Mortensen, the Antichrist...

[Mark Sawyer]

For anyone interested in William Mortensen, he's being re-re-re-rediscovered...

http://hyperallergic.com/157037/william-mortensen/

[Drew Wiley]

Not really that unusual for the era, esp if you consider the precedent of Surrealist painters, who were vastly more nuanced. This kind of thing is otherwise hybridized with the "pre-Raphaelite" style of composition so popular with Pictorialists. Outerbridge was doing analogous stuff in color carbro. And what was
deliberately racy back then tends to come across as just plain corny today. Still, some of these guys were incredibly skilled printmakers. But I'm sure this kind of
theme is pretty tightly picked to be edgy, and does not represent the full spectrum of Mortensen's work.

[Peter De Smidt]

Thanks for the post. I have most of Mortensen's books, but I hadn't seen some of the images in the article. The Model and The Command to Look are worth checking out, whether you like his grotesques or not.

[Peter Lewin]

I'ld sure like to see some of Mortensen's witches fly by for Halloween... But on a slightly more serious note, thanks for the post. I was well aware of Mortensen in terms of pictorialism, but completely unaware of his more, let's say, unusual subject matter. I will have to see if I can make it into Brooklyn to visit the gallery. His efforts with various "effects" make me think that he was born too soon, given Photoshop and today's freer moral climate, it would have been interesting to see what he could have created.

[Vaughn]

Photoshop should have a "Mortensen" button -- it would automatically remove pubic hair.

He would have been great at photographically removing tats.

[Mark Sawyer]

I think the mainstream and popular photo media showed more his cheesecake Hollywood portraits, for pretty obvious reasons, (more commercial, and easier to digest), and that's what he's largely
known for today. His "darker work" was so theatrical and usually based on literature, folklore, and distant history that it doesn't seem threatening especially today, but it still has a lot of impact, visually and viscerally, at least for me. The first big original Mortensen print I ever saw was his image based on Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum. It was impressive.

Wish I could see this show...

[Tin Can]

I would love to see this show and just told my erstwhile 'son' to go see it.

[Drew Wiley]

Even ES Curtis fooled around with these kinds of shots when he took up a career in Hollywood later in life, though prints from that era aren't worth much at all
compared to his Indian work. The 20's were pretty wild in their own way.

[John Kasaian]

There is something disturbing underlying the blatantly 1920's corn ball genre stuff that speaks about a darker kind of egoism. I could be wrong, but I doubt it. If that was what Mortensen was actually trying to achieve I these tableaus, the next question has to be "Why?"
It reminds me of poorly written horror genre fiction

[Mark Sawyer]

I wouldn't call it corn ball so much as very overtly theatrical. I can understand not liking the genre, but if you see the originals, they're well-crafted and composed. More of a high-production-value 1920's art-horror genre.