Editors 20th century
Ike Altgens, born James William Altgens, was an American photojournalist, photo editor and reporter for the Associated Press (AP).
After graduating from North Dallas High School, James joined the Associated Press, first as a reporter and in 1940 he was assigned to the photojournalism staff. He served in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II and returned to the Associated Press in 1945 as a photographer, working as an editor and part-time actor and model.
On November 22, 1963, Altgens was assigned to photograph President John F. Kennedy during his visit to Dallas. And as fate would have it, he was able to take historic photos of the Kennedy assassination, which appeared in newspapers around the world the next day.
Altgens left the Associated Press in 1979, then worked on advertising for Ford Motor Company. On December 12, 1995, James Altgens and his wife were found dead in different rooms of their home in Dallas. According to the investigation, the cause of their deaths was carbon monoxide poisoning due to a faulty furnace.
Dominique Aury, real name Anne Desclos, was a French writer, talented journalist, translator and editor.
Dominique Aury held the post of secretary at the publishing house Gallimard in Paris for many years from 1946. She was a jury member for a number of literary prizes, she translated into French works by Thomas Brown, James Hogg, Evelyn Waugh, Arthur Köstler, Yukio Mishima. In her articles she highlighted the problems of translation, analysed the work of English poets and writers, demonstrating a deep understanding of the literary process.
The most famous episode in Ori's career is the erotic novel Histoire d'O, published in 1954 under the cryptonym Pauline Réage. The novel was a resounding and scandalous success and was prosecuted several times. For 40 years, however, Orie never acknowledged her authorship, only to declare it openly in a 1994 interview with The New Yorker, calling the book a love letter to Jean Poland - author of the preface to the first publication of Histoire d'O.
Dominique Orie's writing style was poignant and intellectual, with insightful observations on sexuality and human relationships. She skillfully used words and language to evoke emotion and provoke thought. Her works have had a significant influence on sexual literature and feminist thought.
Edouard Chimot was a French Art Deco painter, illustrator and editor.
Edouard studied at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Nice and then at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Lille. After the war, he was able to prove himself as an illustrator and master publisher. At the height of the Art Deco heyday, Chimot received a number of commissions to illustrate books with his original engravings, the first of which was the rare book Les Après-Midi de Montmartre with fourteen engravings by Chimot.
In 1920, Édouard Chimot founded his own publishing house, Éditions d'Art Édouard Chimot. Through this venture, he not only continued to create his own art, but also collaborated with other artists and writers to create high quality limited edition books, often with his distinctive illustrations. Édouard Chimot was associated with late Symbolist and decadent culture, and his own work is sometimes referred to as post-Symbolist. His collaborations with famous writers and poets, including Paul Verlaine and Charles Baudelaire, brought his illustrations to the forefront of the Art Nouveau movement.
With the collapse of the financial system in the early 1930s in Europe, the demand for luxury products also fell, but the artist continued to work, produce books and paint. Chimot's artistic style is characterized by sensuality and romanticism. He was an artist of the female figure, style, eroticism and embodied the essence of Art Deco imagery.
Sir James Crichton-Browne was a British and Scottish psychiatrist, neurologist, and MD.
James studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, where his interest in psychiatry soon developed. After receiving his MD degree, he worked in hospitals in Derby, Devon and Newcastle. At the age of 26 he was appointed medical superintendent of the Lunatic Asylum in Wakefield and within nine years had transformed the hospital into a leading center for research and treatment.
Crichton-Browne initiated a scientific approach to the brain and its diseases. In 1871 he started the West Riding Asylum Medical Reports, which were published annually for six years. He was a pioneer in combating the common belief at the time that mental asylums could not produce original research and useful science. The persuasive scientist attracted many talented young people to collaborate in his research. Among them were David Ferrier (1843-1928) and Hughlings Jackson, who worked on cerebral localization and epilepsy. In 1878 they together founded what became the famous neurological journal Brain, the first journal devoted to what is now called neurobiology.
Crichton-Browne corresponded extensively with Charles Darwin, providing him with drawings and photographs for his book The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals. Darwin valued his co-author so much that in 1883 he proposed that he be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Crichton-Browne was also active in the development of public health policy regarding mental health. He worked prolifically into old age, writing monographs and autobiographical material, but in recent years he became involved in the controversial science of eugenics.
Manfred Dinnes is a German painter, sculptor, writer and art gallery director. He was also cultural editor of Europeonline magazine.
Manfred Dinnes travelled around the world to study other cultures in his youth. In 1973-74 he trained as a church painter-restorer. At the same time he was introduced to the craft of glass painting and glass blowing. Graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg in 1979, where he studied freehand painting with Gerhard Wendland, Ludwig Scharl and Franz Wintzinger.
Since founding Visual-Art Concepts in 2007, Dinnes has created large sculptures from 7 to 8 metres in height.
