The Dictionary of Artists' Models

image source: Guerrilla Girls website

In 1989, this Guerrilla Girls poster ran on the sides of New York City buses bringing public scrutiny to the "art world’s" discriminatory practices. Screaming from the shadows of the Julian Schnabels, Robert Longos and other men of the 80s art scene, the Guerrilla Girls forwarded their agenda by issuing report cards that graded museums and galleries based on their inclusion of female and minority artists. The Guerrilla Girls’ work was a powerful criticism of the institutionalized acceptance of women as models and art subjects, above being acknowledged as artists in their own right.

A recent viewing of this poster lead me to wonder, if the work of female artists before the 1980s were non-existent or rarely displayed in the museums, do we at least have documentation of those women who stare out at us from canvas and stone?

To this end, the library owns a first-of-its-kind reference work, The Dictionary of Artists’ Models (published in 2001, and yes, it is hard to believe that such a reference work was not created earlier), a book that the editor states was “born out of a frustration with the paucity of the available research on individuals, male and female who have lent their faces and figures to so many works in Western art.” The volume includes biographical information on a wide range of artists’ models represented in Western art, from professional to non-professional, male and female, represented in various media, intentionally excluding only sitters who posed for portraits of physical likeness and personal aggrandizement. The editor acknowledges the work cannot be comprehensive, but sees its “real value … in its role as a springboard for further research into the work of artist’ models, and their significant and too long neglected contribution to art and art history.”

Models are listed alphabetically by most commonly known name (cross-referenced under alternatives, married names and pseudonyms). Each entry contains a biographical paragraph, a list of artworks most associated with the model, a brief bibliography, and an interpretive essay. According to the editor, ‘the primary aim of the essays is to present an overview of each model’s career, to discuss their contribution to particular works of art, and to illuminate the socio-historical circumstances of their lives and the modeling experience.’ The ‘Index of Artists and Works’ in the back of the volume serves as the necessary bridge to the models’ entries.

While The Dictionary does not have a feminist agenda, nor does it focus solely on female models, it does include the ‘model as artist in her own right’ connection as a common element among many entries (other common scenarios are model as family member or spouse; model as professional; and model as prostitute or mistress). Countless times throughout, one reads statements such as that a model had ‘studied art at,’ ‘became interested in drawing when,’ or ‘was raised in a family of artists.’’ For such individuals, and especially for women, modeling might be their only opportunity to gain formal artistic training through watching the artist at work. In line with the Guerrilla Girls premise, this book also documents several female artists, such as Elizabeth Siddal (pictured below), who were well known as artists within their lifetime, but due to lack of museum ownership and promotion over time became known primarily as models.

In addition to documenting the lives and contributions of models, The Dictionary also offers several short essays on artistic modeling, including one on its the rise as a profession, its representation within literature, the changing popularity of ethnic models, as well as one essay on models as artists.


Beata Beatrix (ca. 1864-1870) by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, image source: Tate Collection

Dictionary of Artists' Models, edited by Jill Berk Jiminez; associate editor, Joanna Banham (Fitzroy Dearborn, 2001).

The library also owns the following related works, suggested (by The Dictionary) as general reading on the subject:

Artists & Models: An Exhibition of Photographs, Letters, and other Documents from the Collections of the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution (The Archives, 1975).

Painted Ladies; Models of the Great Artists by Muriel Segal (Stein and Day, 1972)

Kiki's Paris : Artists and Lovers 1900-1930 by Billy Klüver and Julie Martin (Abrams, 1989).

The Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood by Jan Marsh (St. Martin's Press, 1985).

Imagination's Chamber: Artists and their Studios by Michael Peppiatt and Alice Bellony-Rewald (Little Brown, 1982).

The Artist and the Studio in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries by Ronnie L. Zakon (Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978).

