightclub. And they’re interesting. Some of them are very good. I think Laurie Anderson is very good. She’s got all the skills that are needed in theater, which is what this is. Many others who jump on the bandwagon, coming from the visual arts, have no theatrical skills, and know zilch about the timing, about the voic about positioning, about transitions, about juxtapositions, those moment by moment occurrences in theater that would make it work. But it’s another animal, whether good or bad, from what we were doing, and I think, in general, even the good ones are a conservatizing movement.

- Allan Kaprow, 1988 (full interview is here)

Flapper at the beach, Portugal, 1930

Ilustração, No. 112, August 16 1930 - 34a, originally uploaded by Gatochy.

Click image for 530 x 1064 size. Ilustração, No. 112, August 16 1930.

Sunbathing in Portugal, 1930

Ilustração, No. 112, August 16 1930 - 34b, originally uploaded by Gatochy.

Click image for 1069 x 568 size. Ilustração, No. 112, August 16 1930.

Sunbathers in Portugal, 1930

Ilustração, No. 112, August 16 1930 - 34c, originally uploaded by Gatochy.

Click image for 1067 x 539 size. Ilustração, No. 112, August 16 1930.

Martha Mansfield

Martha Mansfield , originally uploaded by ondiraiduveau.

Black silk pajama, 1930

Ilustração, No. 112, August 16 1930 - 34d, originally uploaded by Gatochy.

Click image for 544 x 1074 size. Scanned from Portuguese magazine Ilustração, No. 112, August 16 1930.

Society miss at the Estoril beach, Portugal, wearing a black silk pajama.

Illustration by Tom, 1930

Ilustração, No. 111, August 1 1930 - 38a, originally uploaded by Gatochy.

Click image for 808 x 603 size. Scanned from Portuguese magazine Ilustração, No. 111, August 1 1930.

Brazilian born artist Thomaz de Mello (Tom).

Millard Sheets, San Dimas Train Station, c. 1935

Millard Sheets, San Dimas Train Station, c. 1935, originally uploaded by kraftgenie.

Sears Catalogue, 1926

1926 26, originally uploaded by iz_bakinog_ormara.

Ilustração, No. 111, August 1 1930 - 40

Ilustração, No. 111, August 1 1930 - 40, originally uploaded by Gatochy.

Click image for 657 x 875 size.

Portuguese theater actors Amélia Rey Colaço and Robles Monteiro, caricatured by Brazilian born artist Thomaz de Mello (Tom).

Sisters G : Karla Gutchrlein

Sisters G : Karla Gutchrlein, originally uploaded by Art & Vintage.

http://retro-vintage-photography.blogspot.com/

http://mudwerks.tumblr.com/

Cover by Ilberino dos Santos, 1930

Ilustração, No. 112, August 16 1930 - cover, originally uploaded by Gatochy.

Click image for 1103 x 1502 size. Cover of Portuguese magazine Ilustração, No. 112, August 16 1930.

Queen of Portugal Maria Amélia, 1930

Ilustração, No. 112, August 16 1930 - 5a, originally uploaded by Gatochy.

Click image for 804 x 870 size. Scanned from Portuguese magazine Ilustração, No. 112, August 16 1930.

The Ball of the Empire, 1930

Ilustração, No. 110, July 16, 1930 - 14a, originally uploaded by Gatochy.

Click image for 1033 x 813 size. Scanned from Portuguese magazine Ilustração, No. 110, July 16, 1930.

Foto Sasha, London: models representing Sheffield Cuttlery in the Ball of the Empire, in the British industries parade, in the Albert Hall of London, organized by the British Legion. From left to right: Lucy Feord, Marjories Lancaster, Victoria Yates, Marjorie Heal and Gladys Godwin.

Ilustração, No. 109, July 1 1930 - 42a

Ilustração, No. 109, July 1 1930 - 42a, originally uploaded by Gatochy.

Black Square: Malevich and The World That Wouldn't Die

Here it is: the end of the world.
I am standing in front of it, and it looks like shit.
It is Kasimir Malevich's "Black Square", it hangs at the New Tretyakov national gallery in Moscow, and it is dirty, tired, bleak, so unimpressive it is embarrassing to see.
And yet, that is the end.
This can well be seen as the point where art enters the other world zone, leaving our poor miserable world of bodies behind. This art is spiritual, declares Malevich, and I am ready to believe him, not on faith, but because at this point faith is the only thing that can carry me as a viewer. To appreciate it - I think while standing in front of the painting - I need to believe that what my mind brings me when looking at this painting, it brings thanks to the painting. (And that it's worth the trip). Any thought, then, is a belief.
The painting is all cracked, it seems like it lived through terror, two wars and a revolution (it did).

