Arty Farty Friday ~ 2 artists born 13 April, both with "scandalous" reputations.

Glancing down the list of births on 13 April, through the decades, I noticed two artists whose work had been considered by many as scandalous: James Ensor and Pierre Molinier. The two artists were born 40 years apart, Ensor in Belgium in 1860, Molinier in Agen, France, in 1900.

In his final decades, James Ensor was an international celebrity showered with official honors in his native Belgium. But in the 1880s and 1890s, the young Ensor was a scandalous and defiant figure.

This was a period of great social and political unrest in Belgium, and also of incredible cultural ferment. Bursting with mad creativity sparked by the latest developments in the avant-garde, Ensor freely mined artistic sources both high and low, old and new, familiar and exotic, and oscillated unpredictably between painting, drawing, and printmaking. From an advanced mode of naturalism in step with broader European trends, Ensor's art quickly morphed into something so fantastic, bizarre, grotesque, and satirical that even his avant-garde peers had difficulty accepting it. To this day, Ensor's art continues to baffle in its psychological complexity, internal contradictions, and sheer eccentricity.

http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/scandalous_ensor/index.html

An account of French artist Pierre Molinier’s colourful life reads like that of the protagonist in an Oscar Wilde novel. A product of France’s oft-fictionalised fin de siècle degeneration, Molinier defied all societal norms to live a life of hedonistic excess. Both homosexual and a transvestite in an era when both were frowned upon – he asbcribed himself the title of ‘lesbienne’ – Molinier pursued fetishism and the latent eroticism of the subconscious mind to its most extreme degree......................
By 1955 Molinier had begun a fruitful correspondence with André Breton, the founder of Surrealism, who dubbed him 'the magician of erotic art' and decided to include his sensual, and at times violent, works in the International Surrealist Exhibition. This marked the artist’s official induction into the movement, and he soon earned a reputation as an artist who would dare to execute the ideas his reputable contemporaries, who included the likes of Salvador Dalí, only dreamt of.

His investigation into fetishism and depravity, both through painting and photography, steadily gathered momentum, culminating in an extensive series of portraits and self-portraits in which Molinier himself often features as a many-limbed woman, a dominatrix, or a devil. When his dwindling health prompted his death at the age of 76, it was executed with the all the charisma his character would suggest; a great lover of guns, he died from a single self-inflicted gunshot wound.
http://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/8019/the-forbidden-photo-collages-of-pierre-molinier

James Ensor, 13 April 1860, Ostend, Belgium at 4.30AM.

Pierre Molinier, 13 April 1900, Agen, France at 8.00AM.

There aren't many clear similarities. The obvious factor in Ensor's chart, reflecting his rather rebellious and uncompromising style is Venus(planet of the arts) conjunct Uranus (planet of the unexpected and the rebel). In addition Neptune, planet of creativity, dreams and the mysterious was sitting right on his rising degree - if time of birth is correct at Astrodatabank - it has AA rating so is reliable.


In Molinier's case, data from Astrodatabank, also AA rated, look at the chart shape as a start! It's made up of oppositions forming a cross, and involving the important points in a natal chart: the ascendant/descendant, mid-heaven and nadir! Oppositions can signify irreconcilable differences in a personality, or sometimes a kind of balancing act, an effort to reconcile opposites. Molinier had Pluto (eroticism, intensity) sitting close to his Gemini rising degree, with Venus and Neptune in Gemini also - what better "trade mark" for his style? In opposition to the Gemini planets are Uranus and Jupiter, an excess of the unexpected/futuristic, perhaps attempted balancing of the artist's runaway sexual intensity with an excess of the unexpected, using avant garde methods of photography.

Their common Aries Sun position seems secondary!

Arty Farty Friday ~ Shock Art : Beardsley & Balthus

A look at two artists who liked to shock. Aubrey Beardsley, about whom I posted back in 2007, a copy of that post is repeated below; and the artist known as Balthus. Of this pair I find Beardsley's art to be far more appealing, and talented. I've considered posting about Balthus a couple of times in the past but balked, due to his paintings' content. Oh, what the heck, may as well make him part of this "shocking" pair!

(This is an extra-long post, so nothing further until Monday.)


#1 Aubrey Beardsley

First From an article HERE by by Erin Smith :

Beardsley expressed a sexuality in his drawings which mocked. the prudishness of the Victorian age, and advocated full freedom to explore sexuality. He shocked Victorians with his grotesque and highly unnatural style, and drawings of nude bodies which were not idealized. Nonetheless, his drawings do not explicitly depict fornication or denigrate women. For these reasons, Beardsley's art can arguably be placed in the sphere of erotica rather than pornography.