The Short Films of Kevin Kunze

Still from Metropolis (Burning Man)

In the Koret Auditorium, on Sunday, May 29, 2011 from 2-4 p.m., local independent filmmaker Kevin Kunze will present a selection of his short films and an excerpt from Id, his first feature-length film, set in San Francisco. Also of interest to San Franciscans, Kunze has created short documentaries about Muni, the closure of KUSF, and on the Garden Project. The event will include a Q&A with Kunze and with his special guest, filmmaker Kevin Epps (Straight Outta Hunters Point, 2003).

The following short films will be shown:

SAVE KUSF - a documentary about hundreds protesting the sale of the radio station KUSF

DISCONNECT (15 min.) - a documentary about cell phones & health effects made in collaboration with 07 Nobel Prize winner, Devra Davis

METROPOLIS 6 min.) - an experimental film made at Burning Man 2010

HANDS IN THE DIRT (5 min.) - a film about local gardening and land usage

MUNI MADNESS (15 min.) - a documentary about the Muni bus system

ID (10 min.) - a 10 minute excerpt from Kunze's first feature film about four friends living in an underground bunkers after society has collapsed

VORTEX CUCKOON (4 min.) - a music video set in Golden Gate Park

ELECTRIC SLEEP (2 min.) - an experimental film about dreams and death

THE BRIDGE (10 min.) - a dramatic film about old age and murder

Still from Vortex Cuckoon

The Lives of Abstract Expressionists

Beginning on Sunday, May the 29nd from 2-4 p.m. The Free University of San Francisco's School of Art will begin a new series of classes in the Latino/Hispanic Meeting Room. Instructor Alan Kaufman will teach The Lives of the Abstract Expressionists: A Historical and Critical Exploration, offering an in-depth look at the lives, loves and struggles of the pioneers of this major American art movement. The Across three sessions (May 29th, June 5th and June 12th) Kaufman will discuss Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and Hans Hofmann.



Below is a short reading lists of books from the San Francisco Public about Abstract Expressionism and its artist.

Abstract Expressionism by David Anfam (Thames and Hudson, 1990).

Barnett Newman by Thomas B. Hess (Museum of Modern Art., 1971).

Elaine and Bill, Portrait of a Marriage: The Lives of Willem and Elaine de Kooning by Lee Hall (HarperCollins, 1993).

Hans Hofmann by Cynthia Goodman (Abbeville Press, 1986).

Jackson Pollock: A Biography by Deborah Solomon (Simon and Schuster, 1987).

Mark Rothko: A Biography by James E. B. Breslin (University of Chicago Press, 1993).

Toy Instruments

Toy Instruments: Design, Nostalgia, Music by Eric Schneider is a pictorial tribute to the mass-produced musical instruments created as play objects for children. As noted in its subtitle, nostalgia is an important element of this book achieved through the combination of current photographs of the instruments and vintage advertisements that show gleeful children playing with the instruments.

These toy instruments are marvels of industrial design -- stylized products of colored plastic, transistors and microchips. Almost all are made by toy companies instead of musical instrument manufacturers. The majority are variations on the organ or synthesizer, but there are also a variety of microphones, drums, and even guitar and violin-like objects. Many instruments are associated with cartoon characters, or television show. Some were only manufactured for foreign markets like Japan and the Soviet Union.

The oldest instrument in the book is the Eltronovox manufactured by Nucelonic -- a miniaturized two octave organ manufactured in 1954. The cut-off date for the most recent instruments shown is 1986. One of the earlier instruments that achieved a level of popularity was General Electric's "Tote-A-Tune" from 1971, shown in the following video.



Toy Instruments is primarily a visual resource. Although the author does provide the name of the product, its manufacturer and its year of manufacture, otherwise there is very little text.

While design and nostalgia are well covered by this book, there is very little discussion of music. For instance Casio's VL-Tone VL-10 from 1981 (given a four page spread in Toy Instruments) has been used by many professional musicians.

"Become an instant musician, no experience need."

source: Advertisement in Popular Science, June 1981

The letters VL in the instrument's name refers to the VLSI (or very large scale integration) technology it used. VLSI was originally developed for video games and became the basis of sound sampling. According to the Digital Sound Processing For Music and Multimedia, it “allowed companies to customize their own fast circuit designs on to a single digital chip.”

