Perlin Exhibit: creating an invitation

As Bernard Perlin: An Artist Goes to War draws ever closer, the deadlines to get stuff to the printers are starting to nip at my heels.

When my cousin got married last year, I noticed the invitation, and it was oversize, which costs more to mail. We don't want to blow a ton of money on postage for opening reception invites. Yes, people will receive e-invites, but a real invitation will also go out. It's something tangible.

So, playing around with designs and sizes, I really wanted to keep it so it would fit in a standard #10 envelope. Below is the front, and it measures 4" x 9".

Regular readers may notice that I've changed the logo font. I found a copy of the booklet for Perlin's first one-man show at Knoedler's in NYC in 1948. This narrow Bodoni font spelling out his name pays homage to that. When I sent Perlin a draft of the exhibit poster last year, he chuckled, "I love seeing my name in big, bold print." I think he'd be please with this.

The images are the different stages of the war. At the far left, his time in the Office of War Information, then there's Winston Churchill in Cairo, going on a raid with the Greek Sacred Squadron, preparations for the air war on Japan, and finally the surrender on the USS Missouri.

This will open up to 8" x 9" with the left half describing the exhibit for those who don't know, and the right half will spell out opening reception details. I'm still tweaking the text, and that's why you're not it seeing now.

Resorts at Sea: Bernard Perlin

Perhaps one of the last of the artists who benefited from the various New Deal arts programs has passed away. Bernard Perlin was 95. Read the obituary.

Perlin won two commissions in the Section of Fine Arts/U.S. Maritime Commission competition of 1940. He created seven spandrels for the main lounge and library mural for American President Lines' President Hayes.

I never met him in person, but spoke with him many times over the phone. A master storyteller, sharp until the end. His presence will be missed.

STOP THE PRESSES!

Had planned on recouping from my most recent research trip, but no. Just when you think it's safe, you get broadsided. But this is being broadsided in a good way ...

The Perlin Exhibit is back on! Now it won't be until November 2014, but it's on! It's game on!

Once the initial shock wears off, I'll write more, filling in details, like dates and what not. But this is a very cool thing. :^)

Perlin Exhibit: the countdown continues ...

Above are three of the 40+ pages of the exhibit booklet we're putting together for Bernard Perlin: An Artist Goes to War. Notice how skimpy the Special Thanks page is looking. You guys need to make a pledge!

The page size is roughly 7" x 10". The fun part is deciding which illustrations to put in the text and which deserve a page of their own -- a "plate" to be all official about it. Decisions like that will be made until the very last minute.

It's alive! ALIVE!

The Kickstarter campaign to fund the exhibit Bernard Perlin: An Artist Goes to War is live!

I created the introductory video plus a supplemental one ...

We were very fortunate to have that audio! I used Audacity to edit the sound, and a very antiquated version of Windows Movie Maker, which goes to show that even with the most basic of tools, it's how you use them, and believe me, I'm not a "movie maker." It's the story that matters, and if your story is a boring one, all the bells and whistles in the world will not make it interesting and compelling.

I also did the campaign graphics to illustrate the donor rewards. I'm donating my time and will continue to give my energies to do the advertising, exhibit booklet, and anything else required to get this exhibit together.

So what are you waiting for? Take a look, and make a pledge today!

Perlin exhibit: April update

Plans are rolling right along for Bernard Perlin: An Artist Goes to War.

A pleasant discovery was finding the location of several works Perlin created for Life magazine in 1944. I had stumbled across the PBS documentary, They Drew Fire, which focuses on war artists, and something I need to go back and watch. What puzzled me was the attribution of a work we know Perlin has in his possession to the US Army Center of Military History.

In 1960, Life gave the hundreds and hundreds of works they had relating to their war art program to the Defense Department, which then transferred them to the US Army Center of Military History. This art covers all military branches, so don't be surprised if something documenting naval operations is in the Army Center.

Given the crazy leads I've been chasing down for my Resorts at Sea project, a quick email to the US Army Center would be cake. Lo and behold, they wrote back about a week later saying they have ten works by Bernard Perlin. Perlin did three articles for Life, and I have one of them; from February 1945. The art at the Army Center makes up the bulk of that article.

Ambush, Island of Samos, 1944 and Mountain Operations, 1944.

Courtesy of the Army Art Collection, US Army Center of Military History.

To me, the art shown here is an early ancestor to today's graphic novels. I even see some style similarities with Genndy Tartakovsky's groundbreaking animated series Samurai Jack.

Watch this space for further updates!

Plan B

A few weeks back, I wrote about co-organizing and designing for an exhibit planned for the fall, a career retrospective of Bernard Perlin. Shortly after I posted, the numbers started coming in regarding what it would cost to borrow various works from various institutions. Yowza. There is such a barrier to entry, no wonder many people write off art as only being for the elites.

A quick regrouping and Plan B was formulated. Perlin's work for Life and Fortune magazines is actually his first major body of work, and one where we can see an artist grow and develop. And the bulk of the material is in one spot, with very little borrowing involved.

