Charles Demuth (November 8, 1883 – October 23, 1935)

Charles Demuth (November 8, 1883 – October 23, 1935) was an American watercolorist who turned to oils late in his career, developing a style of painting known as Precisionism. (Picture: Charles Demuth, Self-Portrait, 1907)

"Search the history of American art," wrote Ken Johnson in the New York Times, "and you will discover few watercolors more beautiful than those of Charles Demuth. Combining exacting botanical observation and loosely Cubist abstraction, his watercolors of flowers, fruit and vegetables have a magical liveliness and an almost shocking sensuousness."

Demuth was a lifelong resident of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The home he shared with his mother is now the Demuth Museum, which showcases his work. He graduated from Franklin & Marshall Academy before studying at Drexel University and at Philadelphia's Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. While he was a student at PAFA, he met William Carlos Williams at his boarding house. The two were fast friends and remained close for the rest of their lives.

He later studied at Académie Colarossi and Académie Julian in Paris, where he became a part of the avant garde art scene. The Parisian artistic community was accepting of Demuth's

While he was in Paris he met Marsden Hartley by walking up to a table of American artists and asking if he could join them. He had a great sense of humor, rich in double entendres, and they asked him to be a regular member of their group. Through Hartley he met Alfred Stieglitz and became a member of the Stieglitz group. In 1926, he had a one-man show at the Anderson Galleries and another at Intimate Gallery the New York gallery run by his friend Alfred Stieglitz.

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Demuth


Incense of a New Church, 1921

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More Artists at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Art

Christian Dior (January 21, 1905 – October 23, 1957)

Christian Dior (21 January 1905 – 23 October 1957) was a French fashion designer, best known as the founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, also called Christian Dior, but now owned by LVMH.

Christian Dior was born in Granville, a seaside town on the coast of Normandy, France, the second of the five children of Maurice Dior, a wealthy fertilizer manufacturer (the family firm was Dior Frères), and his wife, the former Isabelle Cardamone. He had four siblings: Raymond (father of Françoise Dior), Jacqueline, Bernard, and Ginette (aka Catherine). When Christian was about five years old, the family moved to Paris, France, but still returned to the Normandy coast for summer vacations.

Dior's family had hopes he would become a diplomat, but Dior was artistic and wished to be involved in art. He was gay, though not openly so. To make money, he sold his fashion sketches outside his house for about 10 cents each. In 1928, Dior left school and received money from his father to finance a small art gallery, where he and a friend sold art by the likes of Pablo Picasso. Three years later, after the death of Dior's mother and brother and a financial disaster in the family’s fertilizer business, during the Great Depression, that resulted in his father losing control of Dior Frères, the gallery had to be closed.

From then until about 1940 he worked with fashion designer Robert Piguet, when he was called up for military service.

In 1942, when Dior left the army, he joined the fashion house of Lucien Lelong, where he and Pierre Balmain were the primary designers. For the duration of World War II, Dior, as an employee of Lelong — who labored to preserve the French fashion industry during wartime for economic and artistic reasons — designed dresses for the wives of Nazi officers and French collaborators, as did other fashion houses that remained in business during the war, including Jean Patou, Jeanne Lanvin, and Nina Ricci. While Dior dressed Nazi wives, his sister Catherine (1917—2008) served as a member of the French Resistance, was captured by the Gestapo, and sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she was incarcerated until she was liberated in May 1945.


Bar; La Ligne Corolle; The New Look (Jacket)
This 'Bar' suit was one of the most popular models in Dior's first collection, which he called 'La Ligne Corolle'. The press dubbed it the 'New Look' and the name endured. Dior (1905-1957) took the softer feminine shape - round, sloping shoulder-line, narrow waist and spreading skirts - to the extreme. Despite official complaints it was a resounding success. Harper's Bazaar published detailed line drawings of the New Look's construction, and 'Bar' was also illustrated in Vogue and L'Officiel. (http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O75379/bar-la-ligne-corolle-the-jacket-christian-dior/)

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Dior

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More Fashion Designers at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Art

Ned Rorem (born October 23, 1923)

Ned Rorem (born October 23, 1923) is a Pulitzer prize-winning American composer and diarist. He is best known and most praised for his song settings.

He was born in Richmond, Indiana and received his early education in Chicago at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, the American Conservatory of Music and then Northwestern University. Later, Rorem moved on to the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and finally the Juilliard School in New York City.

In 1966 he published The Paris Diary of Ned Rorem, which, with his later diaries, has brought him some notoriety, as he is honest about his and others' sexuality, describing his relationships with Leonard Bernstein, Noel Coward, Samuel Barber, and Virgil Thomson, and outing several others (Aldrich and Wotherspoon, eds., 2001). Rorem has written extensively about music as well. These essays are collected in anthologies such as Setting the Tone, Music From the Inside Out, and Music and People. His prose is much admired, not least for its barbed observations about such prominent musicians as Pierre Boulez. Rorem has composed in a chromatic tonal idiom throughout his career, and he is not hesitant to attack the orthodoxies of the avant-garde.

His notable students include Daron Hagen. His most recent work is Wings of Friendship: Selected Letters 1944–2003, published by Shoemaker & Hoard.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Rorem

( Ned Rorem, 1987, by Robert Giard )

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More Particular Voices at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Particular Voices

Gay Romance Challenge: October 2013

Here is the Bestsellers List on Amazon I'm referring to for the challenge:

Bestsellers in Gay Fiction

And here is the actual situation (in bold the books I read with link to the review and marked as New the books entering the Challenge this month):

1) Broken Bonds (Assassin/Shifters) by Sandrine Gasq-Dion
Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FZX2H4Y/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Review:
2) Double Full (A Nice Guys Series) by Kindle Alexander
Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FPRACEC/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Review:
3) Texas Family by RJ Scott
Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FWJMY6M/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Review:
4) My Hero by Max Vos
Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FJ1E9IY/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Review:
5) Bad Idea (Itch Series) by Damon Suede
Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G1X9G1Y/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Review:
6) After the Fall (Tucker Springs) by L.A. Witt
Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FO6WML0/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Review:
7) His Roommate's Pleasure by Lana McGregor
Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CC68G7Y/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Review: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3871495.html
8) The Reunion by G. A. Hauser
Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FVYV1SK/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Review:
9) Salvation by Rob Colton
Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FO6WOZY/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Review:
10) Elements of Retrofit (Thomas Elkin) by N.R. Walker
Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FMRSS3W/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Review:

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