Though he was an important leader during the "Decadence" and an innovator in Art Nouveau, his art stands out as one of the most shocking and fantastic critiques of Victorian society. Through the medium of his highly symbolic and esoteric drawings, Beardsley revealed the hypocrisy of the Victorian patriarchal social structure. Victorian society tagged his art as controversial because Beardsley became involved with social issues, and supported sexual freedom. However, this was not the strongest reason for his controversy. For repressed Victorians though, Beardsley's most dangerous weapon was his perceptiveness: in his drawings, they could see visual representations of their most latent desires and anxieties.

And from my 2007 post:

Aubrey Beardley may not be a name well-known in the USA. He was an English artist/illustrator of the late 19th century. Homosexual, individualistic, original and an expert draftsman, he lived a short but probably very interesting life. He died of tuberculosis at the young age of 25. He managed to produce a large volume of illustrations for magazines and books in those few years. His work is instantly recognisable.
Born 21 August, 1872 in Brighton, England, according to Astrotheme his time of birth was 5.18pm. I'm skeptical about this, wondering where such precise information came from in a country where time of birth is not routinely recorded. Still - it might be correct, so I've used it. It gives Capricorn rising, Saturn on the ascendant, which may account for the large volume of work he managed to produce in such a short lifespan.



His Sun at 28 Leo is within a degree of the Vertex probably making that area extra sensitive to transits. On the day he died, March 16 1898, Mars was opposing his natal Sun/Vertex from 26* Aquarius.

Natal Mars and Uranus at 1 and 3 Leo tell me where his determined-to-shock originality came from. Mercury in Virgo would have endowed the attention to detail his expert draftsmanship required, being 8th house could account for the sexual content of his work. A Grand Trine in Earth involving Saturn, Mercury and Pluto, which in some people might manifest as a good dose of common sense, because the planets at the birth time given by Astrotheme occupy 8th, 12th and 3rd houses more likely manifest here as an almost obsessive concentration on sex - which I suppose IS earthy !
His bunch of Leo planets ensured he made himself felt in that late 19th century world.

Beardsley was one of those mortals most definitely "born before his time", even so, along with Oscar Wilde and a close group of like-minded friends he brought homosexuality out into the light of day - to the horror of many strait-laced individuals.

"His formally elegant style, inspired in part by Greek vase painting, in which ornamental rhythm of line combines with a perverse and wickedly satiric imagination to create unforgettable images, often hilarious, frequently erotic, and sometimes deeply moving

A highly original creator, he transformed the art of illustration and profoundly influenced artists of his own and subsequent generations.


His expert draftsmanship made his drawings particularly suitable to the technical advances in printing at the end of the nineteenth century. Perhaps most important, however, he came to maturity at a time peculiarly suited to his genius, when theories of decadence and aestheticism gave license to the expression of perverse sexuality and to fetishism of all kinds. His work is sexually frank and, occasionally, pornographic. "
( from here.).

There's an excellent set of 4 videos (each 10 to 15 mins. long) on Beardsley and his work, at YouTube. Here's Part 1, with links to the other 3.



Part 2

part 3

part 4


Google Image has more extreme examples of Beardsley's work.

#2 Balthus

From Britannica.com

Balthus, pseudonym of Balthazar Klossowski, also spelled Balthasar Klossowsky (born February 29, 1908, Paris, France—died February 18, 2001, La Rossinière, Switzerland), reclusive French painter who, in the midst of 20th-century avant-gardism, explored the traditional categories of European painting: the landscape, the still life, the subject painting, and the portrait. He is best known for his controversial depictions of adolescent girls.

His parents, both artistic and intellectual, from Poland and East Prussia settled in Berlin at the start of World War I. His parents separated before the end of the war and their son divided his time between Germany and Switzerland. His mother's friend, poet Rainer Maria Rilke, encouraged the young would-be artist to publish an early book of his drawings about Mitsou, a lost cat, for which Rilke also contributed a preface.

In 1924 Balthus settled in returned to Paris and studied painting. He was able to support himself from commissions for portraits and stage sets. His paintings at this point were, at first glance, fairly run-of-the-mill interiors and landscapes, but seeming conservative they became controversial
"...the scenes often have an erotic, disturbing atmosphere and are often peopled with pensive adolescent girls. The presence of these languid, dreamy girls has often given rise to charges of pedophilic overtones; however, the artist’s depiction of these girls has also been interpreted as a truthful, evocative portrayal of the awkwardness of adolescence."
He spent the last two decades of the century as a virtual recluse in Switzerland, where he lived in a grand, 18th-century chalet with his second wife. He continued to paint into his 90s.


For more on Balthus and an exhibition of his work see
Bizarre Balthus show reveals artist's fixation with cats and young girls
More character study than retrospective, the Met's provocative new Balthus exhibition has an unsettling undertone, by Jason Farago at The Guardian (2013).

