A new exhibition at New York’s PPOW Gallery displays David Wojnarowicz’s letters to his former lover Jean Pierre – here, his biographer Cynthia Carr talks about his tender, furious artistic legacy
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"Assim como as chaves abrem cofres, as cartas abrem corações." James Howell CATHERINE ADELAIDE SPARKES &…
(Above) Cover of new book, Finding Frida Kahlo. Click on image for larger view. (Above) Letter to Carlos Pellicer, second paragraph (right side): Click image for larger view. “How angry I become when I read this. Come see me I want to tell you about something very interesting. I am alone and I get desperate. How much I have to paint and I do not finish; I wait for you Frida K. P.S. Bring me coconut candies.” (Above) Contents of small box. Click on image for larger view. (Above) Painted and decorated front of book. Click on image for larger view. (Above) Contents of small box, with baby doll and scrapbook. Click on image for larger view. (Above) Love letter to Diego where she ends with “I ask my heart, why you and not someone else? Toad of my soul. Frida K.” Click on image for larger view. (Above) Pages and pages of notes, drawings, letters and other ephemera were found. Click on image for larger view. (Above) Inside spread of book (pgs. 140 and 141) showing cover of Kahlo diary complete with numerous graphic erotic drawings detailing her many affairs and thoughts of sex. Click on image for larger view. (Above) Inside spread of the book (pgs. 72 and 73), with photograph of what appears to be a piece of wallpaper Frida used to write on. Click on image for larger view. I AM NOT AN EXPERT ON FRIDA KAHLO (1906 –1954), but the recent book by Barbara Levine (with Stephen Jaycox) Finding Frida Kahlo revealing a newly found treasure trove of Kahlo artifacts has certainly peaked my interest to learn more. I read the book, cover to cover—fascinated by the intimate objects, paintings, drawings, altered books and private letters by the tempestuous, self-taught artist. Kahlo was married to the famous Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. Their relationship was marked by frequent and open affairs with other lovers, and Kahlo herself had affairs with both men and women. Fraught with numerous health problems, including polio at age 6 and from a terrible automobile (bus) accident at the beginning of her teenage years—Kahlo suffered most of her life with complications and illnesses associated with her physical misfortunes. This discovery (and subsequent book) came about from a happenchance meeting by author Barbara Levine with Carlos and Leticia Noyola, and their son Diego, in their antique shop, La Buhardilla Antiquarios (The Attic Antiques) in San Miguel, Mexico. Levine was formerly director of exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and has been actively involved with publishing books, collecting vernacular photography, art and other ephemera. A discovery like this is the kind of thing that all collectors dream of. It’s the reason I still go to flea markets and estate sales—hoping against all hope that maybe—just maybe—the case under the table or the box in the barn behind the house will contain something you identify as great, rare and wonderful. Most collectors go a lifetime without such a discovery. The book is wonderful. Reading the translated letters by Frida—her cursing Diego, longing for him—reveals the kind of relationship the two artists had with each other. Her erotic drawings and others are packed with symbolism and cryptic hints at dual meanings allowing for much interpretation. The design of the book is beautiful, but how could it not be? It was designed by Martin Venezky and his Appetite Engineers design shop in San Francisco. Levine and the publisher present the archive for what it is—several trunks and suitcases of what looks to be authentic personal materials, art objects and ephemera of Frida Kahlo. Though numerous experts on Kahlo have studied the found objects and declared them authentic, Kahlo “insiders” have been screaming fake. Most, if not all of these naysayers have not even examined and held the newly discovered materials, and are basing their opinions from published photos of the contents alone. Though there is money (and professional reputations) to be made or lost in the controversy, you won’t see Levine or the publisher Princeton Architectural Press suffer from the final outcome if the materials are fake. Why? They are simply putting the archive out there for the experts to feed on and fight over. Like throwing chum in an ocean of sharks, they are content to let truth settle the issue. I like that. It is what it is. As for me, I have examined thousands and thousands of art objects and ephemeral things in my lifetime and I have this to say, admittedly based simply on looking at the book: faking this archive of letters, doodles, drawings, writings, prose and artwork would have meant finding a mainline into the very soul of Frida Kahlo. The words alone, in the letters and sketches supporting them, feel so idiosyncratic and personal that I just do not believe it possible to conjure up such a private, personal dialogue. The letters are stained, dirty and certainly pass at least the first level of my “forgery radar.” If the archive turns out to be fake—it will certainly be considered a most masterful and detailed scam. And, in that there is not a single so-called “masterwork” in the entire found collection, the question I would have to ask is ”why?” I can understand forging letters and other such things to support or set the stage for a multi-million dollar forgery—but this? While the collection is endlessly fascinating and revealing of Kahlo—I cannot imagine this much work forged for one grandiose scheme. But then again....? Stay tuned, while the experts fight this one out. And here you can read a very thorough, in-depth article about the discovery and controversy by Christopher Knight, of the LA Times.
There are no themes to this latest batch of mail-art, only the bizarre vagaries of my imagination. For example, that tent with the big moon and the undergarments hanging outside: what even, Naomi? I have no idea what I was thinking, but I hope Emily liked it anyway.
Before people were dropping GIFs into Gmail, letter writers were adding illustrations for that emotional or contextual punch.
Freehand drawing with acrylic ink & a size cero liner brush .
Here are the photos of my incoming and outgoing mail for the months of April and May. I was gone for a couple of weeks on a trip and the gar...
Sending a letter is the next best thing to showing up personally at someone's door.
These love- letters – from women such as Emily Dickinson and Virginia Woolf – represent a legacy of our lesbian past which does not receive very much prominence. So much correspondence of this ty…
These two postcards that I worked on today will become part of two new ship watercolors. I don't always work on the postcard first... My kids really liked these on their own, but I think they will love them even more when they're finished. Hope you're having a fine weekend.
The Handwritten Letter Project - a project started by Craig Oldham - embraces the dying art of letter writing.
In a time before modern communication, letters were often the only way to reach those you loved. Entire lives were planned in this simple, timeless fashion of letter writing. Months may pass between each correspondence, which caused the words written on a few sheets of paper priceless. Denver wedding photographer JENNA WREN dreamt up this shoot which honours the time-honoured tradition of letter writing.
When it comes to Dutch artists, you probably know of Rembrandt and Vermeer, but a man named Gabriel Metsu was once the darling of Dutch painting. He has fallen out of the spotlight, but an exhibit at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., is bringing the master back.
Rainer Maria Rilke’s poetry and letters have inspired countless readers around the world with their wisdom and insight into how we can be more than ourselves without recourse to religion, politics, or ideology: through the experiences of art and love. Gathered here for the first time in original translations are Rilke’s candid, piercing, and lyrical reflections on love—the experience he considered paramount for human existence but also, with the exception of death, the event for which we are least prepared. Selected from Rilke’s poetry and his vast correspondence, these passages present Rilke’s contemplations on falling in love, being in love, losing love, and the mystical ways in which love endures.
The love letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz number upwards of 25,000. It’s such a prolific amount, it makes you marvel that they had any time at all to live the lives they did. The first published volume of their correspondence is some 700 pages, and it captures all the intimacies and intangibles one suffers for, because of, or in spite of love. It is also a valuable source of art history, self-help, bad spelling, and indulgent use of the em dash.
“A letter should be regarded not merely as a medium for the communication of intelligence, but also as a work of art.”