Joel Chandler Harris was an American journalist, Southern writer and folklorist, abolitionist, and author of Uncle Remus's Tales.
Joel was a very inquisitive and witty child, reading a great deal. From the age of 13 he worked as a typesetter and then as a reporter for several newspapers; in 1876 he became deputy editor at Atlanta Construction, where he worked for 24 years. As a journalist, Harris was an active abolitionist, advocating for black rights and against slavery.
At Atlanta Construction, Harris began publishing his now-famous Uncle Remus stories, using folklore he had heard from black workers on the plantation. These tales made Joel Harris famous and earned him a firm place in the classics of American literature. The general outline of the series of stories was simple: Uncle Remus, a wise and good-natured old black man, tells stories about Brother Rabbit, Brother Fox and other animals to the plantation owner's young son - through his prism of worldview.
Uncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings was first published in book form in 1880, and others followed. Harris also wrote six children's books set on a Georgia plantation, several novels and novellas.
Bret Harte, born Francis Bret Harte, is an American poet and writer, one of the founders of the Western genre in literature.
From his youth, Bret worked in various professions in California, published a newspaper and a magazine, collaborating for a time with Mark Twain. He wrote several novels and many short stories about the Gold Rush era, of which the best known is the later trilogy "The Steppe Finder", "Susie" and "Clarence", set during the American Civil War.
In 1878 Harte began working at the consulate in Krefeld, Germany, and then in Glasgow, Scotland. In 1885 Harte settled in London and lived there until the end of his days, continuing to write short stories, parodies, and other works of enduring success.
Harte's works about Californian life became popular in Russia, thanks to N.G.Chernyshevsky, who was engaged in their translations from the early 1870s. Russian venerable writers M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin and N.S. Leskov spoke very flatteringly of him. And in 1895 in St. Petersburg published a collection of works by Bret Harte in six volumes. Already in the USSR in 1977 the movie "Armed and Very Dangerous" was filmed based on his stories. Alexey Rybnikov's musical "Juno and Avos", the most popular for decades, is based on Bret Harte's ballad "Concepcion de Arguello".
Adolf Hoffmeister (1902-1973) was a Czech artist, writer, journalist, playwright, translator, and diplomat, renowned for his multifaceted contributions to culture and art. His early career saw him collaborate with significant figures in the art world, including Philippe Soupault and Jaroslav Ježek. In 1928, Hoffmeister made his mark with a solo exhibition in Paris and became involved in various literary and artistic publications, such as Lidové noviny and Literární noviny.
Hoffmeister's art often intersected with his political views. He set up the anti-fascist magazine Simplicus in the 1930s and was a member of the Mánes Association of Fine Arts, where he defended the anti-Nazi artwork of John Heartfield. His life was dramatically affected by World War II; fleeing Nazism, he was interned in Paris and a Moroccan concentration camp before reaching New York in 1941. After the war, he returned to Prague and engaged in diplomacy and academia but faced political ostracization following his pro-reform activities in 1968.
Hoffmeister's work in collage was notable, especially his illustrations for Jules Verne's "Around the World in Eighty Days." He was also known for his libretto for the children's opera "Brundibar" and translating James Joyce’s "Anna Livia Plurabelle." His pieces, such as "Demonstration" (1963) and "Greek village by Syrakus" (1960), are preserved in archives like the Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, illustrating his unique approach to visual storytelling.
For collectors, auctioneers, and art and antiques experts, Hoffmeister's works represent a compelling blend of artistic innovation and historical context. His legacy continues to inspire, and keeping informed about exhibitions or sales of his work is essential for those interested in 20th-century European art and literature.
Klaus Kinold is a German architectural photographer.
Klaus Kinold studied architecture at the Technical University of Karlsruhe with Egon Eiermann, and then decided not to build but to show architecture. He opened an architectural photography studio in Munich and studied panoramic photography. For more than 25 years, Kinold was editor and illustrator of the Swiss professional publication KS Neues, which featured silicate brick buildings, and lectured on photography at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart.
In 1983, Klaus Kinold had his first solo exhibition at the Rudolf Kieken Gallery in Cologne, followed by many other prestigious shows. From 2019 to August 2020, the DKM Museum in Duisburg designed the exhibition "Architecture through the eyes of a photographer", featuring the work of architects Carlo Scarpa, Rudolf Schwarz and Hans Döllgast.
Kinold documented almost all of the famous architects' projects. It was important to the photographer that his preferably black and white photographs were clear, objective, rational and factual in their presentation.
Karl Lorenz was a German expressionist painter and poet. In the 1920s he edited several expressionist journals and worked on publications with representatives of the Hamburg Secession. However, as an artist, he was self-taught.
