Vintage Muscle Men

Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Polaroid Day

It's time for another set of Polaroid images. Some of today's offerings, like this one, approach professional level in terms of image quality, models, and composition. Others, not so much.

Dizzy

That 1970s wallpaper will make you dizzy if you look at it long enough.

The model will not doubt have the same effect on some of you.

Backside

This man has some decent back muscle development,

but that probably isn't what most of you are looking at.

Streaks

I couldn't do this series without at least one Polaroid showing the streaks and blotches inherent

in the application of the fixer at the end of the development process. The mode is looking

at a girlie magazine which does not seem to have had much effect on him so far.

Beer or soda?

I"m not entirely sure if that's a beer or a soda in the model's hand.

Given the usual circumstances of such photo shoots, I'll go with beer.

Reviewing

This young man has apparently been reviewing the Polaroids already made of him.

Candid

The image quality is crappy here, but we do get a candid shot of a guy in the shower.

Ditch the shirt

I know some viewers like the half dressed or mostly undressed look. but I wish

this fellow would ditch the shirt so we could see the rest of his chest hair.

Not too convincing

This guy is not too convincing with the he-man flex,

but the furry legs and bottom make up for it.

That look

I can't figure out the facial expression on our last Polaroid hero.

He's either pensive or not too happy about something.

Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Today will be the second full series I have done on the work of Franz von Stuck (1863-1926), a German artist who was quite versatile in terms of media and style. He is best known for paintings and drawings, but he also was a very good sculptor, furniture designer, and poster artist. He also did book illustrations and a line of greeting cards. His home, Villa von Stuck, was furnished from top to bottom with items he designed ranging from place mats to tapestries to curtains and carpets. He was also not above getting naked and having some fun, as shown above. You have to love this guy.

Adam and Eve, Two Takes

Snakes entwined with women (and sometimes men) are a recurrent theme in Franz von Stuck's work. Obviously, he wasn't about to let the Adam and Eve biblical fairy tale pass him by. Above, we have his 1920 painted version, and below, an 1893 relief sculpture. Eve is pretty much the same in both,

but we get two very different versions of Adam.

Aktaeon

1926 was the date for Aktaeon, Man with Spear.

Athlete . . . or Atlas?

On the relatively rare occasions when von Stuck sculpted, he was very good at it. This post includes three views of The Athlete, which some observers have described as a different take on Atlas.

We start with a very well formed derriere view.

This version of a frontal view is OK, but the one below is better.

Spring Procession?

This is clearly labeled Spring Procession in a book of Franz von Stuck's work, but I can't find a painting by that name (in either English or German) anywhere. The only thing even close was a work called Bacchanalian Procession, and it does not have a male even vaguely resembling this.

Having said all that, I find it to be a perfectly fine stand alone work of art.

Orpheus

This is Orpheus from 1891, and it made Franz von Stuck prominent in the Art Nouveau movement.

Study - Struggle for Women

After having previously posted the painting The Struggle for Women, I found this study for it.

I have to say I like it much better than the finished work shown again below.

Prometheus

Franz von Stuck painted Prometheus in 1926, and it reminds me in some ways of the work of Sasha Schneider. Von Stuck seems to have greatly perferred Classical over Biblical themes in his work.

Study for Bacchanal

This 1903 drawing was a study for the painting Bacchanal.

Not academic

While this looks like typical 19th C. academic work, it is part of a collection of 20th C. studies that Franz von Stuck did for paintings. Many of those only vaguely resemble the finished works, and the curators of the website where I found this charcoal drawing did not reference a painting.