Openings: Artist, Syd Barret, Man of Letters, Acid Casualty?

Despite what you've heard about Syd Barret if you bet against your life it was all true you would certainly lose. If you asked Syd Barret why he was famous he probably couldn't answer you - despite the fact that he was the founding member of the legendary band Pink Floyd. But who is the real Syd Barret? If you asked Syd, who is now dead, he would certainly say artist before musician. A new show opens today at the Idea Gallery in London that explores the enigmatic inner life of Syd Barret. For the first time, the largest collection of unseen photographs, personal love letters and original artworks will go on display offering an unprecedented insight into the inspired life of this rock legend. gallery.ideageneration.co.uk

Warpaint Live in San Francisco, California

photo by Oliver Kupper

Warpaint played at the Independent last night in San Francisco. I was hooked a few years back with the below demo - hooked since they were merely just another LA garage band - albeit with John Frusciante (formerly of the Red Hot Chile Peppers) as a their record producer and the actress Shannon Sossaman as their drummer (by the way, they're new drummer Stella Mozgawa is simply incredible). It also worth it to mention that all members of Warpaint are all stunningly gorgeous, but with a certain sensuality that makes you take them seriously - their tremendous musical talent demands notice.  A  little bit Black Sabbath meets The Virgin Suicides, Warpaint closed the show with a 15 minute long encore that had most of the band in a trance they couldn't figure out how to get out of - which was awkward, but entertaining, because did anyone really want them to stop?  Warpaint has released two official albums, the most recent, The Fool, came out on Rough Trade Records last October. Visit their site to see all tour dates: www.warpaintwarpaint.com

Painting the King

Ouyang Chun - Painting The King is the first institutional one-man show to present the artist, who was born in Beijing in 1974, outside of China. His cycle (Wang/King) consists of thirty paintings, some of which are more than five metres long. It relates episodes from the life of a king in a breathtakingly painterly diversity, telling about his victories and defeats, about love and death. The pictures, which are partly crowded with figures and rendered in minute detail and partly feature an expressive and impasto brushwork, amalgamate history and fiction, as well as the search for beauty and the description of moral failure.  Painting The King is on view until June 12 2011 at the Augarten Contemporary at the Gustinus Ambrosi Museum in Vienne. www.belvedere.at

UNDERCOVER

Silk and leather bag, metal clasp, metal and silk strap. Collection entitled "Underman" and built around an imaginary theme, The year is 20XX, the world in which the souls of the people have been incapacitated by the forces of evil, is empty. UNDERMAN is born to restore these lost souls. The battle against sorrow wages on.  Spring / Summer collection 2011. www.colette.fr

Cartier: The Power of Style

María Félix wearing her Serpent Clip earrings, 1971

The Cartier Collection reflects the evolution of Cartier's artistic and stylistic creation. Cartier: The Power of Style traces 160 years in the jeweler's glorious history. Three hundred and sixty-two pieces from the Cartier Collection--accessories, masterpieces of jewelry and watchmaking from the end of the nineteenth century to the present day--and four exceptional pieces from the Prince's Palace of Monaco are featured. These exceptional items offer insight into the royal jeweler's treasures and the sources of inspiration that lead to their creation. Commissioned photographs of these rare pieces, exclusive archival images, and biographical stories about their prestigious owners comprise this handsome volume.

Pair of Tiger ear clips, Cartier Paris, special order, 1961

Daisy Fellowes wearing the Tuttie Frutti necklace made of emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and diamonds, made in 1936 Cigarette case, Cartier Paris, 1931, Platinum, modified baguette-cut diamond, The back of the lid is engraved with twenty signatures such as “Coco” for Coco Chanel, “Misia” for Misia Sert, “Fellowes” for Daisy Fellowes, “Vera” for Vera de Bosset, “Peggy” for Peggy Guggenheim, “Etienne” for Etienne de Beaumont, inside the case “Cécile” for Cécile Sorel, “Elsie” for Elsie de Wolfe, “Johnnie” for Prince Jean-Louis de Faucigny- Lucinge, and other friends unfortunately impossible to identify today. Sold to the Baron de Meyer, photographer Snake necklace, Cartier Paris, special order, 1968, Platinum, white gold and yellow gold, 2,473 brilliant- and baguette-cut diamonds weighing 178.21 carats in total, two pear-shaped emeralds (eyes), green, red, and black enamel, Made as a special order for María Félix

Sir Yadavindra Singh, wearing a ceremonial necklace, Cartier, created in 1936

You can find Cartier: The Power of Style here.

