THE GREAT EXHIBITION:

About Dyes and Beauty and Coal-Tar Mauve and Magenta How Made Extra- ordinary Specimen of Aniline Art and the New Colors

Although the ancient Britons dyed themselves with wood, and only a few years ago an Irish member of Parliament offered to die on the floor of the House, it is a remarkable fact that the pigments used in manufacture for the purpose of imparting brilliant effects to silks and linens, have until quite recently been imported from Holland.

The secret of color is, however, returning to the British Isles, and the mauves and magentas, so much in fashion just now, seem to promise for the islanders a monopoly of these peculiar dyes. Does it ever occur to Angelina, as she floats magnificently down Broadway, in all the luster of youth and fashion, that the exquisite dress she wears, and whose faultless sheen seems to be robbed from the dewy blushes of Spring, is in fact dipped and steeped in the essence of vile, smoky, stinky, crackly English coal; that she is — not to be too squeamish about terms — walking off with a ton, more or less of the best Walls-end attached to her skirts.

Yes, frightful as it may seem, our wives and sweethearts are gradually becoming carboniferous, and the day may not be far distant when we shall have to hand them to dinner with a pair of tongs. Coal, or rather coal tar, is the basis of all the new colors now in use, such as mauve and magenta, Both these well-known and highly esteemed colors were discovered by English chemists, who have already reaped handsome fortunes by their labor.

Perkin, the discoverer of mauve, was in search of artificial quinine, when he happened upon it, and almost at the same time a Mr. Simpson discovered magenta. Both these belong to the aniline, or coal-tar series of dyes, and as the way in which the color is produced has been very explicitly given, I have no hesitation in recapitulating it here.

When these new colors have been naturalized in the world of art, as well as in manufactures, what extraordinary results may be anticipated from the pencils of great colorists! At present, the manufacturers carry everything before them. They can make a silk dress of tough, durable, palpable material, a hundred times brighter and more beautiful than the best artist can paint it. "Dick Tinto" is no longer privileged to flatter a lady’s dress as well as her face.

July 28, 1862
The New York Times 1

In its early years, Ault & Wiborg capitalized on two innovations -- the use of coal-tar dyes to produce brightly colored inks and the development of lithography. Both developments helped to expand the ink business beyond the simple black product that had been produced for centuries. Toulouse-Lautrec was just one of the artists who used Ault & Wiborg inks for his prints; and the company commissioned him to create an advertising poster. 2

we tend to think of color as, well, having always existed. yes they have... but clearly the ability to reproduce them has not. we looked at the resurgence of blues here, science catching up with desire. and the rest of the colors came shortly thereafter. these wondrous inks dovetailed easily with the rest of the things we've been looking at here to create that golden poster moment.

it was 1859 when this color revolution came about in the west, one year after the entry into trade with japan. the japanese prints evidence the usage of a wide range of colors, though, for over a century. were secrets of the japanese inks part of the scientific discoveries that occurred just at the time that they would have if they had? i do not know.

i've written david lance goines to see if he knows; he's steeped in printing history knowledge.
if i hear anything i'll let you know.

every day i will give you a color

COLORS PASSING THROUGH US

Purple as tulips in May, mauve
into lush velvet, purple
as the stain blackberries leave
on the lips, on the hands,
the purple of ripe grapes
sunlit and warm as flesh.

Every day I will give you a color,
like a new flower in a bud vase
on your desk. Every day
I will paint you, as women
color each other with henna
on hands and on feet.

Red as henna, as cinnamon,
as coals after the fire is banked,
the cardinal in the feeder,
the roses tumbling on the arbor
their weight bending the wood
the red of the syrup I make from petals.

Orange as the perfumed fruit
hanging their globes on the glossy tree,
orange as pumpkins in the field,
orange as butterflyweed
and the monarchs
who come to eat it, orange as my
cat running lithe through the high grass.

Yellow as a goat’s wise
and wicked eyes,
yellow as a hill of daffodils,
yellow as dandelions
by the highway,
yellow as butter and egg yolks,
yellow as a school bus
stopping you,
yellow as a slicker in a downpour.

Here is my bouquet, here is a sing
song of all the things you make
me think of, here is oblique
praise for the height and depth
of you and the width too.
Here is my box of new crayons at your feet.

Green as mint jelly, green
as a frog on a lily pad twanging,
the green of cos lettuce upright
about to bolt into opulent towers,
green as Grand Chartreuse in a clear
glass, green as wine bottles.

Blue as cornflowers, delphiniums,
bachelors’ buttons.
Blue as Roquefort,
blue as Saga. Blue as still water.
Blue as the eyes of a Siamese cat.
Blue as shadows on new snow,
as a spring
azure sipping from a puddle
on the blacktop.