Tom Marioni is an American artist and educator, known for his conceptual artwork. Marioni was active in the emergence of Conceptual Art movement in the 1960s. He founded the Museum of Conceptual Art (MOCA) in San Francisco from 1970 until 1984. Marioni received his art training at the Art Academy of Cincinnati between 1955 and 1959. From 1975 – 1982, he was editor of Vision, an art journal published by Crown Point Press. From 1986 until 1971, he served as the curator at the Richmond Art Center in Richmond, California. He used the pseudonym and alter-ego Alan Fish in some early performances. Famous works by Marioni include: "One Second Sculpture" (1969), "The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends is the Highest Form of Art" (1970). Marioni's work is included in many public museum collections including San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA), Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), among others.
May Morris was an English artisan, embroidery designer, jeweller, socialist, and editor. She was the younger daughter of the Pre-Raphaelite artist and designer William Morris and his wife and artists' model, Jane Morris (née Burden).
Magdalo Mussio is an Italian artist, animator, editor and writer.
In painting he created abstract landscapes and participated in many exhibitions in Italy. In the 1960s he worked as an editor for several Italian cultural publications. Mussio was also the creative artist of a number of animated films and published several books about his work.
Irving Penn was an American photographer celebrated for his influential work in fashion photography, portraits, and still lifes. Penn's journey into photography began with a background in painting and design, studying at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art. He moved to New York and initially worked in design and illustration, which paved the way for his transition into photography. Notably, Penn's work at Vogue magazine for over six decades helped define the visual style of mid-20th-century fashion photography.
Irving Penn's mastery extended beyond the camera to the darkroom, where he experimented with various printing techniques, including the platinum-palladium process, which contributed to the depth and subtlety of his prints. His works, such as the "Cigarette" series and his still life compositions, are renowned for their minimalistic elegance and meticulous detail. Irving Penn's artistry was not confined to one genre; his "Earthly Bodies" nudes series and street material collection demonstrated his versatility and depth as an artist.
His contributions to photography are preserved and celebrated in numerous exhibitions and collections worldwide, including major museums like The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, and The Art Institute of Chicago. Irving Penn's legacy as a pioneering figure in photography continues to inspire artists and photographers today.
If you're a collector or an expert in art and antiques, staying updated on Irving Penn's works can be invaluable. To receive updates on new product sales and auction events related to Irving Penn, consider signing up for our newsletter. This way, you won't miss out on the opportunity to own a piece of photographic history.
François-Louis Schmied was a French painter, illustrator, wood engraver, printmaker, editor and Art Deco binder.
François-Louis studied wood engraving at the École des Arts industriels in Geneva and painting at the École des Beaux-Arts de Genève. A Swiss, Schmied settled and naturalized in France in 1895. In 1910, he was commissioned to engrave and print Paul Jouve's illustrations for Rudyard Kipling's The Life of the Jungle, which was not published until 1919. For this book, now considered a masterpiece, the master produced about 90 color illustrations. Thanks to the success of this publication, Schmied was able to expand his activity and hire a group of craftsmen to execute his most famous and innovative works.
François-Louis Schmied is considered one of the greatest Art Deco artists and became particularly famous for his beautiful rare books for bibliophiles. Schmied's unique books were very expensive to produce, which required a lot of time and effort, and were always printed in very limited editions, from 20 to 200 copies. During the Great Depression, Schmied's expensive projects could not withstand the competition: the master was forced to sell off almost all his assets and close his workshop and store, and around 1932 he left for Morocco, where he died.
François-Louis Schmied's works are not only aesthetically pleasing, but also express his desire to combine art and literature. The talented artist conveyed with passion and precision the essence of the Art Deco style contemporary to him. Today, Schmied's works, reissued as fine art reproductions, not only convey the aesthetics and precision inherent in each of his originals, but also add a new dimension to them. His son, Theo Schmied, took over François-Louis Schmied's workshop in 1924, reviving its former glory and revitalizing it over time.
Julia Ward Howe is an American writer and poet, philosopher, abolitionist, and feminist.
Born into a well-to-do family and privately educated, Julia Ward married educator Samuel Gridley Howe and settled in Boston. She published her first collection of poems, Passionate Flowers, in 1854.Julia's early poems were praised by Hawthorne, Whittier, and Longfellow for their intellectual intensity. For a time Howe published the abolitionist newspaper Commonwealth with her husband. And in February 1862, The Atlantic Monthly published her poem "Battle Hymn of the Republic," which became the semi-official Civil War song of the Union Army, and Howe gained fame.
After the war, Howe began fighting for women's rights. In 1868, she was elected the first president of the New England Women's Suffrage Association. In 1868, she helped found the New England Woman's Club and became its president in 1871, the same year she became the first president of the American branch of the International Women's Peace Association. She was later active in the International Federation of Women's Clubs. Howe continued to write throughout her life, publishing travel books, poems, collections of essays, and biographies.
In 1870, she co-founded Woman's Journal and then served as its editor for 20 years. She traveled extensively until her advanced old age. In 1908, she became the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.