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By Amy, February 10, 2013

While helping some high school students research the Harlem Renaissance, I discovered that Nashville Public Library owns the March 1925 “Graphic Number” of The Survey magazine.  This volume was a showcase that quickly made the rest of the country aware of the burgeoning cultural movement happening in Harlem, especially the literary achievements.

 The “Graphic Number” was a special issue printed yearly of The Survey, a magazine about social issues in America.  The 1925 Survey Graphic issue was devoted entirely to Harlem and to the “New Negro Movement” that later became known as the Harlem Renaissance. 

African American scholars Charles S. Johnson (who eventually became the first black president of Fisk University) and Alain Locke were the guest editors for this special issue.  Locke later turned the magazine into a book anthology titled The New Negro: An Interpretation.

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By Amy, January 20, 2013

The Philistine explodes bomb-bombs to fire the bum-bums and the should-be dumb-dumbs . . . The good stuph is gathered every month by Elbert Hubbard, plucked sizzling from the fiery furnace, and put in palatable, picturesque, and piquant form for the delectation of the faithful . . . The Philistine is never dull.  It makes many glad, some sad, and a few mad.  It says things that make you think.  Thus it does more than merely entertain.

The Philistine: A Periodical of Protest is one of the little-known gems of the Periodicals collection, held at the Main library (ask for it at Periodicals desk – 3rd floor).  Elbert Hubbard, a famous and somewhat controversial figure of the time, wrote and published this title from 1895-1915.  Main Library holds the issues from 1901-1915.

The volumes are very small – about 6” tall and 4” wide. They include essays and epigrams penned by Hubbard as well as ads for the products made by the Roycroft community.  Roycroft was a community of artisans that Hubbard founded – they spearheaded the Arts and Crafts movement in America.

Hubbard printed the magazine himself with a press he installed at Roycroft.  The Roycrofters also produced special editions of Hubbard’s books, other popular titles, and handmade furniture, leather and metal goods.

Hubbard was a larger than life character full of contradictions, espousing ideas like socialism and the free market at the same time. He wrote about philosophy, religion, politics, literature, business, self-improvement and more.  His style was humorous, irreverent, often arrogant and (in my opinion) a little bit kooky.  Hubbard toured America giving lectures in addition to publishing pamphlets, magazines and books.

In 1915 Hubbard and his wife died aboard the Lusitania.  This ended The Philistine’s run, but his son continued to run the Roycroft community for about 20 more years.

What’s Special About The Philistine: A Periodical of Protest?

W.W. Denslow, an artist at the Roycroft Community who went on to illustrate the L. Frank Baum Wizard of Oz books, designed the “Seahorse” logo used in the magazine.

Every issue included epigrams written by Hubbard and printed in a decorative font with intricate borders.

Hubbard’s essays often skewered the leading literary figures of the day, attacking George Bernard Shaw, Rudyard Kipling, William Dean Howells, and others with somewhat exaggerated criticism.

In March 1899, Hubbard published in The Philistine an inspirational 1500-word essay called “A Message to Garcia” that became extremely popular, eventually being reprinted over 9 million times.

The January 1915 issue of The Philistine was about World War I (called “The War Number”), in which Hubbard strongly     opposed American involvement.

The final issue is a tribute to Elbert Hubbard and his wife, who died aboard the Lusitania.

To learn more about Elbert Hubbard, you can check out these items from Nashville Public Library:

• Elbert Hubbard: An American Original (DVD)
• Art & Glory: The Story of Elbert Hubbard by Freeman Champney
• The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard by Elbert Hubbard (produced in 1927 by the Roycroft community)

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By Bryan, December 10, 2012

Drawn Together
by Aline Kominsky-Crumb & R. Crumb

Drawn Together is the collected collaborative work of underground comics superstar team Aline and Robert Crumb. Married for over thirty-five years, they have shared their personal relationship through uncensored autobiographical comics. Covering 1974 to 2010, it charts their critical and financial rise from (literally) a trailer in California to a chateau in France. Individual vignettes are hit or miss, but overall we are given a portrait of a successful, long term, non-traditional relationship. They have an open marriage. The entire volume is evidence that the strongest couples are those in which the constituent personalities are complementary, as opposed to clones, of one another.

What’s lacking is the narrative arc of Aline’s underrated mixed media biography Need More Love.  That book is a life affirming exploration of being damaged and the journey we are all on to fix it. It is an antidote to the negative portrayal of Aline found in Terry Zwigoff’s biopic of her neurotic husband, simply titled Crumb. If Need More Love is about the ability of people to change, Crumb is about one artist’s psychodynamics trapping their owner in an obsessional loop. Its vision may not be hopeful, but is it shockingly honest and simultaneously enlightening like turning a light on in a darkened room. The room being Robert Crumb’s bizarre childhood.

Though Crumb ranks as of the best films of the 1990s, Robert’s actual comics have never spoken much to me. I don’t possess his self-loathing nor his sexual obsessions. In this regard, Robert’s influence on other comics auteurs has been negative. Artists like Chris Ware, Daniel Clowes, and Chester Brown share his technical excellence but also his misanthropy and confessional self-indulgence. The library owns numerous examples of Crumb’s work in this, for him, classic mode, but if you wanted an alternative you could check out his illustrated version of The Book of Genesis. I couldn’t think of anything more boring than Robert Crumb illustrating the Bible but it was a bonafide event when it was published a few years back.

