“We
are
what
we
repeatedly
do.
Therefore,
excellence
is
not
an act.
It
is
a
habit.”
Every day for 100 days, Jessica Svendsen created a variation on a Josef Müller-Brockmann poster for a Beethoven concert in Zürich in 1955. The project was part of the Michael Bierut 100 Days Workshop at the Yale School of Art.Think what you might do in 100 days.
Top Image: Original by Josef Müller-Brockmann
Illustrator on variations: Jessica Svendsen
Quote: Aristotle
A
lady
does
not
place
her
weapon
on
the
table
~Queen to Princess: Pixar's Brave
L’esprit de l’escalier or esprit d’escalier (stairway wit) is the sense of thinking of a clever comeback in an encounter when it is too late.
The phrase can be used to describe a riposte to an insult, or any witty, clever remark that comes to mind too late to be useful— when one is on the “staircase” leaving the scene of the encounter.
The phenomenon is usually accompanied by a feeling of regret at having not thought of the riposte when it was most needed or suitable.
Featured: Stairway at the Louvre, Paris, 2007
“A man
should look
as if he bought
his clothes
with intelligence,
put them on
with care,
then
forgot
about them.”
-Hardy Amies
“Life
itself
is
the
proper
binge.”
~Julia Child
As I bounce around online looking for images I always look for the extraordinary, the esoteric, the naive, and the emblematic of a time; works that are not the pieces we often see in design history books.
Just as a map helps us find our way and shows us where we are, looking at design from years past helps us better understand the trajectory contemporary design has taken. DesignObserver.
The novelist Alison Lurie wrote: “Whatever is worn on the head is a sign of the mind beneath it.”
Stephen Jones, the greatest milliner of his generation, disagrees.
“Whatever is worn on the head is a sign of what a person would like to be."
“The golden moments
in the stream of life
rush past us
and we see nothing
but sand.
The angels
come to visit us,
and we only know them
when they are gone.”
-George Elliot
“I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fake Chanel”
Following her counterfeit faux pas, the culture’s rebellious “bad girl” Courtney Love has been granted a reprieve by Karl Lagerfeld’s court. Fortunately, the iconic rock star is now decidedly back in fashion.
In this classic novel of old New York, Edith Wharton recreates the city of her girlhood in the 1870s. The Arion edition has been illustrated with photographs of the actual settings of the story.
“Truly a thing of beauty” according to Forbes magazine, this edition celebrates a classic of American literature. The book has a special status as an affectionate record of the streets and buildings of New York City. At every moment of the novel the reader knows where the characters are, walking down a particular street, standing in front of a certain address, looking out the window of a familiar room.
The Arion Press edition is illustrated with images of the novel's actual setting, as they are today, captured by noted photographer Stephen Shore who brought to this project a personal knowledge of the historic buildings and streets that made up Wharton's New York world.
New York Times art critic Michael Kimmelman raved: "The work’s laconic eloquence speaks of an era and a nation."
Francis Bacon's sickly serene Self Portrait 1971 is a refracted faceted face akin to some of Paul Cézanne's self-portraits which are reminiscent of cut precious gem stones reflecting light. Bacon painted with a very dry brush giving the sensation of a granular, grainy effect.
The melancholia mood is of a man melting before you: a disturbing image of a disturbed man in a disturbed century. This is one of the last great self-portraits Bacon painted before he went off the rails and went back into to the lazy worn grooves of inane illustration.
The Errant Aesthete©
July, 2007 - June, 2012
The Errant Aesthete©
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Claude Debussy said that the other arts nourish music, but here is an instance where the inspiration flows in the other direction. Jessica Svendsen’s images make me think of Marcel Duchamps’ rotoreliefs, which I also like. Thanks for this.
Jane,
The breadth of your knowledge always adds such richness to my posts. Thank you.
I was delighted to find that snippet about l’esprit de l’escalier. I’ve heard the reference before in English, and I used to discuss it with my students in the broader context of learning to express oneself. But I never knew there was an actual saying. Well, as they say, “The French have a name for it.”
It is one of my most favored expressions and easily one of my most frequent lapses in life.
Readers,
We are discussing the phrase “L’esprit de l’escalier” or “esprit d’escalier” which literally translates into stairway wit. It appears over on the EA sidebar under the spectacular photo of the stairway at the Louvre in Paris. The expression is the sense of thinking of a clever comeback in an encounter when it is too late to be useful; hence, when one is on the staircase leaving the scene of the encounter.
Featured: Stairway at the Louvre, Paris, 2007
Such marvelous graphic design!