Tag Archives: Art in America

Back in the day!

Who knew the 70s would be the highpoint of American culture? Leisure suits, miniskirts, Battle of the Network Stars, Three’s Company, ah the good old days. Photography was allowed (and I didn’t take pictures) at a contemporary art museum I saw recently that had this incredible display of Afrocentric art from the early 70s. It was especially incredible in the mixture of mediums. I remember this one piece in that it used that super thick corrugated paper used for shipping/packing of appliances. They had cut down to differing layers and through the use of paints had highlighted their 3-dimensional piece. The whole show was about using the materials at hand in an urban environment.

As I explained in an earlier post, an Art in America magazine from 1978 has put me on the trail of an incredible number of artists from that era. That time before the internet, before digital art. Before ‘CGI’. You actually had to go to a gallery. A museum. You had to find parking, beat the rain. The name I found today was Dalla Costa. (“Amleto dalla Costa is an Italian artist best known for his flat, figurative paintings and silkscreen prints of women that directly reference art history. Born in 1929 in Milan, Italy, Costa’s compositions absorb and translate the aesthetic styles of both contemporary and Modern artists”)

Art in America

The November/December 1978 issue of Art in America

What a fascinating find this magazine was at a thrift shop a year ago. I was about to throw it out when I got a wonderful idea! What if this magazine was still in existence 42 years later? And before I threw it away, what if I did a search for some of the more interesting pieces from 42 years ago and posted them here? Art in America magazine does still exist, since 1913 from what Wikipedia says. I swear it brings back that smell of art rooms everywhere when I look at it. That mixture of paint, pottery, thinners and adhesives. Or like that wonderful community art building north of the Old Market area in Omaha. I really should get a subscription (a 1 year subscription in 1978 was $19.95. Today that subscription is $79.95, and it is coming to a mailbox near me!). This first example from that issue is from Philippe Noyer: “Femme Chez Maxims