Forever Wild at Heart – NYTimes.com #PAFADavidLynch

Is Mr. Lynch as compelling a fine artist as he has been a filmmaker? The short answer is no. Images of sex, violence, trauma and black comedy abound, but many of the qualities that make his movies so singular — so “Lynchian” — are missing. The convoluted narratives, shifts from noirish realism to hallucinatory surrealism, erotic sensuality and creepy voyeurism, atmospheres of suspense and dread, mood swings from wonder to hysteria to bottomless grief, battles between innocence and evil: these dimensions aren’t fully realized in Mr. Lynch’s paintings.

Nevertheless, for Lynch completists, it’s a fascinating, must-see show.

Exploring David Lynch’s Paintings and Drawings – NYTimes.com.

Panorama 2208_blended_fused_pregamma_1_mantiuk06_contrast_mapping_0.1_saturation_factor_0.8_detail_factor_1 small | Flickr – Photo Sharing!

Wolf Building {before renovation)
1200 Callowhill Street
Philadelphia, PA
Copyright © 2013, Bob Bruhin. All rights reserved.
(via ehood.us/1skoZcv)
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Panorama 2208_blended_fused_pregamma_1_mantiuk06_contrast_mapping_0.1_saturation_factor_0.8_detail_factor_1 small | Flickr – Photo Sharing!.

Why you may have seen ‘typed’ letters above Philadelphia yesterday – Technical.ly Philly

For Dave Kyu, the messages hovering over Philadelphia would represent almost two years of work. But his masterpiece would literally fade away in minutes.

Midday Sunday, five World War II-style aircraft took off from Long Island to make the 45-minute trip to Philadelphia to realize Kyu’s project, Write Sky.

The planes would spell out three messages, composed by teams of people who live and work in Philadelphia’s Callowhill neighborhood, above the entire city.

Why you may have seen ‘typed’ letters above Philadelphia yesterday – Technical.ly Philly.

Eraserhood: Philadelphia’s Ashcan Inspiration

Eraserhood: Philadelphia's Ashcan Inspiration

URBAN LANDSCAPES BY BOB BRUHIN
NOW EXHIBITING AT BLACKBIRD PIZZERIA
507 S. 6th St, between South and Lombard
Sept 11-Nov 31  ( monday – saturday: 11am – 10pm – sunday: 11am – 9pm)
Artist Opening Thursday, Sept 18th, 9-10pm

EXPLORE THE INDUSTRIAL LANDSCAPE THAT INSPIRED
ARTISTS DAVID LYNCH, JOHN SLOAN, EVERETT SHINN,
GEORGE LUKS, WILLIAM GLACKENS, AND ROBERT HENRI

Before David Lynch, before Eraserhead, the industrial section of North Philadelphia now colorfully nicknamed “Eraserhood,” after Lynch’s cinematic masterpiece, was already inspiring artists from Philadelphia and beyond. Now eraserhood.com photographer Bob Bruhin explores this neighborhood with a view toward its deeper history as a muse for creative Philadelphians.

In April 2013 Bruhin, already an avid photographer and documentarian of the Callowhill District, took a tour led by the now departed Paul VanMeter, local historian and rail park activist. “VanMeter opened my eyes to the truth behind the history of this region. I was always aware of the role Callowhill played in inspiring David Lynch. VanMeter made me aware of an earlier movement out of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine arts known as ‘The Philadelphia Four.’”

The Four, also known as “The Charcoal Club,” according to Bruhin, were John Sloan, William Glackens, George Luks, and Everett Shinn. He alludes to a 2008 article in the art blog Lines and Colors (linesandcolors.com/2008/07/12/…), which reports that:

The four had common backgrounds as illustrators for The Philadelphia Inquirer and the The Philadelphia Press and attended classes at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA).

Sloan went to high school at Central High in Philadelphia, along with Glackens and Albert C. Barnes, who would later establish the Barnes Foundation. Sloan and Glackens went on to study at the Academy. Among their instructors was Thomas Anshutz, who, as the leading student of Thomas Eakins, inherited Eakins’ mantle when the latter was forced from the school.

Sloan eventually met another influential student of Anshutz, Robert Henri, a strong willed and charismatic artist who preached rebellion from the constraints of academic art.

Henri encouraged the four to pursue careers as gallery artists, paint honestly what they saw in life, particularly contemporary urban life, and suggested they study European artists like Frans Hals, Goya, Valázquez, and Manet.

During the tour, VanMeter pointed out that Central High was located near Broad and Spring Garden at the turn of the 19th Century. He asked his tour group to imagine Sloan, Glackens, and Barnes walking down Broad Street, past the very active industrial sites that then lined this thoroughfare, to attend the PAFA day program for high school students. “My eyes were opened,” Bruhin recalls. “Here was the seed of what eventually became the Ashcan school of painting, inspired by the same rugged beauty that was driving my own work. In this light, Eraserhead becomes more than just a surreal dream. Lynch might deny this, but for me Eraserhead is also an Ashcan painting, with the addition of sound and movement.”

Driven by this realization, Bruhin has assembled a collection of the images from his blog, making them available to the general public at Blackbird Pizzeria during their normal business hours.

Panorama 2066 blended fused pregamma 1 mantiuk by bruhinb Panorama 2063 fused pregamma 1 mantiuk06 contr by bruhinb Panorama 2100 fused pregamma 1 mantiuk06 contr by bruhinb Panorama 2122 fused pregamma 1 mantiuk06 contrast  by bruhinb Panorama 1827 hdr pregamma 1 mantiuk06 contras by bruhinb

Eraserhood: Philadelphia’s Ashcan Inspiration.