More on Felipe Jesus Consalvos

Those of you who admire the art of Felipe Jesus Consalvos may be interested to know that one of his collages was used to illustrate the music CD cover of "We All Belong" by a group named Dr. Dog. I found an online inverview with lead singer Scott McMicken in which he describes how he discovered the collages when painting the walls of the Fleischer/Ollman Gallery. There is a nice reproduction of the cover art and one other Consalvos piece about three quarters of the way down the page. I should warn you that on the actual CD cover, the art is printed somewhat darker. It was interesting to note that a Campbell's Soup can has been discreetly covered by a red dot. The CD comes with a folded lyric sheet/poster featuring a Consalvos paper doll cut-out of George Washington in drag. This, for me, made it worth the purchase price.

Also, there is the full text of a 215 page master's thesis by Brendan Greaves titled: "Dream the Rest" On the Mystery & Vernacular Modernism of Felipe Jesus Consalvos, Cubamerican "Cigarmaker, Creator, Healer & Man." available online. Greaves also wrote an essay "The Art of Being Disagreeable" included in the exhibition catalog published by the Fleischer/Ollman Gallery.

Felipe Jesus Consalvos: Material Culture

I've written about the fabulous collage work of Felipe Jesus Consalvos here before, four times in 2008, but not recently. I was reminded of his work by a two-page advertisement in this months Art in America. Material Culture is auctioning off three pieces by Consalvos: a collage titled "Young America," a decorated guitar, and the fabulous octagonal piece (front and back pictured above). Their inaugural auction, "New World Orders: Art Furnishings, Collectables, Decorative Arts" will be held in Philadelphia (home of the Fleisher-Ollman Gallery which represents the artist's estate) on May 5, 2012.

The jester says: "Do Not Storm the System." Indeed.  He's standing on the Ten of Clubs, and under that are the words: "Normal Academy." I love the background pattern. The title for this piece is "Medicinal Torpedoes Tabletop" and it is dated circa 1920/50.

Messages & Magic

American Art Review (Vol. XX No. 6 2008) was in my mailbox today and that's where I read about the show titled "Messages & Magic: 100 Years of Collage and Assemblage in American Art" on view through January 25, 2009 at the Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan Wisconsin. The article is illustrated by a photo of a collage by Felipe Jesus Consalvos. The collage is titled: "Search for Understanding." It has a beautiful cigar band boarder framing an old sepia-toned photograph of a woman in a white dress... a nurse one might conclude from the anatomical bust (added by the artist) sitting on a table to her left. On closer inspection she looks more like a bride with a veil, but it's hard to tell for sure. Her face is obscured by a pasted-on fox head. There is a man in his underwear about to do a hand-stand in front of her and he's wearing the ubiquitous head of George Washington cut from a dollar bill. Felipe Jesus Consalvos was born in Cuba in 1891 and died in Philadelphia. You can best see his work at the Fleisher/Ollman Gallery in that same city.

Felipe Jesus Consalvos

I just received in today's mail a copy of the exhibition catalog: "Cigarmaker, Creator, Healer, & Man": the artwork of Felipe Jesus Consalvos published by the Fleisher/Ollman Gallery in 2005. It contains 29 full color plates (a few with detail views) and photos of the artist as a young man. In addition to masterful cigar stamped collages, there are also decorated objects including a typewriter, a dress form, a clock, a wastepaper basket, a chair (decorated with a skeleton), a guitar, a violin with case (and another skeleton, this one holding a bunch of "Great Seal" balloons cut from the back of dollar bills), a bureau, and a boat model.

Much of the work is quite large. One piece titled Foil Temple, featuring numerous postage stamps and architectural details, is just over 41x34 inches. Opium Eaters ("Make Your Ladies Happy") is one of the smallest at 7.5x11 inches. I would be hard-pressed to declare a favorite without further study of all of the intricate details, but Home of the Nature Freak and The School For Future Mothers (with a man sporting a "Souvenir World's Fair" phallus) are on the short list!

Tony Fitzpatrick

I've been spending a lot of time looking at the collages of Tony Fitzpatrick. I admire his work so much that I've added his site to my list of favorite artists. Most of his work is small for all of its wealth of detail: 6x9 inches or 10x13 inches usually. All feature his characteristic pasted up patterned borders, somewhat reminiscent of the style of Felipe Jesus Consalvos. There is frequently a dominant symbol in the center: sometimes as a flat single colored silhouette, other times an object stylistically decorated. In some pieces, a message spelled out in letters cut from different colored ephemera is the main focus. The work frequently includes poetic handwritten words arranged vertically and flush with the left and right borders. The backgrounds are always a flat color upon which a myriad of small objects are arranged. There is usually some reoccurring pattern like a dotted line, a string of beads or the suggestion of a constellation of stars that provides visual unity. A background consisting of a ruled grid can be seen in most of Fitzpatrick's later pieces. All of his work makes use of bright color contrast, interesting vintage found imagery (sheet music, matchbook covers, advertising and the like) in combination with painted elements that invite closer scrutiny.

Here's a link to a 2005 interview with Tony Fitzpatrick at Reader's Voice (he likes James Ellroy). I've just ordered a book of Fitzpatrick's art called The Wonder: Portraits of a Remembered City -- The Dream City and I can't wait to see it!