Dennis Lavia photographed by Bob Mizer

Dennis Lavia as a Chauffeur, a Roman Soldier, and a Peon
photographed by Robert Mizer for the Athletic Model Guild 
Los Angeles 1960

Some shots of the enthralling Dennis Lavia, these from about a year earlier than those below in the second group, and these all posed in the studio where the later ones were shot outside.  What a lucky fellow Mizer was to get to observe, position and inhale the scent of so perfect a being as Mr Lavia, but he more than earned the privilege through his persistence and courage.  It’s important to remember that he risked prosecution and imprisonment for all this work he couldn’t help doing.

Dennis Lavia in Lederhosen and Striped Briefs out in the Country
photographed by Bob Mizer for the Athletic Model Guild 
Los Angeles 1961

According to one of the decoders of Mizer’s mysterious notation that can be found alongside many of the models’ photographs when reproduced in the pages of Physique Pictorial, Dennis Lavia liked girls, was willing to be sucked, was a lover (presumably Bob’s,) and that he didn’t know what he really wanted. According to another interpreter, Dennis was orally inclined, masculine, willing to take it up the bum and more than a little dull.  I find the last interpretation unlikely in its accuracy, given the many times and locations Mizer chose to photograph this magnificent youth.

 

Mysterious Boats

Odilon Redon (1840 - 1916) 
Paris
oil on canvas, 
watercolor on paper, 
pastel & charcoal on paper

The theme of the boat runs through Redon’s life’s work from its very beginnings to its end.  The first painting shown above is a very early example and the last is from among his last.  Some of them are blatantly symbolic, even religious, as one may expect from an exemplar of Symbolism, but others are more truly mysterious and awe inspiring in color, composition and his handling of pigments. The boat, in its fleeting yet enduring nature, along with the flower, was the ideal subject for this diligent explorer of the outer reaches of consciousness. Of course he had the technical skills to make the invisible palpably seen.

Malevich as Socialist Realist

Peasant Farmers & other Rural Workers 
oil on canvas
Kazimir Malevich (1878 - 1935)

Forced to paint representational work in the mid twenties, Malevich produced these heroic images of rural peasants.  All the methods of composition and paint application that he developed to produce his monumental Suprematist abstractions were employed in the production of the sort of work he formerly opposed.  He somehow found a way into it that did not completely compromise his ideals.  Of course he also secretly carried on his pure abstraction, often dating the work some ten to twenty years earlier.  This is a good instance of how a great artist was able to survive and even flourish under a politically hostile and reactionary situation.

Eight Portraits

as Christmas Tree Ornaments 
in the style of Tudor and Stuart era miniatures 
Dale Wittig 
gesso, acrylic & pencil on card
San Francisco CA 
December 2016

1 Anne Boleyn after John Hoskins  

2 Thomas Wyatt after Hans Holbein

3 Elizabeth Tudor after Levina Teerlinc  

4 William Shakespeare after John Sanders 

5 Henry Wriothesley after Nicholas Hilliard

6 William Shakespeare after the Cobbe Portrait

7 Alethea Talbot after Joseph Cornelius

8 Mary Talbot after Joseph Cornelius