For a while, I wonder what disturbs me in all this. I take Malevich's painting as an ever-returning challenge. We are challenged to accept this or go beyond this. We are challenged to deal with the out-of-this-worldliness of aesthetic creation. Supreme it is.

I thought all this quite disappointing, a concept I would have rather kept as a concept, a story, rather than seeing it translated into a poor somewhat-black square. But what about the painting? Doesn't it have anything to say? The cracks are most probably the result of the artist being in a hurry (it seems he put the black layer over the white one before the latter dried out). The strokes, we can clearly see, are uneven, quick, there is nothing uniform about this, and even the outside lines of the square are uneven (he is said to have painted it free hand, and very free it was). It is not a good square. Or, no: it is not the square we are told it is. It is a square that tells the history of its creation, the story of the tension, the energy, the impatience. It is a clear window into something that happened, into a performance of painting and a moment of life. In that sense, the painting appears better than we ever could have dreamed. It goes back to this world. The painting outdoes the painter - through unveiling something more than what he had planned.
Inside of the cracks, if we watch carefuly, we see another color, it is not black or white, and at moments it seems like it's not grey either. It varies from spot to spot, it is reddish, brownish, somewhere close to the color of flesh. It is the color of revenge. The revenge of the painting.

Beauty queen, 1930

Ilustração, No. 112, August 16 1930 - 13b, originally uploaded by Gatochy.

Ilustração, No. 112, August 16 1930.

Society Wedding, 1930

Ilustração, No. 112, August 16 1930 - 15a, originally uploaded by Gatochy.

Click image for 1061 x 495 size. Scanned from Portuguese magazine Ilustração, No. 112, August 16 1930.

Noirat Hairdressing, 1921

1921 hairstyling, originally uploaded by april-mo.

Parasol

Parasol, originally uploaded by ElfGoblin2.

Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer, 1930

Ilustração, No. 110, July 16, 1930 - 31, originally uploaded by Gatochy.

Click image for 987 x 1513 size. Scanned from Portuguese magazine Ilustração, No. 110, July 16, 1930.

Summer Fashion, 1930

Ilustração, No. 110, July 16, 1930 - 33, originally uploaded by Gatochy.

Click image for 974 x 1506 size. Scanned from Portuguese magazine Ilustração, No. 110, July 16, 1930.

Anchor Tricoton, 1936

Yes, It's Binnie Hale!, originally uploaded by glen.h.

Beni Hunziker, Masked Ball in the animal kingdom, 1932

Masked Ball in the animal kingdom (1932), originally uploaded by Susanlenox.

Ilustração Portugueza, Nº 731, Fevereiro 23 1920 - 11

Ilustração Portugueza, Nº 731, Fevereiro 23 1920 - 11, originally uploaded by Gatochy.

Click image for 1000 x 1490 size.

Ads for medication Pulmoserum Bailly, for lung diseases; Incomodine, for menstruation; for Modern Magnetic Therapy; for the Matrimonial Club of New York; for Tonikim, hair tonic; for the Anglo-French Beauty Institute; and for Boissy Laxative Pills.

Ilustração Portugueza, Nº 731, February 23 1920 - 11a

Ilustração Portugueza, Nº 731, Fevereiro 23 1920 - 11a, originally uploaded by Gatochy.

Ad for the Anglo-French Beauty Institute.

Ilustração Portugueza, Nº 731, February 23 1920 - 12

Ilustração Portugueza, Nº 731, Fevereiro 23 1920 - 12, originally uploaded by Gatochy.

Click image for 1000 x 1491 size.

Ads for Paper of Prado Company; to the psychic Professor Pozzo; to Osodrac to remove facial hair; to florist shop White Camelia; and Dunlop tires.

Kestos Undergarments, 1936

Kestos- The Way To Success, 1936, originally uploaded by glen.h.

Wm. Rogers & Son Silverware, Christmas, 1924

Wm. Rogers & Son Silverware, Christmas, 1924, originally uploaded by Gatochy.

Click image for 682 x 884 size. Scanned from Taschen's "All-American Ads of the 20s".

Wm. Rogers & Son Silverware, 1924

Wm. Rogers & Son Silverware, 1924, originally uploaded by Gatochy.

Click image for 667 x 871 size. Scanned from Taschen's "All-American Ads of the 20s".