Hyperart: Thomasson, by Akasegawa Genpei. Kaya Press, 416 pages, 2010. ISBN: 978-1885030467. Paperback, $17.95. Why did it take me half a dozen years to discover this life-changing book, introducing a concept that fundamentally enriches my relationship to the built environment? The idea is the Thomasson, proposed as a form of “hyperart.”
Continue readingCalifornia Crazy and Beyond: Roadside Vernacular Architecture by Jim Heimann My rating: 5 of 5 stars 1980’s California Crazy was one of the early gospels for roadside art enthusiasts, documenting dozens of the state’s wonderful theme buildings of the early 20th century, from giant donuts to miniature sphinxes. Author Jim Heimann updated the book in 2001 with California Crazy and Beyond. The old version was presented as a logbook, and in some cases the images are larger. The new volume is redesigned as a more conventional picture book, with lots of additional pictures and a great deal more writing. Both
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Unsealed: Bottle Cap Art | The Woolseys | The Patent Drawings | How To | The Race Question| The Blockbuster The Galleries: Masterworks | Troops | Signed | Flashers | Other Shapes | Mine | Bottle Cap Inn | Two Monuments Joe Wiser’s Bottle Cap Inn in Miami was featured in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, but more importantly it was a triumph of an obsessive personal vision. Fortunately, many interior views were preserved in a series of postcards and press photos. The bar was created in the 1930s by Joe Wiser, said to be a disabled World War I veteran. He choose to decorate with the most available ornamentation,
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There are many fine sights to see on Chicago’s Pulaski Road, which runs parallel to Western Avenue two miles west. Sculptures, paintings, architecture — the creativity stretches for miles, with a particular strength in the automotive segment. Some of this art is already documented here. Now some more, beginning with glorious grocery store imagery.: In the thanks & tip o’ the hat department, please say hello to Miss Tracy Jo Seneca. Note that this is a 2019 update of a photo gallery posted in 2017.
Continue readingShould the Democrats develop some backbone and give Republicans a taste of their own medicine? Fair play seems to demand extreme measures to obstruct the conservative agenda and get in the way of every Trump move.
Continue readingAntoni Gaudí, perhaps more than any other architect, represents the triumph of genius. Not because his designs are better than anyone else’s (though some might argue they are), but because they are so utterly idiosyncratic yet so monumentally visible in the city of Barcelona. Gaudí’s intensely personal vision prevailed in a field that, because of its visibility, has a tendency toward conformity. Gaudí, though, is not just tolerated but celebrated — indeed, funded, in the case of Sagrada Familia’s continuing construction. Here’s a stroll through his greatness.
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The Spanish keep calm when it comes to business names.
Continue readingAnchored by the fast-food spectacular at Shelly’s Freez, Chicago’s Lincoln Avenue from Irving Park Road north is a treasure trove of fine art and architecture.
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Charlevoix, Michigan, developer Earl Young’s constructions showed a personal vision almost from the first house he built, starting in 1918, but fortunately the vision had several decades in which to fully flower. Even without their wacky appearance, the “mushroom houses” he went on to plant in Charlevoix would be interesting as examples of progressive residential architecture ahead of the post-war building boom. But their oddity makes them a unique case of one man successfully expressing a highly idiosyncratic vision across a whole swath of city.
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A recent visit to the Souls Grown Deep/Bill Arnett art warehouse in Atlanta was even more mind boggling than reports had led me to expect. The space was bigger and the profusion of work more out of control. A modest selection was more or less set out for easy viewing, but that represented only a fraction of the collection. There were boxes and racks and cases and cartons of work spread around two massive rooms, corrals of sculpture, stacks of drawings, piles of books — just what you’d expect from a collecting mission that has outrun any efforts to organize
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