Perhaps the most notorious use of the VL-Tone was the song "Da Da Da" by Trio, with its incessant use of the instrument's pre-programmed rhythm.



Another toy instrument illustrated in Schneider's book that made its way into popular music history was Mattel's Bee Gees Rhythm Machine of 1978.

Source: Synthwise

It's featured below by Kraftwerk in a live performance of their 1981 song "Pocket Calculator."

Handmade Electronic Music by Nicholas Collins provides another avenue for musicians interested in exploring the music possibilities of toy instruments. This book provides a primer on "hardware hacking" or "circuit bending" -- the customization of the circuits and components of these simple gadgets.

In a chapter with the subheading “finding the clock circuit in toys,” Collins explains that the “majority of electronic toys manufactured since the late-1980s are essentially simple computers.” He details ways of creatively hacking into the mass produced objects to create novel and unintended sounds.

A circuit bent "Megcos Music Toy" with LFO controlling Pitch modulation and or note triggering. Source: Youtube

Reading list:

Any Sound You Can Imagine: Making Music / Consuming Technology by Paul Théberge (Wesleyan University Press; University Press of New England, 1997).

Digital Sound Processing for Music and Multimedia by Ross Kirk and Andy Hunt (Focal Press, 1999).

Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking by Nicolas Collins (Routledge, 2009).

Strange Sounds: Offbeat Instruments and Sonic Experiments in Pop by Mark Brend (Backbeat Books, 2005).

Toy instruments: Design, Nostalgia, Music by Eric Schneider (New York : Mark Batty, 2010).

Can a Caterpillar Be More Than Just A Caterpillar?

"Hairy Caterpillar", from the Etching and Engraving Picture File, folder: Insects, Caterpillars (original source: Cassell's Popular Natural History)

In the Art, Music & Recreation Center we have many books that explain the cultural meaning and symbolism of all things inanimate, living or imagined.

Consider the caterpillar. Perhaps the most direct and helpful source is Merriam-Webster's Visual Dictionary which both illustrates and defines the creature (a “butterfly larva having a long body and 10 feet”). It also labels and explains about the parts of the caterpillar (simple eye, head, mandible, thorax, walking let, proleg, abdominal segment, and anal clasper).

According to the Dictionary of Symbols: An Illustrated Guide to Traditional Images, Icons, and Emblems, the caterpillar is said to represent the “lowly” and the “unformed.” This work correlates the caterpillar both with the Hindu belief in the transmigration of souls and with a Native American view of the creature as a “metaphor for sexual awakening.”

Symbols; Our Universal Language describes the caterpillar as symbolic of life, as “one stage of the development of a butterfly.” The Bestiary of Christ cites a 5th century pope who compared Christ with a worm because he was resurrected (“Vermis quia resurrexit”), his “broken body” transformed into a “glorious body” (the butterfly), thus the caterpillar came to represent the body of Christ and the Christian. This belief is further illustrated by a Merovingian gold ring from the 6th or 7th century with caterpillars on two sides and a fish in the center.

Source: Mémoires, Volume 4 by the Société archéologique de Montpellier

The Illustrated Dictionary of Symbols in Eastern and Western Art similarly notes the progression from caterpillar and chrysalis to butterfly, connecting it to allegorical Vanitas still-life paintings. In an earlier book, Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art, Hall writes that these paintings “signify not merely the insect life-cycle but the stages of man’s earthly life, death and resurrection.

Detail from "Vase of Flowers" [Bloemstuk met slaapbol en peulen] Jan Davidsz de Heem, source: Webmuseum (photograph by Carol Gerten-Jackson)

The discussion of "Vase of Flowers" by de Heem from the National Gallery of Art's website highlights with "the white poppy at the top, a caterpillar and butterfly evoke the idea of rebirth from a cocoon or tomb." (The small black caterpillar is visible on the stem just below the white blossom).