Rolla and Marion

Henri Gervex's 1878 painting Rolla was deemed immoral, as it depicted a scene from a poem by Alfred de Musset about a man who goes to bed with a very pricey prostitute, " . . .Marion was expensive. To pay for one night he had spent everything . . .. Rolla peered with a melancholy eye over the rooftops, he saw the sun coming up. He moved to the edge of the window. Rolla glanced back to Marie, she was tired and had fallen asleep again..." Whilst sprawled out and pillaged, Marion lays out on the bed panting, eyes closed, out of breath, satiated.....

Required Reading: Lautréamont's Maldoror

"The deadly uses of this book will lap up his soul as water does sugar." In 1917 French writer Philippe Soupault discovered a copy of Comte de Lautréamont's manuscript Les Chants de Maldor in the mathematics section of a small Parisian bookshop, near the military hospital to which he had been admitted.. Lautréamont, which was the pseudonym of Isidore Lucien Ducasse, born in Uruguay 1846 and died in Paris in 1870, was immediately canonized as a surrealist god - in the pantheon of Baudelaire, Rimbaud, and Mallarme.  "Chants de Maldoror unveils a world, half vision, half nightmare, of angels and gravediggers, hermaphrodites, and homosexuals, madmen and strange children."  Right now at the Galerie Anais in the Bergamont art space in Santa Monica, California a small exhibit of inspired drawings by the the similarly morbid artist Hans Bellmer - The Songs of Maldoror and Erotic Series is on view until March 31st. www.galerieanaisla.com

[ The Will to Power as Art ]

drawing of Friedrich Nietzsche by Hans Olde

"Beauty is for the artist something outside all orders of rank, because in beauty opposites are tamed; the highest sign of power, namely power over opposites; moreover, without tension: - that violence is no longer needed: that everything follows, obeys, so easily and so pleasantly - that is what delights the artist's WILL TO POWER."

~ Friedrich Nietzsche - IV "The Will to Power as Art"

Modesty Blaise: Terry O'Neill 50 Years at the Top

Brigitte Bardot, Spain, 1971

Terry O'Neill: 50 Years at the Top opened yesterday at the esteemed Chris Beetles Gallery in London.  The exhibit celebrates  a half a century of Terry O'Neill's iconic photographs. Including new and unseen prints from the 1960s. It was 50 years ago that Terry O'Neill first picked up a camera, andbegan an astonishing career. First becoming a key photographer in London's heady 1960s cultural milieu, he went on to capture most major stars of stage and screen, and has helped to define our very notion of celebrity'. His famous photographs of Brigitte Bardot smoking a cigar, Frank Sinatra with his bodyguards sauntering down the Miami boardwalk and Faye Dunaway the morning after her Oscar win have become iconic images that have made Terry one of the world's most popular and collectible photographers.

Faye Dunaway, Los Angeles, 1976

Jean Shrimpton and Terence Stamp, London, 1963

David Bowie and Elizabeth Taylor, Los Angeles, 1975

Monica Vitti on the Set of 'Modesty Blaise' - Shepperton Studios, 1966

Audrey Hepburn Takes a Break During the Filming of  'Two For the Road,' 1967

Terry O'Neill: Fifty Years at the Top will run until April 23, 2011. www.chrisbeetlesfinephotographs.com

 

Cherry Cola, Sno-Cones and Taffy

Ty Segall

Lo-fi god, Ty Segall, after his show at Strange Matter in Richmond, VA. Segall describes his new album, Melted, out on Goner Records, as sounding like "cherry cola, Sno-Cones and taffy." Ty Segall is currently on a US tour - view winter tour dates here. photograph by Anna Wittel

At the Rainbow House - Director's Cut

Starring Devendra Banhart and Rebecca Schwartz, the premise of the Oliver Peoples 2011 campaign is an exploration of authentic intimacy and sexuality. The love affair is explored in the one-of-a-kind masterpiece by architect John Lautner: Rainbow House. Produced with acclaimed photographer and aspiring director Lisa Eisner.

Joan Jett Flips Me The Finger

1977: Joan Jett is not pissed off at me. She is just being Joan! We were all hanging around backstage waiting for Joan and the rest of The Runaways to take the stage. In a thousand years when a historian finds this photo they will be able to pinpoint the exact location by looking at the hieroglyphics on the wall of The Whiskey.

Photo and text by Brad Elterman