Bob Mazzer - Going Underground

Bob Mazzer ['On the Tube']

Bob Mazzer has been photographing the London Underground, on and off, for the last forty years or so. A wonderful selection of his work can now be seen on the, also rather wonderful, Spitalfields Life website.
A selection of Mazzer's pictures appear below (click on images to enlarge). Many more can be seen here, here and here.
Spitalfields Life is a treasure trove of photographs of London (see the section Photo Life). The collection comprises historical material (John Thompson's C19 pictures of street life, a huge and idiosyncratic archive of  social documentary and snapshots of a lost London, and recent material too. I have picked out a small selection of images for the next blog entry, here.

Art and Photography Playlist #10 Adam Ant: Animals and Men

Songs about Art and Photography: a playlist. #10 Adam Ant: Animals and Men (click to play).

Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913

Uno, due, tre, quattro ...

Marinetti, Boccioni, Carra, Balla, Palazzeschi!
Marinetti, Boccioni, Carra, Balla, Palazzeschi!
Futurist Manifesto!
Futurist Manifesto!

War is the world's only hygiene
Energy and fearlessness
Racing car the beauteous beast
Hurl defiance at the stars

Futurist Manifesto!
Futurist Manifesto!

Voices of animals... animals men!
Voices of animals... animals men!
(And the futurist theatre goes)

Marinetti, Boccioni, Carra, Balla, Palazzeschi!
Marinetti, Boccioni, Carra, Balla, Palazzeschi!
Futurist Manifesto!
Futurist Manifesto!

Noises obtained by percussion
Metal, wood on skin and bone
Voices of animals and men
Laugh and shout and scream and moan

Futurist Manifesto!
Futurist Manifesto!

Voices of animals... animals men!
Voices of animals... animals men!
(And the futurist theatre goes)

"Animals and Men" by Adam Ant, from Dirk Wears White Sox, 1979
Click on 'Art and photography Playlist', below, to see all playlist entries.

Walter de Maria, 1935 - 2013

Walter de Maria, Lightning Field, 1977

Walter de Maria died on 25 July 2013.

Lightning Field (1977) is de Maria’s signature work and will be a lasting memorial:  400 stainless steel poles arranged in a 1 mile x 1 kilometre grid in New Mexico; the work is occasionally activated by lightning strikes.

The piece is characteristic of de Maria’s work insofar as it is marked by a concern with mathematical precision and organisation, a minimalist aesthetic, a conceptual edge and a resistance to commodification (the work was commissioned by, and is maintained by, the Dia Art Foundation).  
Other notable works include The New York Earth Room (1977), The Vertical Earth Kilometre (1977), The Broken Kilometre (1979) and The Two Thousand Sculpture (1992).
The New York Earth Room (1977) is what it says - a room containing earth!  197 cubic metres of soil spread to a depth of 22 inches over  335 square metres. (Read Jerry Saltz’ obituary/appreciation of The New York Earth Room.) 
The Vertical Earth Kilometre (1977) comprises a 1 kilometre long brass rod buried in the ground (in the centre of Friedrichsplatz Park in Kassel, its top flush to the surface of the earth and surrounded by a red sandstone slab.
The Broken Kilometre (1979), described as a companion piece to The Vertical Earth Kilometre comprises 500 polished, brass rods, each two metres long, laid out in five parallel rows of 100 rods each. 
The Two Thousand Sculpture (1992) comprises 2,000 white-plaster rods laid out in a herringbone pattern - if laid end-to-end they would stretch for 1 kilometre too.

In the 1960s de Maria was active as a musician. He worked with La Monte Young, composed two musical works (Cricket Music, 1964; Ocean Music, 1968) made a sculpture for John Cage (Cage, 1965) and was drummer in a band called the “Druds”, allegedly featuring vocals by Patty Mucha (Oldenburg) backed by Andy Warhol, with painter Larry Poons on guitar and La Monte Young on saxophone, performing material with lyrics by Jasper Johns!! De Maria also drummed for an short-lived group called “The Primitives” alongside Lou Reed and John Cale – presumably it is de Maria drumming here on this 1964 single “The Ostrich”. Almost a Velvet.

Walter de Maria, The New York Earth Room, 1977

Walter de Maria, The Vertical Earth Kilometre, 1977

Walter de Maria, The Vertical Earth Kilometre, 1977

Walter de Maria, The Vertical Earth Kilometre, 1977

Walter de Maria, The Broken Kilometre, 1979

Walter de Maria, The Two Thousand Sculpture, 1992

Walter de Maria, Cage II, 1965

A Reason to be Cheerful: Ian Dury - RCA

Ian Dury, Jemima Proust, 1969

Ian Dury: More Than Fair – Paintings, Drawings and Artworks,1961–1972 is at the RCA until 1 September 2013.

Ian Dury (1942-2000) was a student at the RCA between 1963 and 1966 and continued to paint until the early 1970s when music took over his life. 

This exhibition has been organised by Ian Dury's daughter Jemima along with Kosmo Vinyl (former manager of The Clash) and Jules Balme (fomer art director at Stiff Records).The exhibition title obviously refers to the song (You're More than Fair originally released as the B-side of Sweet Gene Vicent):

You're more than fair, you've got a gorgeous bum 

Why don't you come to my house and meet my mum... 

(it gets a bit rude after this) but perhaps also refers to Dury's own estimation of himself as an artist as related by Kosmo Vinyl:

"In the time I knew him, he completely downplayed [his art]. 'Good enough to know I wasn't good enough' was one of his quotes – but [looking at his art] I kind of beg to differ."

A Pop artist with a taste for 'naked ladies'. Listen to Jemima Dury and Humphrey Ocean talking about the exhibition to John Wilson on Front Row (23 July; begins at 13mins). Listen to Reasons to be Cheeerful, Part 3 (Why don't you get back into bed?)

Ian Dury, Sir Bernard and Lady Docker, c1965-7

Ian Dury, Night Boy, 1966

Ian Dury, Dany Bubbles

Ian Dury, Hey, Hey Mobile

Jemima Dury with some of  Ian Dury's work