28 Monday Jan 2019
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Andy Warhol, Polaroid photograph, 1979. Via Kasmin Gallery
I just re-read The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again and enjoyed it much more than my first reading, more than a decade ago. Plus, I was even happier to re-familiarize myself with some of Warhol’s thoughts on perfume. Here’s an excerpt…
14 Wednesday Nov 2018
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I came across this delightful piece of printed ephemera on the New York Public Library website. It was produced by the French lithography firm of Lithographie F. Appel and it probably dates to the 1880s. It’s a trade card from a series promoting the shops and businesses of the city of Saint-Denis, just north of Paris. In this image, a perfume bottle is transforming into a woman, or vice versa—we’ve all been there, haven’t we?—while surrounded by other toiletries, a powder puff, and an artist’s palette. It’s a nonsensical image, like some kind of “Alice Through the Belle Epoque Looking-Glass,” and I love it.
Image: The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. c1876-1890. Scrapbooks of colored advertising cards in English and French: volume 3.
30 Tuesday Oct 2018
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“I am my own muse. I am the subject I know best.”
I’m currently reading Frida Kahlo: Making Myself Up, edited by Claire Wilcox and Circe Henstrosa and published by the Victoria & Albert in 2018. It’s the companion publication for the exhibition of the same name, open at the V&A through November 4, 2018.
This exhibition includes art by Kahlo and photographs of Kahlo taken by an international roster of photographers, some of whom were personal friends of the artist. Its main theme is Kahlo’s keen sense of self-presentation and her symbolically (and literally) layered self-fashioning, exemplified by rarely seen objects from Kahlo’s home in Mexico City—intimate possessions like clothing, accessories, jewelry, and cosmetics.
09 Thursday Aug 2018
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In honor of Book Lovers Day (not that I need a particular occasion to love books!), here’s a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Piero di Cosimo (1462-1521). It’s a depiction of Mary Magdalene reading scripture, with a jar of precious perfumed oil standing at her elbow.
This painting dates to 1490-95 and is in the collections of the Palazzo Barberini in Rome.
06 Wednesday Jun 2018
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I’ve been listening to Kate Bush since I was sixteen years old (possibly the very best time to start listening to Kate Bush!) but I don’t think I’ve ever written about her in connection to scent.
16 Wednesday May 2018
Posted in Advertising and Scent, Art and Scent
Sometimes an advertisement is all we can know of a discontinued perfume. This is the case (for me, at least) for Natural de Myrurgia, a fragrance released by the Spanish house Myrurgia in 1982.
Myrurgia is best known for its classic Maja, still available worldwide, but all I’ve been able to learn about Natural comes from a page on the Fragrantica database, which describes Natural as a floral-chypre composition of sandalwood, patchouli, musk, violet, jasmine, pink peony, bergamot, and rose. The page also includes an ad for Natural de Myrurgia. The photo is too small and too low-resolution for me to read its text, but its imagery is clear enough…
26 Monday Mar 2018
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I didn’t know anything about the band Rasputina until I walked into one of their live shows, thanks to my husband, who had bought tickets, guessing (correctly) that I would enjoy it. Rasputina’s musical style is often described as “gothic cello-rock,” and it’s certainly a love-or-hate thing. For me, it was love at first note.
I just wanted to share this image, the cover of Rasputina’s 2002 album Cabin Fever. Rasputina’s frontwoman, Melora Creager, creates much of the artwork for the band’s visual materials. She seems to have collaborated with photographer and multi-media artist Ryan Obermeyer for this cover.
Do you see what I see?
12 Monday Mar 2018
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Photograph by Mick Rock, 1973
I’ve been immersed in all things Bowie lately, and I’m staring at these photos by Mick Rock for the hundredth time and feeling as frustrated as I did when I first saw them.
Here’s a recent quote about Bowie from Mick Rock:
“I have loads of pictures of him backstage getting himself ready, in ridiculous extravagant costumes, having a drink in a plastic cup,” Mr. Rock said. After Bowie traveled to Japan and met Kabuki performers, “his makeup got even more exotic. This Japanese makeup was like little pots, there was a lot of little powders involved, all carefully laid out, ready to go,” before a show, “along with the cigarette packs, and maybe a banana or two.” (The New York Times, March 5, 2018) … Continue reading
26 Monday Feb 2018
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The Italian artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo became known for his witty and eye-fooling “portrait heads” in the 1500s. His portraits and allegorical figures composed of objects like fruit, vegetables, seashells, and food gained him favor as a court painter and prefigured the much later art historical movement of Surrealism. (You can read a short Smithsonian article about him here.)
