I haven't read it yet, but Kehinde Wiley is featured in the new ArtNews. That's reason enough for me to share some of his work here.
This is the first work of his I experienced. It's in the Brooklyn Museum and it immediately drew me in because of the skill, the scale and the way in which he blends traditional approach and classical references with modern, urban subjects.
Photo: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid
Make it this one:
Why? It's written by Alejandro Jodorowsky, one of the world's great visionary creators of both comics and film and illustrated by one of the greatest artists ever to draw sequential art, Moebius. Impossibly, it lives up to that extraordinary pedigree. It's a glorious, madcap thrill ride of a book, jumping from one insane danger to another at a breathtaking pace.
There are single panels of this book that are more amazing than entire 6-12 issues runs of some other comics. There's more creativity and beauty in a single page of this book than you will find in some comic artists entire careers. The universe they inhabit is probably the most vibrant, truly alive fictional universes I've ever encountered. It's also big. The scale of the stories is often vast and the powers at play are planet-shattering.
In other words: hell. yes.
It's the best.
This song follows me around.
He wrote it in 1943 and then recorded it in 1946.
For those of you keeping track, Charles Trenet also sang Boum, which was used in Toto the Hero to great effect:
Trenet performing it…
Modestly inspired by James Burke's Connections.
I just wanted to make it official.
I'm going to see them on September 9, 2011. I can't wait. The last time I saw them was the first time I heard the above track. It was a memorable evening.
