On the 15th of July 1937, the American artist Wes Wilson was born in Sacramento, California. He is generally regarded as the pioneer of the psychedelic poster and inventor of the psychedelic font which made the letters look as if they were melting or floating. The style of the font was derived from a Viennese Secessionist style […]
Category Archives: Pop Culture
Warhol, Pop Art, and Autism: Case Unravelled
posted by ArtLark
On the 9th of July 1962, Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans exhibition opened at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles. It was Warhol’s first solo gallery exhibition as a fine artist. The size of the show was determined by the number of varieties of Campbell’s soup available at the time. The 32 paintings were presented […]
Enrico Baj: Anarchist at Heart
posted by ArtLark
On the 15th of June 2003, Italian painter, sculptor, writer and anarchist Enrico Baj died in Vergiate, Italy. In his works he focused mainly on politically engaged themes such as the threat of nuclear war or the political situation in Italy under Berlusconi. Baj was one of the founders of the Nuclear Art Movement that […]
Donald Duck and Wartime Propaganda
posted by ArtLark
On the 9th of June 1934, Donald Duck debuted in Disney’s The Wise Little Hen, which was part of the Silly Symphonies series of theatrical cartoon shorts. The anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet, dressed in a blue sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie, is […]
Denim and Popular Culture
posted by ArtLark
On the 20th of May 1873, Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis received a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets. In San Francisco, Levi Strauss, a Jewish-German immigrant, had established a profitable wholesale dry goods business importing clothing and fabric to sell in the small stores opening all over California and other Western states to […]
Fashion, Mondrian Style
posted by ArtLark
On the 17th of May 1911, the Swedish fashion model Lisa Fonssagrives, widely credited as the first ever supermodel, was born in Västra Götaland County, Sweden. A classic Scandinavian beauty “with impossibly high cheekbones and a cool, penetrating look of well-born entitlement” (Harold Koda, Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion), she posed for some of the most […]
Political Criticism in Harold Gray’s ‘Little Orphan Annie’
posted by ArtLark
On the 9th of May 1968, American cartoonist Harold Gray died in La Jolla, California. His death marked the end of a very prolific career, but the fame of his newspaper comic strip, Little Orphan Annie, outlived him for a very long time. The story of an innocent vagabond girl wandering through a world of […]
Petty Girl: The Ideal Male Fantasy of a Woman
posted by ArtLark
On the 27th of April 1894, the American graphic artist George Petty was born in Abbeville, Louisiana. He is mostly remembered for creating the Petty Girl, one of America’s favourite and most popular pinups, which was used frequently in advertisements, calendars, magazine centrefolds, posters, and most importantly, as an element of building soldiers’ morale during […]
John Lennon: James Joyce’s Illegitimate Son?
posted by ArtLark
On the 23rd of March 1964, In His Own Write by John Lennon was first published. The book was the first solo Beatle project in any form that turned out to be an instant success. Printed initially by Jonathan Cape of Great Britain, it sold only in England 50,000 copies on the first day. In […]
Corporate ‘Museums’: The World of Coca Cola
posted by ArtLark
On the 12th of March 1894, the first bottles of Coca-Cola were sold in Vicksburg, Mississippi, the drink invented by Atlanta pharmacist Dr. John Pemberton eight years earlier. Joseph Biedenharn, the owner of the soda fountain in Vicksburg, was the first to install bottling machinery in the rear of his store. Their popularity quickly spread […]