The meaning of the caterpillar is also considered in The Tattoo Encyclopedia: A Guide to Choosing Your Tattoo. The author also places the caterpillar within the framework of the life cycle, noting that while “crawling creatures are sometimes feared … the caterpillar offers something both visually and symbolically attractive in terms of life change.” This encyclopedia also has an entry for a “caterpillar with a hookah” -- a reference to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland that for the author symbolizes a relaxed experience, and the possibility of a hallucinatory narcotic.

Illustration by John Tenniel from Lenny’s Alice in Wonderland Site

The silkworm is perhaps the most exalted caterpillar. Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs describes the silkworm as “an emblem of industry.” The Way of the Brush; Painting Techniques of China and Japan similarly notes the diligence of this creature. Finally the Chinese artist Zhang Shuqi in Painting in the Chinese Manner compares the silkworm with the Chinese painters. As “the silkworm feeds upon mulberry leaves, and after due process of digestion changes this material into silk; in similar fashion, the artist calls from memory material absorbed through keen study of the world about him.”

From Symbols: Signs and Their Meaning and Uses in Design we learn about the Caterpillar Club - an informal organization comprising those who have escaped from a crashing airplane by parachute. The groups name is an homage to the silkworm that spun the silk that made the parachute.


Source: Wikimedia Commons

Perhaps it is in a Tin Pan Alley era song where we can finally come to know the caterpillar. Dixie Willson's lyrics imagine the caterpillar as one who dreams dreams “that magic’ly come true” - “A caterpillar dreams himself / Right out of all his fuzz / And into lovely fairy wings” ("The Caterpillar," music by Victor Young.


Bibliography

Bestiary of Christ by Louis Charbonneau-Lassay (Parabola Books, 1991).

"The Caterpillar, or, Winged Dreams," words by Dixie Willson ; music by Victor Young (Hinds, Hayden & Eldredge, 1924).

Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs: An Alphabetical Compendium of Antique Legends and Beliefs, As Reflected in the Manners and Customs of the Chinese by C.A.S. Williams (C.E. Tuttle Co., 1988).

Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art by James Hall (Harper & Row, 1974).

Dictionary of Symbols: An Illustrated Guide to Traditional Images, Icons, and Emblems by Jack Tresidder (Chronicle Books, 1998).

Illustrated Dictionary of Symbols in Eastern and Western Art by James Hall (IconEditions, 1994).

Jan Davidsz de Heem en Zijn Kring by Sam Segal (SDU, 1991).

Merriam-Webster's Visual Dictionary by Jean-Claude Corbeil and Ariane Archambault (Merriam-Webster, 2006).

Painting in the Chinese Manner by Zhang Shuqi (Viking Press, 1960).

Symbols; Our Univeral Language by Eva C. Hangen (McCormick-Armstrong, 1962).

Symbols: Signs and their Meaning and Uses in Design by Arnold Whittick, 2nd edition (1971).

The Tattoo Encyclopedia: A Guide to Choosing Your Tattoo by Terisa Green (Simon & Schuster, 2003).

The Way of the Brush; Painting Techniques of China and Japan by Fritz van Briessen (C.E. Tuttle Co., 1962)

Edible Landscaping or How to Plant a Potager orné

Ornamental kitchen gardens – potagers ornés – have a long and fascinating history. In medieval monasteries the monks planted medicinal and edible flowers in between their herbs and vegetables and to keep the plots separate they surrounded them with low hedges. In the fifteenth and early sixteenth century travelers returning from the Americas brought back exotic new edible plants – potatoes, tomatoes, egg plant, pumpkins, corn – and began to plant them in their gardens to show them off to their guests. Intrigued by their appearance and captivated by the novel tastes they added to the dinner table the guests soon started to grow the new plants in their own gardens. Since the prevailing style of garden was the formal parterre, the new vegetables were grown in these formal patterns of low boxwood hedges. At Versailles, Louis XIV had his gardener set up a kitchen garden, the famous Potager du Roi, in the most ornate of these patterns. It is the French name, potager orné , that we use today for “ornate vegetable gardens.” The Potager du Roi still exists and is a training ground for landscape architects.