Design 101 (for me, anyway) dictates that a strong graphic will make your look. The one utilized here is called Patrol Disembarks. Coupled with the title "an artist goes to war," the linkage is undeniable. A mockup of the poster in on the left, the bones of a newspaper ad on the right.

Still have to raise money, though, but it's less than Plan A, so it should be easier. (Knock on wood.)

Designs for an Exhibit

For those who haven’t been paying attention, I’ve been teasing about an art exhibit. This project is linked to my Resorts at Sea study. I’ve mentioned I’ve been in contact with a few of the artists who created art for American-built passenger ships. I’ve also said it’s been hard not to delve into the other works of these artists: the non-commercial art, the art for art’s sake; not the art for hire.

Bernard Perlin is 94 years old. He entered a national design competition sponsored by the Section of Fine Arts and the U.S. Maritime Commission in the spring of 1940. During the summer of that year, he was notified he won two commissions for the President Hayes, the third ship in the President Jackson-class of American President Lines.

Last summer, after I had found a good number of the artists involved in this study, I started gathering biographical material. I was stunned to find Mr. Perlin was still alive. (I shouldn’t have been, one grandma passed six months shy of 100, the other is still going strong, about to turn 93.) I wrote him, sending along a couple articles to jog his memory. A few weeks later, he wrote back!

I called him, but there was one heck of a thunderstorm blowing on his end, then his phone died. After several tries to get him back, I gave up. I reached his machine the next day, and that weekend, he called me back. If I live to be his age, I hope to be half as sharp as he is. Stories flowed as if they happened yesterday, and I am truly touched he took the time to share them with me.

He gave me the name of a man in Chicago who’s been working on his life story for further details, admitting he may have missed some things. And that’s how Michael Schreiber and I became acquainted. Michael has taken on the Herculean task of giving Mr. Perlin’s career a second look. After diving into a Flickr page with hundreds of shots of a wide variety of works, I was blown away. An exhibit had to be organized. Over the holidays, Michael and I decided "to do this thing."

Michael has also been shopping around a Perlin biography, and has been given many excuses as to why it’s a bad idea. Most publishers would do it, but it'd have to be in conjunction with an exhibit, which wasn’t happening because institutions wouldn’t take it on for this, that, and the other reasons.

Frequent readers know I do a lot of work for the Kirksville Arts Association. Kirksville is in Missouri. Actor and art aficionado Vincent Price was born in St. Louis and later in life was a frequent speaker in the Lyceum Series at what is now Truman State University in Kirksville. Price met Perlin at the 1938 Kosciusko Foundation Ball in New York. They struck up a friendship, with Price giving Perlin a commission: a mural in his tiny apartment. Price spoke highly of Perlin in his 1959 book I Like What I Know.

Perlin was also great friends with Missouri natives Edna Fischel Gellhorn, a St. Louis civic leader and a founder and the first vice president of the National League of Women Voters, and her daughter, Martha Gellhorn, one of the first female war correspondents, and third wife of Ernest Hemingway.

I could go on and on, and still not do Mr. Perlin any justice. So let’s focus on the exhibit.

Trying to arrange an artist’s career output – in this case, a 75-year career – with a handful of pieces is harder than I could’ve imagined. It’s akin to waking up one morning and deciding to take up cliff diving, and twenty feet before you hit the water, you’re trying to remember if you know how to swim.

Playing with groupings.

 

I started with the works at a 1/4 inch scale, moving them around, seeing what groups worked and those that didn't. Then Michael and I sat down on the phone to winnow the list down. And here’s the arrangement so far …

 Pages from the planning docs showing wall elevations. 

Along with arranging the pieces, the exhibit needs to be publicized. I chose a self portrait from 1937, when he was 19. (Image top right at the beginning of this post.) It scales pretty well for most poster and ad sizes with minor cropping required.

And every exhibit needs a catalogue with essays and loads of images. If I told you who I’m talking with in arranging the printing, you wouldn’t believe me, so we’ll wait until it’s done.

Front cover and sample pages for exhibit catalogue. (I told you the poster graphic scales and crops nicely.) 

But above all else, in order to make this go, we need funding. Options are being explored.

This is a fun project, and I hope Michael and I can bring it to fruition.

Digital Grab Bag + Exhibit Teaser

After taking pictures one afternoon, I looked to see what all was on there. Surprised at the quantity, I dumped everything to the computer, which I discovered hadn't been done since mid-September. (At least it was September of this year.)

 

Is it a rock or an island?

 

A nice vista, and some nice pops of color amongst the rocks.

 

The mummified remains of the Loch Ness Monster? No just a stick. And I wonder

what Bob Ross would say about those clouds?

A foggy day ... No tricks with the one on the right, just reflections

on the river. The blues were that of the left image, but I like it

better in black and white.

 

 

EXHIBIT TEASER

 

The three images above are drafts of information banners for the Bernard Perlin retrospective exhibit I'm working on. Still a ways to go, as shown in the text in the right hand graphic, but ways ahead of where I was in the beginning. More details to come next month!