Cobalt as the midnight sky
when day has gone without a trace
and we lie in each other’s arms
eyes shut and fingers open
and all the colors of the world
pass through our bodies like
strings of fire.

Marge Piercy

Marge Piercy, “Colors passing through us” from Colors Passing Through Us (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003). First appeared in The Southern California Anthology 16 (Fall 1999). Copyright © 1999, 2003 by Marge Piercy and Middlemarsh, Inc.

seeing softly

john henry twachtman and peter henry emerson both worked in the same time period, the 1880s and 90s. twachtman was an american, and emerson, though born in cuba, spent his life in england.

emerson is said to have been the first photographer to insist that film, beyond its documentary potential,
was an appropriate tool for making art as well.

in these positions, he became well-known, and stieglitz credited him as being his first important influence.

twachtman was a painter, often of the landscapes near his home in connecticut, though he travelled in europe and lived for a bit in paris.

so how does one discuss the wonderful similarities in their work, and, not to put to sharp a point on it, that too of hiroshige? quite simply: both were tremendously influenced by whistler, and, obviously, by whistler's own inspiration -- the japanese prints.

both were known to appreciate the tonal subtlety and asymmetry of the prints; additionally, stark composition, flattened spaces, and japanese-like embellishments were employed by both.

both felt that by fashioning familiar places with unfamiliar elements increased one's consciousness of the place, and perhaps revealed elements inside what meets the eye.

see twactman's work in context until october 19 at the clark (and read more here and here), and see emerson's work in context until september 8 at the mia (and online here).

and then while you're at it, go to the met to see the turner show and wonder how the man could have been so prescient having died several years before any black ships appeared in the edo harbor.

... and where it stops, nobody knows....

some really interesting strategies were used to popularize this new artform: posters. first, of course, there were the japanese. in what westerners were the first to accept as fine art, we received "adver- tisements" for kabuki stars and courtesans, and learned from them.

we learned not only simplification and effectiveness, and all of the other things we've discussed here, but also we learned new things about color.

what was the first "poster scheme"? marketing? promotion? art? jules cheret, an artist and the owner of a printing company, corralled the artists of this new medium from around the world to create masters of the poster. "They were published in book form by Librarie Chaix in Paris, the printing firm owned by Cheret, and subscriptions were taken. Four posters were sent every month." 1 you may notice that most of the posters you've ever had on your walls were originally part of this project. by unifying, the many became one, became memorable.

two other successful poster campaigns remind me of each other -- not in strategy but in style. the uses of the 'new colors,' the brightness, the flattened plains; both caught the eye, held it, and pleased it. the first was the series of posters for the london underground.

"London Transport Museum cares for one of the finest poster archives in the world. For 100 years, since Frank Pick commissioned the first graphic poster for London Underground, the company and its successors have kept copies of everything they produced. In the early 20th century, under Pick's guidance, London Transport commissioned work from the best artists and designers in the world." 2 in the end, more than 5000 posters had been created.

like the 'masters' series, the other poster campaign was also run as a subscription service. "In 1923, marketer Charles Rosenfeld and Chicago printer Charles Mather teamed up to begin selling subscriptions to an annual poster series for motivating and inspiring workers. What began as a novel concept to use up excess capacity turned into a very popular series seen in hundreds of factories across the U.S. during the Roaring Twenties.

"Every week, companies changed posters based on their sequence number, worker's 'needs' or current events. Mather conveniently categorized each poster thematically, from laziness, responsibility, mistakes, and 'unprogressiveness' to fire prevention and even practical joking." 3

japanese style, colors, and forms of emphasis were continued, then expanded upon. as japonisme branched off into modernism, outlines were often dropped, but the new ways of seeing that had been brought about by the import of the japanese prints remained important influences.

"The Mather posters were tightly integrated advertising messages – a bold headline, a catchy image to match, and beautiful lithography and design that made the next week’s poster something to look forward to seeing. Executed by a first class team of prominent graphic artists from the Chicago area the posters were innovative and graphically sophisticated. As the years progressed, colors became brighter, designs more eye-catching and succinct, and the text reduced to shorter, simple phrases. The 1927 series is particularly striking with its tapestry-like backgrounds and bold color combinations.