Over time the concept of the potager orné migrated from palaces and stately homes to lesser dwellings. Labor intensive clipped hedges were replaced by sturdy plants or narrow paths. Patterns became less ornate. Sometimes simple squares or triangles of wood boards delineated boundaries between beds. Then gardeners devised raised beds that elevated the planting surface and boxes made of wood or other materials, filled with soil, that could be moved to different places and achieve their own unique style. Then it was only a short step to use containers of all kinds to plant vegetables and/or flowers and arrange them to your pleasure.

With the resources we have today it is possible to create an edible landscape that can rival any garden planted with grass and trees, with bushes and flowers. Traditionalists want to recapture the charm of boxwood potagers in the antique patterns. Others prefer the simplicity of wood bordered or raised beds or the versatility lent by container gardening. Whatever the choice, a well-designed vegetable garden brings delight to the eye and bounty to the table.

Happy gardening and bon appétit!

The Main Library has a small dispaly on the theme of ornamental vegetable gardens at the Art, Music and Recreation Center on the 4th floor. A print bibliography can be had at the Art, Music and Recreation Center reference desk.

Selected reading:

The Art of the Kitchen Garden by Jan and Michael Gertley (Taunton Press, 1999).

The Chef's Garden by Terence Conran with Andi Clevely (Conran Octopus, 2008).

The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping by Rosalind Creasy (Sierra Club Books, 1982).

The Container Kitchen Garden by Antony Atha (Collins & Brown, 2000).

Designing the New Kitchen Garden: An American Potager Handbook by Jennifer R. Bartley (Timber Press, 2006).

Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn (Metropolis Books, 2008).

Homegrown: A Growing Guide for Creating a Cook's Garden in Raised Beds, Containers, and Small Spaces by Marta Teegen (Rodale, c2010).

The Kitchen Garden Month by Month by Alan Buckingham (DK, 2010).

McGee & Stuckey's the Bountiful Container: A Container Garden of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits and Edible Flowers by Rose Marie Nichols McGee and Maggie Stuckey (Workman Pub., 2002).

The Ornamental Vegetable Garden by Diana Anthony (Warwick Pub., 1998).

The Patio Kitchen Garden by Daphne Ledward (Robson Books, 2001).

Square Foot Gardening: A New Way to Garden in Less Space with Less Work by Mel Bartholomew (Rodale, 2005).

Dances For Camera - Dance Film Festival

Please join us for “Dances for Camera” on Saturday, April 23rd from 3-5 pm and/or Wednesday, April 27th from 6-8 pm. Two distinct programs at the San Francisco Public Library will showcase highlights from the San Francisco Dance Film Festival, with some of the best dance films from around the globe, selected out of more than 100 entries from 25 countries.

These short experimental dance pieces are created specifically for the camera, independent from the traditional stage. Interpretations can range from narratives to collages of music, movement and images, sometimes including the use of animation and other new media. Local directors will be available for Q&A following the screenings.

Saturday, April 23rd
Screendance shorts program, 3pm
The Watch (USA, 2010) 3 min Director: Shal Ngo & Ryan McNamara
- A playful collaboration between a filmmaker, a fashion designer and young freelance dancers in New York.

Drift (USA, 2010) 8 min
Director/Choreographer: Eric Garcia & Kat Cole
- With no destination in mind, a pair of vagabonds hitchhike, stumble, and inch their way through striking landscapes.

Study for an Underwater Film (Sweden, 2010) 3 min
Director/Choreographer: Pontus Lidberg
- An early study for a potential new film by the award-winning Swedish choreographer/filmmaker, filmed in Sweden and at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Marin.

There is a Place (UK/China, 2010) 7 min
Director: Katrina McPherson Choreographer: Sang Jijia
- Soloist Sang Jijia, an ethnic Tibetan born in Gansu, struggles with his position in the world.