I would be remiss not to mention the Crumbs’ daughter Sophie’s recently published notebooks Sophie Crumb: Evolution of a Crazy Artist. The aesthetic relevance vs. cash cow status of that particular artifact is up to the reader. I would call out the haters who say the same thing about Need More Love. My opinions deserve the same scrutiny.

Crumb, Need More Love, and Drawn Together intimately document one couple’s decades long artistic and romantic life. It’s one for the history books. I feel privileged to have been witness. It has filled me with fascination and joy.

- Bryan

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By Laurie, October 21, 2012

The Art Book 

Deceptively simple in structure and weighing in at 8 pounds 8 ounces, the new edition of The Art Book  offers a comprehensive A to Z art appreciation course in one single volume.

Arranged alphabetically by artist, each page contains a single piece of representative art work. With this arrangement the reader will come across works of art on facing pages that have nothing in common besides the first letters in the surname of the artist. This allows for cross page displays of unlikely works. The black and white photograph of Nobuyashi Araki’s wife, Yoko (1971) shares the page spread with an Alexander Archipenko bronze sculpture, Walking (1912). Another “spread” finds a Claude Lorrain’s Landscape with a sacrifice to Apollo (1662) on page left and Franceso Clemente’s Self portrait: the first (1979) page right. The book is full of surprise pairings. The pairings are masterfully selected to enhance the work of each. Compare and contrast studies rarely gets this interesting.

Artists added to this edition include, Marina Abramivic, Tomma Abts, Ai Weiwei, Brice Marden, Alex Katz, Alice Neel, Ed Ruscha, Robert Smithson and Kara Walker. One current artist not included is John Currin. That means no topless Bea Arthur painting and no bulbous representation of females inspired by Rachel Feinstein. See Tomma Abts’ 2011 painting Uphe.  This work in teal blue and green is a mesmerizing study of the popular pallette of this Fall’s fashion and decorating season.

Occasionally the artists whose work was represented in the earlier edition, has been revised as in the case of John Singer Sargent. His updated entry  is Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose. The Salvador Dali entry is now Lobster Telephone. Jan Vermeer now represented with Woman in blue reading a letter. New artists plus new selections equal new pairings.

Above each work few paragraphs describe the work, the artist and the works place in art history. A tiny pointing hand symbol directs the reader to related artists, a sort of “see also” note for continued investigation.

Beneath each work is the artist’s name, dob /dod, place of birth, place of death, date of production , materials, dimensions and holding gallery or collection. For example: Georgia O’Keefe b. Sun Prairie, WI, 1887. D. Santa Fe, NM, 1986. Radiator Building. 1927.  Oil on canvas. h.121.9 x w76.2 cm. h48 x w30 in. Fisk University, Nashville, Tn.  There’s always a Nashville connection.

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By Bryan, May 7, 2012

A poster by artist / activist troupe Guerrilla Girls reads Q: If February is Black History Month and March is Women’s History Month, what happens the rest of the year? A: Discrimination. Nothing is funny unless it is true. The documentary W.A.R. Women Art Revolution charts the rise of the feminist art movement. You know that funny moment in the 1970s, when women pointed out that there were no women in art galleries (artists or curators). Some brave women decided they should do something about it and created some amazing, influential art in the process. The film also traces the movement’s implosion and conflicted critical reputation in today’s art world. Even by 2007, the WACK! Art and Feminist Revolution retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles was a controversial event. (As further evidence of our library’s awesomeness, follow that link to get a copy of the show’s catalog.) Despite the film’s spirit of inclusiveness, it reveals too who is excluded from the “art world.” One can’t help wondering why it is all these people know each other by their first names. Issues of canonization remain unresolved.

When watching this I had a copy of Ann Beattie’s experimental Mrs. Nixon: a novelist imagines a life sitting on my bedside table. What a long strange trip it has been.

- Bryan

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By Kyle, January 25, 2011

Vermeer: The Complete Works

By Arthur K. Wheelock

This is a short but beautifully presented volume of Vermeer’s work with detailed descriptions accompanying each large color print.

The text provides the context of the painting along with artistic commentary. Viewing Vermeer’s works as a whole enhances one’s appreciation of this master of the Dutch Golden Age (1632-1675). Obvious themes such as his placement of subjects before open windows along with repeated use of costumes, props and even the paintings which appear within Vermeer’s paintings are all apparent when viewed together. Not one to normally ‘read’ art books, this one was read cover to cover.

- Betsy

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By Bryan, May 10, 2010

Beautiful Losers

Beautiful Losers chronicles a loosely knit group of “street” artists who conquered the commercial and fine art worlds. Featured artists include Ed Templeton, Geoff McFetridge, Shepard Fairey, Margaret Kilgallen, Harmony Korine and others, all of which embody a punk-DIY spirit. Most interesting is the connection between contemporary art and skateboarding. If you are snickering you’ll swallow it when you immediately recognize the work. These artists (some of them anyway) are paid large sums to sell you diet cola. As a teen, Templeton was my favorite skater. I never liked the lines of his paintings but thrilled over the lines he cut with his skate. In the interim, his work has grown by light years. N-ville’s favorite cringe monger H. Korine is mostly on good behavior, filming his talking head shots in Fannie Mae Dees Park. He laments the lowered crime rate. Tricky implications of outsiders becoming insiders are glossed over, but Beautiful Losers is an inspiring film that can enlighten people as to where the art and design that surrounds them originated.

I assume the title of the film, and the group show it accompanied, is borrowed from Leonard Cohen’s great novel of the same name. Do it… yourself.