Symphonie Diagonale, Viking Eggeling.

As I had never seen one of these hypnotic and beautifully alive works of animation before, I suppose it is no surprise that Viking Eggeling’s abstract film was one of my highlights from the excellent Van Doesburg and the International Avant Garde exhibition at Tate Modern in May 2010 year.

His experiments with marking intervals of time on film are brilliantly effective; the geometric language perfectly evoking rhythm and dynamic.

Vladimir Nabokov discusses his brilliantly expressive novel ‘Lolita’ - scandalous for many at the time, and a regular high-ranking novel in my list of all-time favourites - with the critic Lionel Trilling and the host of a 1950’s talk show.

Nabokov amusingly ruminates on whether the character of Humbert Humbert, famous primarily for pursuing an illicit, illegal love for a young girl, has anything in common with the author himself.

“If you ask me, for instance, whether my own ideas are those of Humbert Humbert I would say no.

Of course, he is European and a man of letters as I am, but I have taken great care to separate myself from him. For instance, the good reader notices that Humbert Humbert confuses - just to take an instance - Hummingbirds with Hog Moths. Now I would never do that, being an entomologist.

[…]

Well there are many other matters which I would leave to him.”

Artist and title unknown.

(via sawaru)

How to Create a Beautiful Picture 6: Tights in Shimotakaido, gelatin silver print, 1987, Daido Moraiyama.

Taut and architechtural erotic photography from Moraiyama, whose works - in a similar but tamer manner to Diane Arbus - dramatically expose an urban underbelly.

Rainbow, Linza Feldman.

Feldman is an artist from St. Petersburg, Russia with a portfolio full of well-crafted graphic design work. Above is my favourite of the works on her Behance portfolio. The voyeuristic perspective, erotic anonymity and gradual geometric dissolution are just perfect.

Body Sculpture, 1972, Hans Breder

Surrealist, conceptual photographer, and founder of the first university course in ‘intermedia’, it seems that Hans Brede has also experimented with the kind of erotic dismorphia that Hans Bellmer became noted for.

Wikipedia: ‘…the areas such as those between drawing and poetry, or between painting and theater could be described as intermedia. With repeated occurrences, these new genres between genres could develop their own names (e.g. visual poetry or performance art.)’

Untitled illustration by Hans Bellmer

Hans Bellmer’s contorted, conjoined mannequin sculptures and slow, tense photographs of the same were the inclusion that gripped me tightest at the Surreal Things: Surrealism and Design exhibition I saw at the V&A in 2007; they packed enough sex, anger and promise that he has occupied a place amongst my favourite surrealists since.

This illustration pairs his unmistakable flair for subverted human form with a beautiful segment of skin, stone and colour which calls to mind another master of form (albeit through sheer grace rather than erotic force): Henry Moore.

Lepus, Denise Nestor

Nestor is a graphic designer working in Dublin, and trades in a soft, feminine and decorative style that sidesteps ‘pretty’ and is all the more effective for it.

via (hushaby) and (yayeveryday)

Alberto Mieglo - best known for his wipe-clean illustration work which is at once surgically detailed and brimming with character - in his ‘Pinkman’ guise, proving that he animates just as well.