The legend and the obscure - figures from the Harlem Renaissance and others by Winold Reiss, 1924-25

 

W. E. B. Du Bois, sociologist, historian, and civil rights activist.

Mary Mcleod Bethune, educator, philanthropist, and civil and women's rights activist.

Jean Toomer, poet and novelist.

Zora Neale Hurston, writer and anthropologist.

Alain Leroy Locke, writer, philosopher, and educator. 

 Charles Spurgeon Johnson, sociologist and college administrator.

"Harlem Girl, I."

Paul Robeson, singer, actor, and activist.

Robert Russa Moton, educator and author.

"Two Public School Teachers."

"A College Lad." This is a portrait of Harold Jackman, British-born educator, model, and patron of the arts..

James Weldon Johnson, writer and civil rights activist.

"Girl with Blanket."

Roland Hayes, singer and composer.

Robert Nathaniel Dett, Canadian-American composer, pianist/organist, and choral director.

Sari Price Patton, the hostess at a popular salon run by patron of the arts and Harlem Renaissance fixture A’Lelia Walker. Patton was, apparently, also an embezzler.

Countee Cullen, poet, novelist, and playwright.

"The Librarian."

A second portrait of Alain Leroy Locke, writer, philosopher, and educator.

Elise J. McDougald, educator, writer, and activist.

"Harlem Boy."

"The Actress."

 Langston Hughes, poet, novelist, playwright, activist, and columnist. 

Our goofy holiday card, 2024 edition

 

I had design responsibilities this year. And, after our recent election, I expect the meaning behind the ominous reference to 2025 will be fairly obvious.

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And the original image; Krampuses - "Krampi"? - can always be counted on for a good time!

(Okay, the correct plural seems to be Krampusse.)

Eine Leidenschaft, Männer abzubilden - selected drawings and paintings by Anton Kolig

 

Sehnsucht - "Longing" - the title of this first painting, might seem to speak for all the other paintings and drawings here. Is it even possible that such astonishingly intimate images could have been created by an artist who was only "recording" the male form? Kolig was married, with children, but it would be inconceivable not to wonder if he had more than a merely artistic response to his models; some of these pieces - the drawings, especially - feel almost predatory. Could an entirely heterosexual man ever portray the male body the way this artist does?

Sehnsucht, 1920.

Liegender männlicher Akt, 1947.

Zwei liegende männliche Akte, 1939.

Aufsteigendes Genie - detail study of an unrealized design for a wall fresco for the Vienna Crematorium, 1924.

Zwei liegende männliche Akte, hinten, vorne, 1947.

Kniender Narziß, 1920.

Zwei liegende männliche Akte, before 1950.

Großer Akt mit Spiegel, 1926.

Liegender männlicher Akt, 1936.

Jugend und Amor, 1911.

 Liegender männlicher Akt, 1933.

Liegender männlicher Akt, 1944.

Schwäbischer Adam, 1933.

Liegender männlicher Rückenakt, before 1950.

Klage, 1920.

Liegender männlicher Akt mit Kopfpolster, before 1950.

Sitzender Jugendlicher am Morgen, 1919.

Liegender männlicher Akt, 1941.

Liegender männlicher Akt, 1947.

Verwundeter, 1917.

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Anton Kolig (1 July 1886, Neutitschein, now part of the Czech Republic - 17 May 1950, Nötsch im Gailtal, Austria), Austrian expressionist painter. The son of salon artist Ferdinant Kolig, he studied in Vienna with Oscar Kokoschka at the Kunstgewerbeschule from 1904 to 1906, and with Heinrich Lefler and Alois Delug at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste from 1907 to 1912. He married in 1911, and that same year his work attracted the attention of Gustav Klimt and Carl Moll, who arranged for him to be awarded a travel scholarship to France. He returned to Austria at the outbreak of WWI and, from 1916, was in military service, also working as a military artist in Vienna. He produced a wide variety of work, from portraits to large-scale frescos. The male nude is central to his work, and frequently appears in the context of allegorical studies. Some of his work was destroyed by the Nazis, but he was able to retain a teaching position as a professor at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart until 1943, when he was forced into retirement. In 1944, he and his wife were seriously injured as a result of Allied bombing, and he spent the last years of his life in a small market town in the south of Austria where he died at the age of sixty-three.

Selbstporträt in einer blauen Jacke, 1926.