Cea (Canada, 2006) 4 min
Director: Robert Prowse Choreographer: Andrea Pass
- The slow, melodic rhythms and quiet energy of this film offer a powerful dichotomy to the frenetic pace of today’s dominant urban culture. The movement flows with the grace of poetry to an original score that takes us back through our collective rural history.

The Perfect Vacuum (Canada, 2010) 6 min
Director: Alana Cymerman Choreographer: Benjamin Hatcher
- Mona left a glamorous life back home because of war. Now, she finds home in vacuum dancing.

The Wait of Gravity (Italy/USA, 2010) 5 min
Director: Renata Sheppard Choreographer: Renata Sheppard & Caitlin Marz
- A human form shifts in and out of a relationship with gravity in an elusive architectural space—a journey of sound, vision, and kinesthetics.

The Greater the Weight (Canada, 2008) 5 min
Director: Marlene Millar & Philip Szporer Choreographer: Dana Michel
- Dancer and choreographer Dana Michel assembles extremely physical movement—a remnant from her previous training in track and touch football—with mathematical precision and poetic improvisation: The result is an exploration of the body as an instrument in a symphony of rupture and flow.

Connect 4 (USA, 2006) 3 min
Director/Choreographer: Nadia Oussenko
- Four dancers work within four spaces of a warehouse to connect a single movement phrase.

Feature Presentation, 4pm

Finite & Infinite Games (USA, 2010) 45 min Director: RJ Muna Choreographer: Katherine Fisher
- The San Francisco premiere of local filmmaker RJ Muna’s Finite and Infinite Games, choreographed by former ODC dancer Kate Fisher and shot in New York City’s Judson Memorial Church. Includes documentary about the making of the film.

Wednesday, April 27th
Screendance shorts program, 6pm
Motel Deception (Australia, 2009) 5min
Director/Choreographer: Chrissie Parrot
- A seedy motel room, money and a gun set the scene for a very physical confrontation between the scheming Clare and Dexter.

After the Water the Clouds (Netherlands/Spain, 2009) 10 min
Director/Choreographer: Carmen Rozestraten
- Playful and poetic voyage of a young Catalan woman, whose world becomes surreal as she encounters mythical and unusual characters.

Light in Warped Time (USA, 2010) 7 min
Director: Jennifer Schwed Choreographer: Lucy Bowen McCauley
- A fantastical exploration of the desire to be free from social boundaries.

Texas Plates (USA, 2010) 3 min
Director/Choreographer: Marta Renzi
- A playful roadside romance set to music by country artist Patti Scialfa.

Kaleidoscope (USA, 2010) 7 min
Director: Kate Duhamel Choreographer: Jason Samuels Smith

Entre Nous (USA/UK 2010) 7 min
Director/Choreographer: Blair Brown
- An intimate look at the body in motion and an exploration of the emotions behind the ideas of separation, vulnerability, and loneliness.

January (USA, 2009) 4 min
Director: RJ Muna Choreographer: Rachael Lincoln
- A solo made within the real and imagined confines of winter. In a slate-walled room with chalk dust as snow, a woman follows her mind's small agitations as she meditates on the passage of time.

Stronger (UK, 2010) 4 min
Director/Choreographer: Wilkie Branson
- Two new-found companions embark on a journey adventuring up a wooded mountain.

Feature Presentation, 7pm
The Nightingale (USA/SF, 2011) 21 min
Director: Greta Schoenberg
- A short narrative in classic 1940s film noir style, shot entirely in San Francisco with an all-local cast and crew of dancers, musicians, and visual artists.

Q & A to follow

Both programs will be presented in the Main Library's Koret Auditorium. All library programs are free and open to the public.

Reading List:

Dance On Camera: A Guide To Dance Films And Videos, edited By Louise Spain (Scarecrow Press, 1998).

Modern Dance & Ballet On Film & Video: A Catalog, compiled And edited By Susan Braun (Dance Films Association, 1986).