 Today’s ArtDrop is a binary interstellar radio message "Arecibo Message”, by Carl Sagan and Frank Drake from 1974. It is a conceptual work with a message of greeting sent via radio telescope to a globular star cluster 25,000 light years from Earth.
The image is composed of a 1679 binary digits. 1,679 is significant because it is a product of two primes that define a vertical grid of 23 x 73 black and white squares. Within this simple diagram is encoded very basic information about human intelligent life on Earth. Starting at the top is a representation of the numbers 1 through 10 in binary. Below that, the atomic numbers of the elements that compose DNA are listed. Next, the structural organic polymers made from the above elements are encoded. Next, comes a crude 2-D graphic of a double helix that points to a simple block human figure. Within the helix is a vertical double row with the binary number of base pairs in human DNA. On either side of the human is are values for the size of the human body and the human population on Earth as of 1970’s. Below is a representation of the solar system from Sun to Pluto in a row with Earth popping up out of the row for emphasis. Next, is a simple cartoon of the Arecibo Radio Telescope, the device used to transmit the message. Below the message are basic specs of the telescope. Is this a work of art? It can be argued that it is similar to the conceptual art of Sol Lewitt. The binary data are the instruction sheet that the distant receiver must piece together to realize the work of art. Is it human expression? Yes. It is a work that communicates human existence, exploration, and self awareness. It is also aspirational and poignant: a bold attempt to speak to unreachable intelligences, knowing full well the message may never be received.
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 Today’s ArtDrop is a parody of a licensable digital stock image by the DIS collective (Lauren Boyle, Solomon Chase, Marco Roso, David Toro, and collaborators.) 2013
The image is an absurd parody of a corporate-style stock photo for licensing. In the foreground is an edgy sk8ter girl in a branded hat and tee shirt. She is holding a 7” heel of a baguette that has a beverage can embedded inside it. She has taken a long drink and throwing her head back in profile she spits the milky-colored liquid into the air above her. Droplets of the drink are spewing all over her. It is night and she is standing inexplicably in front of the dramatically lit Colosseum in Rome. The website parody in the style of Shutterstock of weirdly specific stock images for bizarre use cases is still up: https://disimages.com/ Alas, the checkout feature is disabled and you cannot license these images for your subversive corporate campaign or art appreciation social media posts.  Happy US Labor Day
Today’s ArtDrop is ‘A Bar at the Folies-Bergère’ by the early modernist painter Éduard Manet from 1882. The image shows a scene at a Parisian nightclub. A pretty young lady is bartending at a marble bar in front of a huge mirror. The point of view is that of a man in a top hat who is giving the lady his order. His face is seen over her shoulder in the reflection of the mirror. The artist seems to have taken artistic liberty with the angles of optics, but this allows for insight into the dynamics of the scene. Facing us on the bar is an array of enticing bottles, flowers, and oranges. The girl fits right in. In the mirror, we can see the crowded and lively nightclub brightly lit by giant chandeliers and globe lights. Patrons are at tables socializing while a trapeze artist performs above. The club is hopping. As stated before, the lady tending bar is taking the man’s order and we are looking at her through his eyes. Even though this is a social situation she is not making eye contact. Maybe she is processing what the man is requesting. Her expression is out of sync with the animated revelry of her workplace.  Today’s ArtDrop is a 10’x20’ colored pencil drawing by Tia Keobounpheng in the collection of the University of St. Thomas.
Source: https://www.tiakeobounpheng.com/ The image shows the two story interior lobby of the university with lots of natural light from windows to the right. Hanging on the two-story wall is a colorful and complex geometric artwork analytical designed from circles and arcs. Most of Keoboundpheng’s work is made from fiber, but for this commission she chose colored pencil—a less fungible medium than fiber art for a public piece in a brightly lit space. From far away this work appears hard-edged and flat. However, when viewed close-up, the textural strokes of pencil are apparent giving the work a hand-made human touch. The artist draws inspiration from the geometric patterns of her Finnish ancestors.  Today’s ArtDrop is a realistic floral still life oil on canvas from the 1750s, ‘Still Life with Flowers’, by Rachel Ruysch.
