Curio Cabinet

There's no form of affection quite like the human touch. For German photographer Fiona Struengmann, a hands-on approach seemed like the right way to create her series of altered images entitled Just Like You, But Different. Struengmann came into ownership of the original pieces after meeting an amateur collector at a flea market, who invited Struengmann to her house at the insistence she take home some 7,000 photos. The 50-year-old collection gave Struengmann the impression that she was "...in conversation with the past, held in present time." Struengmann then used chemicals, brushes, and other alterations to change the original appearance of a photo; in the case of the above image, the disembodied hands are uniquely expressive and centralized as the focus of the new image. As more and more of the visual information disappears in Struengmann's works, new abstractions and realities become present, where the unexpected or unbelievable take shape on the prints and in our imaginations. And for that she deserves a round of applause!
 

Below: more of Struengmann's altered images from Just Like You, But Different.
 

Image credit & copyright: Fiona Struengmann
 

Which black lagoon did this creature crawl out of? Wait… it's actually a photo of a long-jawed orb weaver spider. With summer ushering in more bugs, Swedish photographer John Hallmén is out and about showing off the otherworldly details of these tiny creatures. In the case of the spider, above, a bead of venom hangs between its fangs, while its six eyes seem to stare intently at the viewer. Hallmén's photo captures an array of colors, from the sandy brown of the spider's legs, to the fine white hairs, to the red of its fanged mandibles. In an interview, Hallmén once said, "My fascination really began when I realized how bizarre and beautiful insects look when viewed up close. Of course, without a camera, they literally need to be in your face for you to appreciate this, and not everybody appreciates this." Even if you consider Hallmén's spider photo scary, you must admit—it is better than having a real spider shoved in your face!
 

Below: more of Hallmén's bug portraits.
 

Image credit & copyright: John Hallmén
 

Title: Paris Street; Rainy Day
Artist: Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894)
Created: 1877
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 83 1/2 × 108 3/4 in (212.2 × 276.2 cm)
Current location: Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany
 

Looks like someone's date was spoiled by rainy weather! At first glance, this painting from 1877 could be mistaken for a photograph—probably because French painter Gustave Caillebotte, born August 19, 1848, was an avid photo collector and mimicked certain aspects of photography in works like Paris Street; Rainy Day. To mimic a camera's depth-of-field perspective, Caillebotte gave the two pedestrians in the foreground of the image a slightly out-of-focus appearance, while those in the middle-distance are much sharper-looking, as if they are the visual subjects of the painting. People and buildings in the background become blurry the further they are from the imaginary "lens." When the painting was first exhibited in Paris in 1877, it was an immediate hit: French critic Émile Zola said that Caillebotte's human figures were "beautifully truthful" and predicted that the artist would one day be regarded as "one of the boldest" of impressionist painters. That's high praise, considering Zola hadn't liked any of Caillebotte's previous work. No wonder this painting has been turning heads for almost 150 years!
 

Below: a short video explaining the history of Caillebotte's most famous painting.
 

Image credit & copyright: Gustave Caillebotte/Charles H. and Mary FS Worcester Collection
 

It's Flashback Friday! Enjoy this favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
 

Title: Continental's Boeing 777
Artist: Peter Max (b. 1937)
Created: 1999
Medium: paint on airplane
 

German-American artist Peter Max was lucky enough to have a Boeing 777 serve as a canvas for his work. In the late 1990s, the psychedelic painter collaborated with Continental Airlines to doll up one of their commercial planes to celebrate New York City and the new millenium. Max used many of the same colors found in his canvas paintings: a sunny bright yellow, a bold red, and a calm blue. The overall effect pays homage to the shades of the sky—where the work of art would spend much of its time for the next several years, carrying people out of New York and often being photographed by surprised passengers in other planes. Though the Max plane has since been painted over, its seven years of airtime encouraged brightly colored art on planes owned by other airlines. Max's plane draws on a long tradition of art on aircraft, which dates back to World War I, when ground crews would often paint beautiful women onto the noses of military planes to boost the morale of pilots before they headed to Europe. We're sure spotting this beauty in the sky would've pepped up an otherwise humdrum flight!
 

Below: another Peter Max painting called Buddha Moon; the artist Don Allen admires nose art he painted on a World War II fighter plane.
 

Image credit & copyright: Peter Max and Cleveland Plain-Dealer