"I'm am at war with the obvious." William Eggleston

I am afraid that there are more people than I can imagine who can go no further than appreciating a picture that is a rectangle with an object in the middle of it, which they can identify. They don't care what is around the object as long as nothing interferes with the object itself, right in the centre. Even after the lessons of Winogrand and Friedlander, they don't get it. They respect their work because they are told by respectable institutions that they are important artists, but what they really want to see is a picture with a figure or an object in the middle of it. They want something obvious. The blindness is apparent when someone lets slip the word 'snapshot'. Ignorance can always be covered by 'snapshot'. The word has never had any meaning. I am at war with the obvious.

-- From a conversation with Mark Holborn, Greenwood, Mississippi, February 1988

This Side of Paradise

From the pages of Jonas Mekas diary: “Unpredictably, as most of my life’s key events have been, for a period of several years in the late 60s and early 70s, I had the fortune to spend some time, mostly during the summers, with Jackie Kennedy’s and her sister Lee Radziwill’s families and children. Cinema was an integral, inseparable, as a matter of fact, a key part of our friendship. The time was still very close to the untimely, tragic, death of John F. Kennedy. Jackie wanted to give something to her children to do, to help to ease the transition of life without a father. One of her thoughts was that movie camera would be fun for the children. Peter Beard, who was at that time tutoring John Jr. and Caroline in art history, suggested to Jackie that I was the man to introduce the children to cinema. Jackie said yes. And that’s how it all began. I bought them a very easily operable 16mm movie camera, and even wrote a “mini-textbook” suggesting some simple movie exercises…The images in the exposition, with a few exceptions, they all come from the summers Caroline and John Jr. spent in Montauk, with their cousins Anthony and Tina Radziwill, in an old house Lee rented from Andy Warhol, for a few summers. Andy himself spent many of his weekends there, in one of the cottages, as did Peter Beard, whom the children had adopted almost like their older brother or a father they missed. There were summers of happiness, joy and continuous celebrations of life and friendships. These are ‘Little Fragments of Paradise.’ " Tomorrow night marks the opening of “This Side of Paradise,” an exhibition of photo prints taken from original 16mm film from Jonas Mekas’ celebrated film “This Side of Paradise: Fragments of an Unfinished Biography” (1999). The exhibition will mark the first time these rare and personal images of the Kennedy and Radziwill families are on view in NYC in their entirety. Opens September 24 at the Agnès B Gallerie Boutique - 50 Howard Street New York, NY.

Blooming in the Shadows

Contemporary Chinese art has taken the art world by storm in the last decade through heralded museum exhibitions, well-read publications, and heavily attended art auctions. However, even with all this attention, few exhibitions have asked the question of how, against the background of thirty-five years of Socialist Realism, this internationally-oriented artwork suddenly appeared and why it captured the attention of the international art market. Blooming in the Shadows: Unofficial Chinese Art, 1974 –1985 at the China Institute in New York will introduce the work of three unofficial Chinese art groups who worked in this vein: the No Names, the Stars, and the Grass Society, all of which arose following the end of the Cultural Revolution and helped launch the avant-garde movement in China. These artists pursued creatively diverse paths to personal artistic freedom under the harsh political circumstances of the time. Blooming in the Shadows will examine work produced by these three significant groups of young artists in the critical decade after the end of the Cultural Revolution leading up the Communist Party’s 1985 decision to allow modern artistic practices. On view until December 11 at the China Institute – 125 East 65th Street, New York.

Beyond Limits

CHATSWORTH, ENGLAND - The Duchess of Devonshire views the sculpture Burning Desire by Marc Quinn in the gardens of their home Chatsworth on September 9, 2011 in Chatsworth, England.  The work is part of the Beyond Limits exhibition of modern and contemporary sculpture displayed in the gardens of Chatsworth by Sotherby's between 9th September to 30th October 2011.  (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

The Erotic Photos of DAIDO MORIYAMA

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Though better known for his vision of cities and their emblems, Daido Moriyama is also a photographer of nudes. The nude, which has sporadically appeared in his work, remains an important catalyst for the rest of his prodigious output. With these rare images, he has revolutionized an art where innovation is problematic. His first series dates from 1969 and presents the nude in an original context; a dozen images, poorly developed, a woman without a face or identity, on a bed, the positions are natural, without makeup or pose, legs spread, buttocks raised, under the sheets or in the shower. Moments before, during and after sex. The Da End Gallery will present for the first time this little known aspect of one of the most emblematic figures of contemporary photography. From the first series for the magazine Provoke (1969) (which enabled the young artist, Araki then working in advertising, to launch full time into photography), to the rethinking of the mythic Kagerou nudes («Mayfly», 1972), without forgetting the incredible erotic series he created for Playboy. In the fifty or so photographs exhibited, some of which are in black and white, some in colour, a monochrome colour the artist loves, are above all perfect erotic images. Daido Moriyama: Erotica will be on view until November 3o at the The Da End Gallery in Paris.

Text by Patrick Rémy

TOM FOOL ARE WE

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Tom Fool are We? The third innovation born from the collaborative efforts of designer Lindsey Thornburg, photographer/director Olivia Malone and director/editor Crystal Moselle follows two mischievous “clowns” as they gallivant through the countryside. The films inspiration comes from French new wave films and psychedelic directors such as Jean Rollin and Alejandro Jodorowsky.  In addition to the cloaks for which Thornburg is most well known, Fall Winter 2010 Lindsey released her first full ready to wear collection. See film after the jump.

Philip Roth: Art, Sex, & Death

When the young Philip Roth warned his parents to brace for a media assault with the release of "Portnoy's Complaint" in 1969, his mother broke down in tears: she thought he was suffering from delusions of grandeur. Four decades after the novel shot him to stardom, the American literary giant talks candidly about his early years, about writing, sex and Jewishness, depression and dying, in a rare and moving documentary to be screened Monday on the French-German channel Arte. Based on eight hours of interviews, the hour-long film "Philip Roth Without Complexes" was shot a year ago between the 78-year-old writer's Upper East side apartment and his forest lodge in Connecticut.

Tasya Van Ree Solo Exhibition in Los Angeles

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"Tasya van Ree has always been intrigued by the everyday wonders of the visual world. The sense of expansive awareness that for van Ree is a prerequisite to photography enables her to capture the small everyday flashes of insight that come when we are open to them and often go before we can fully grasp or appreciate them. Her extraordinarily vivid images are also a testimony to her eye for form and composition. Her photographs are infused with romanticism, darkness, intimacy, and a certain lyrical quality. They also capture the essence of the people, the landscape, and the intricacies of both the animate and inanimate worlds, and are a sort of meditation in seeing the powerful testaments between the relationship of human presence and transitory nature." Tasya Van Ree, a Solo Photography Exhibition opens today at Edgar Varela Fine Arts in Los Angeles and will run until October 22.