Or
Cat Fancy
‘Balthus: Cats and Girls’ and ‘The Big New Yorker Book of Cats’
By Jennifer B. McDonald at the NYT Sunday Book Review (2013)

I'm still hesitating about posting images of any of his more controversial paintings. Typing "Balthus" into the Google Image search box will bring up dozens of 'em. Or... here's a video from YouTube showing some of his works; and three reasonably safe ones below, just to prove he really could paint!

 The Cat of La Méditerranée 1949

Born 29 February 1908 at 1:00 PM in Paris, France. Data from Astrodienst.

Two T-squares:
#1 links the opposition of Moon-Jupiter by two square aspects to Mars
#2 links the opposition of Neptune/North node-Uranus by two square aspects to Venus.

Venus (the arts) though in uncomfortable position in that second T-square also has a helpful sextile to Pluto (eroticism).

His Pisces Sun/Mercury is in harmonious trine to Pisces' ruler, Neptune (creativity, dreams, imagination). If birth time is accurate, Neptune is close to the ascendant angle, giving it extra emphasis.

Sun/Mercury and Moon are semi-sextile. The mix of Pisces/Aquarius isn't one of the worst "next-door neighbour mixes", and in Balthus' case does kind of describe his gravitation to imagined scenes with an element of shock involved.

Hmmm. Could be an uncomfortable chart, but with forgiving features, and fairly well balanced element-wise.

Arty Farty Friday ~ Boris Vallejo, Master of Fantasy Art

Born in Lima, Peru on 8 January 1941, into a family of distinguished lawyers, he gravitated to art and music at an early age. His first aspiration was to be a concert violinist, took violin lessons for seven years. Changed track and studied medicine for two years. His study of human anatomy was almost certainly a great help to him later on when he became a professional artist and illustrator whose works almost always prominently portray a perfect specimen of the human body. With encouragement of friends who had seen his artwork, he decided to apply to the National School of Fine Arts in Lima and was granted a 5-year scholarship to the graphic arts division. He graduated with a "best student" accolade.

In 1964, with a portfolio of some of his works, and 80 dollars in his pocket, he emigrated to the United States, arrived in New York with no knowledge of English. Fellow-Peruvians helped him settle and he was soon producing artwork for advertising, greetings cards, book and album covers, movie posters. Over the years he has produced a huge volume of work for his current specialty, the Fantasy field. His latest art tends towards the erotic rather than straight-ahead fantasy.....sign of the times, I guess!

"I had already been working successfully as an illustrator for a few years, when I discovered fantasy art on an American comic magazine cover. It was a heroic woman fighting a prehistoric monster, and suddenly I knew that this was what I wanted to do. I have always had a special love for the perfect structure of the human body, and fantasy art enabled me to depict muscular and sensuous bodies in all variations in my works. And as I love human bodies, I always try to paint them as beautiful and as perfect as possible".

See
HERE

Vallejo's mastery of oil painting is obvious. His classic sensibilities stem from his admiration of Old Masters such as Vermeer, Rembrandt, Leonardo: "During my early years I used to study the works of such masters again and again. The painters I liked best were two Spanish ones, though: Murillo and Velazquez".

Vallejo married his second wife in 1994 - a fellow-artist of the Fantasy genre, Julie Bell, who also models for him and is a former nationally ranked competitive bodybuilder.

A quick look at Mr Vallejo's natal chart to discover whether his gravitation to his particular style of painting and his choice to paint fantasy/erotic art is indicated.

I see it at once - a Grand Trine (harmonious linked configuration of 3 X 120 degree angles). Linked planets Sun/Mercury in Capricorn with Uranus + possibly Moon in Taurus, and Neptune in Virgo. All the Earth signs - in this case I think that signifies an honouring of traditional art technique in his style, while remaining commercial and successfully business-oriented. Planets involved in the Grand Trine link Sun and Mercury - the artist's core self and mode of thinking to Uranus (and depending on time of birth) Moon: Uranus brings a futuristic modern "feel" to his traditional painting style; also linked is Neptune, the fantasy planet. That pretty much covers it, in context of his art, except that the erotic aspect isn't clearly indicated by the Grand Trine. I can find no time of birth for the artist, his ascendant is a likely key, perhaps a Scorpio ascendant, or Pluto rising?

I'll add just a few of examples of Boris Wallejo's artwork, the best place to see more, in large format, is at the online galleries HERE where his wife Julie
Bell's work can also be viewed - to be honest it's not easy to tell their work apart! Typing the artist's name into a Google Image search will also bring up a huge selection of examples. Much of his work was produced to relate to specific fiction or myth. His painting at the top of the post is titled Atlas (as if you hadn't worked that out already!)

Pygmalion & Galatea

(I think at some point Vallejo must have illustrated a calendar, using the 12 zodiac signs here are 3 examples; the rest can be found via Google Image)

Aries

Aquarius

Scorpio

Mistress of Fire

Mistress of the Air

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