"Mather created about 350 different images before the series came to an abrupt end with the stock market crash in 1929. Jobs were hard to come by, and employers didn’t have the cash or the need to motivate workers as they had in the salad days of the Twenties. Today, the posters represent a snapshot of their time – cars, fashions and values portrayed in a homespun way that at times seems foreign, and at others a lot like today." 3

back in england, "Publicity soon extended to subsidiary bus and tram companies, for which posters subscribed to the same 'soft sell' approach. This time however, the subjects were idyllic rural scenes to tempt the city dwellers out of London. Pick believed that posters fulfilled a loftier purpose than simply encouraging greater use of transport services. He had a passionate commitment to good design and an enlightened approach to the commercial application of art. Pick saw the potential of posters to enrich the quality of urban life in London.

"Unsatisfied with the quality of design offered by commercial artists employed by printing firms, Pick organised commissions directly with artists and illustrators. He approached skilled and respected practitioners of their day, but also younger, lesser- known artists. In 1915, Pick spotted the talent of Edward McKnight Kauffer, who went on to dominate the British poster art field." 2

soon, of course similar stylistic devices were displayed widely, from film posters, to children's books, to the actual united states government. (remember the posters from WWI?) the colors and the style spread throughout the west, and then the world, opening up, folded in upon itself and goodness knows what just might happen next.

a poem as long as California

PSYCHOANALYSIS: AN ELEGY

What are you thinking about?

I am thinking of an early summer.
I am thinking of wet hills in the rain
Pouring water. Shedding it
Down empty acres of oak and manzanita
Down to the old green brush tangled
in the sun,
Greasewood, sage, and spring mustard.
Or the hot wind coming down
from Santa Ana
Driving the hills crazy,
A fast wind with a bit of dust in it
Bruising everything and making the seed sweet.
Or down in the city where the peach trees
Are awkward as young horses,
And there are kites caught on the wires
Up above the street lamps,
And the storm drains are all choked with dead branches.

What are you thinking?










I think that I would like to write a poem that is slow as a summer
As slow getting started
As 4th of July somewhere around the middle of the second stanza
After a lot of unusual rain
California seems long in the summer.
I would like to write a poem as long as California
And as slow as a summer.
Do you get me, Doctor? It would have to be as slow
As the very tip of summer.
As slow as the summer seems
On a hot day drinking beer outside Riverside
Or standing in the middle of a white-hot road
Between Bakersfield and Hell
Waiting for Santa Claus.

What are you thinking now?








I’m thinking that she is very much like California.
When she is still her dress is like a roadmap. Highways
Traveling up and down her skin
Long empty highways
With the moon chasing jackrabbits across them
On hot summer nights.
I am thinking that her body could be California
And I a rich Eastern tourist
Lost somewhere between Hell and Texas
Looking at a map of a long, wet, dancing California
That I have never seen.
Send me some penny picture-postcards, lady,
Send them.
One of each breast photographed looking
Like curious national monuments,
One of your body sweeping like a three-lane highway
Twenty-seven miles from a night’s lodging
In the world’s oldest hotel.

What are you thinking?










I am thinking of how many times this poem
Will be repeated.
How many summers
Will torture California
Until the damned maps burn
Until the mad cartographer
Falls to the ground and possesses
The sweet thick earth from which he has been hiding.

What are you thinking now?

I am thinking that a poem could go on forever.

Jack Spicer



Forthcoming from The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer
from Wesleyan University Press.

rain for roxy, whenever she wants it

I'M ONLY HAPPY WHEN IT RAINS

Im only happy when it rains
Im only happy when its complicated
And though I know you cant appreciate it
Im only happy when it rains





You know I love it
when the news is bad
And why it feels so good
to feel so sad
Im only happy when it rains


Pour your misery down, pour your misery down on me
Pour your misery down, pour your misery down on me

Im only happy when it rains
I feel good when things are going wrong
I only listen to the sad, sad songs
Im only happy when it rains

I only smile in the dark
My only comfort is the night gone black
I didnt accidentally tell you that
Im only happy when it rains

Youll get the message
by the time Im through
When I complain about me and you
Im only happy when it rains

Pour your misery down, pour your misery down
Pour your misery down on me
pour your misery down
Pour your misery down
pour your misery down
Pour your misery down on me
pour your misery down
Pour your misery down
pour your misery down
Pour your misery down on me
pour your misery down
Pour your misery down

You can keep me company
As long as you dont care

Im only happy when it rains
You wanna hear about my new obsession?
Im riding high upon a deep depression
Im only happy when it rains
Pour some misery down on me

Im only happy when it rains
Pour some misery down on me
Im only happy when it rains
Pour some misery down on me
Im only happy when it rains
Pour some misery down on me
Im only happy when it rains
Pour some misery down on me ...

Garbage

(don't miss tom hanks' version of 'singing in the rain'
in the movie punchline.)