The image shows a sumptuous flower arrangement on a marble table. There is a plain shadowy wall immediately behind. The flowers appear to shine forth from the gloomy background. The flowers on display are morning glories, carnations, tulips, roses, tiger lilies, marigold, and more. The stems, petals, and leaves appear light and delicate and twine among each other. The blossoms appear to be in peak bloom (or just beyond peak) with a couple of buds in the mix for variety. One stem of carnations is bent and drapes onto and over the edge of the table at the bottom. Some of the greenery is mottled with spots. The color scheme is carefully composed and subtly complementary with orange adjacent flowers mixed with blue and white blossoms. Rachel Ruysch had a method of embalming flowers to preserve them. This made it look like she was a time traveler who could gather flowers from different seasons in the year to build her arrangements. Ruysch left lots of easter eggs in her florals to enliven the paintings and delight viewers. See if you can spot any insects or caterpillars hanging out. Some are as tiny as ants. We couldn’t find any beasties in the photo of this still life. Comment if you spot one.  Today’s ArtDrop is Keith Haring’s “Luna Luna Carousel” from 1987. Image shows a colorful working carousel featuring sculptural riding features and decorations by Keith Haring in his signature cartoony graffiti style. The carousel was commissioned for a very special project in the 80’s by German curator/artist Andre Heller. Heller had a vision of an amusement park entirely designed by artists. To that end, he convinced a roster of jaw-dropping talent to design the attractions. What resulted was a joyous immersive exhibit featuring the works of Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kenny Scharf, Salvador Dalí. Arik Brauer, Josef Beuys, Sonia Delaunay, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, George Baselitz, Jörg Immendorf, and Erté. 'Luna Luna’ languished in storage for decades until it was resurrected and refurbished the last few years. It has toured with a smaller lineup to Los Angeles and then to New York closing in March 2025. If it goes on display anywhere near you, go on pilgrimage to see it. Today’s ArtDrop is an installation on view at Bourse de Commerce in Paris through September 21, 2025. The piece is ‘Clinamen’ by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot.
This installation is a moment of Epicurean-inspired zen in a beautiful neoclassical skylit rotunda. The piece is a round shallow blue pool mirroring the sky through the skylight. Floating upon the surface of the water are scores of simple white porcelain bowls of different sizes. The water gently flows via a pump creating movement within the piece. As the bowls float throughout the pool they delicately collide producing random chimes that resonate throughout the space. The title ‘Clinamen’ is a reference to Epicurus’ concept of maintaining happiness through moderation and his belief in Greek-style atoms constituting everything in the universe and how those atoms interact. This writer is not a scholar of Greek philosophy, but has an impression that Epicurus’ conception of atomic behavior is self-similar as it scales up like a fractal. Epicurus equates human beings and their interactions to collections of atoms that collide and interact randomly with inherent free will. Boursier-Mougenot has created a tranquil metaphor of Epicurus’ philosophy for life and—if you scale it up again—society.  (Image courtesy of the artist, Garth Greenan Gallery, and Matthew Marks Gallery.) Today’s ArtDrop is an acrylic diptych by Gladys Nilsson, “Dipped Dick: Adam and Eve After Cranach’ from 1971. The attached image shows a colorful diptych acrylic painting on canvas, a reimagining of one of Cranach the Elder’s revered diptychs from the 1500s. Cranach’s Renaissance panels depict Adam in one and Eve in the other as realistic, full-length nudes typically standing within a suggestion of the Garden of Eden. In character with the Hairy Who style, Nilsson reinterprets them in an absurd, whimsical, and cartoony style. Here, Adam and Eve appear as flat, curvilinear cardboard-beige silhouettes swarmed by the plants and animals of Paradise. Amorphous creatures—including a serpent in a tree—compete for their attention like needy puppies. This is Genesis irreverently refracted through 20th-century influences such as Ub Iwerks’ animation, Pop Art, and underground comics, producing a delightfully bizarre twist. Since Nilsson was working in the Chicago area at the time, this pair from The Art Institute of Chicago is the most likely candidate for the referenced diptych.   Today’s ArtDrop is ‘Slipstream’, a public sculpture at Heathrow Airport, by Richard Wilson.
The attached image shows the cavernous interior about (4 or 5 stories tall) of a modern airport terminal. The ceiling is supported by long slender round pillars in rows. A very long sheet aluminum monumental sculpture is suspended from four of the pillars in the center of the space. It is a sweeping and twisting representation of fluid dynamics behind an airplane. It describes the path and twist of an acrobatic plane in flight. At one end of the sculpture the very front of an airplane emerges from its slipstream to soar into the air before it. Love. No notes. Today’s ArtDrop is the 'Stravinsky Fountain' by Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely in Paris.
This avant garde fountain is an homage to the composer Igor Stravinsky with 16 component sculptures that each correspond to a piece of his Modernist music. The sculptures alternate between brightly colored organic forms and black metal constructions with some admixture. The mix of imagery is similar to the abstract work of Miro, but with more recognizable symbols. The viewer will see a giant floating set of lips and twirling snake both spewing water. A voluptuous polychrome lady is spewing water from her nipples. A firebird rises from the pool. In the center is a towering black treble clef. Everything is joyfully in motion and water is whimsically spraying all over. Like Stravinsky’s music the fountain is exuberant and has some clashes for dramatic effect. |
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