Elaine Langerman ~ Washington, D.C.

La Charrette--a Book of Prayer on Wheels
By Elaine Langerman
Washington DC: Elaine Langerman, 2022. One-of-a-Kind.

5.25" x 10.25"; 12 pages plus front and back covers. Altered Book: “Cinderella's Coach” published by Disney. Mixed media. Digitally composed image pages with acrylic paint. Front and back pages with some laminated, layered elements. Initialed and dated by the artist.

Elaine Langerman: "This book was superimposed on another book called ‘Cinderella's Coach’ published by Disney. I do not recall how I acquired this book, possibly in a Goodwill store many years ago when I was poking through their selection of old books and toys with an eye toward using them in future work. I was especially drawn to this book because it is on wheels--I just LOVE things on wheels!

“The first thing I did to create this 'new' book was to sand all the pages so it would be easier to glue new images on top of them. The original book had a snap and short, tiny strap to snap it shut. This strap had yellowed with age and become brittle, so off it had to go! The book itself has two sets of blue double wheels so it can roll!

“The title of the book, ‘La Charrette--a Book of Prayer on Wheels’, hearkens back 19th Century France, referring to the final intense work effort expended by architects to meet a project deadline at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris.

‘During the nineteenth century, proctors circulated with little carts to collect final drawings and students would jump on the charrette to put finishing touches on their presentations minutes before the deadline.

“This is quoted from Moule & Polysoides, Architects & Urbanists' website. It seems that the term is still in use in architectural firms referring to brain-storming sessions, and the forming of ideas . . .

“I liken it to the Chariot--the ‘Maasah Merkabah’. The ‘Ma'aseh Merkabah’ is a Jewish mystical text containing a series of mystical prayers one says in order to ascend to the Holy Realm. This refers to the vision of Ezekiel.

Ezekiel saw a wheel way in the middle of the air, a wheel within a wheel a-whirling, way in the middle of the air. And the little wheel run by faith and the big wheel run by the grace of G-d,
a wheel within a wheel, way in the middle of the air. . . .

“One source says it was written by William L. Dawson, another refers to it simply as a Negro spiritual, a folk song. "

Elaine Langerman, information on images for page 5: “The background circles on blue and bronze are from a painting by Diane Ayott, a contemporary artist who lives and works in Salem, Mass. I quote from her:

“My art is informed by both contemporary and modernist painting. I use acrylic and oil paint as well as various collage materials on paper, panel and canvas. I explore pattern and repetition, not for the sake of pattern and repetition [but] for the dream-like, meditative experience it offers me. Over time, visual information accrues in my work. The meditative process sets up spatial relationships and intriguing color vibrations. The overall begins to emerge and holds me in a kind of intimate conversation, yet it looms large. The skewed nature of the geometry dips into the awkward. Color relationships, as well as other bits of information, populate the surfaces. It is in that complex space of relationships that I make art. In some cases, the repeating patterns and vibrating color allow the mark-making to shimmer and at other times the work pull into a quiet and calmer feeling. Some sessions can completely change the once followed direction. A simple addition of bits of text or a newer mark can shift as the lay of the land. I follow those instincts. My intention is to express individual clarity in each painting as fully as I can.”

“The red scalloped strip with yellow heart-like shapes is from a scanned-in candy wrapper. The skeletal-like figure with pansies in an old image from I-don't-recall-where, as is the pink bicycle and rows of repeated trees. The strange, winged fish from which an individual is emerging (Noah?) is receiving gold coins with outstretched arms from the left hand of G-d (?), and His right hand dispenses balls of merde. I believe the painting from which it was taken is from an early illuminated esoteric text. In the original image, the hands emerge from a semi-circle of angry, red clouds enclosing an eye within a triangle. The horizontal dark green strip is a maze from Rolf Heimann's Amazing Mazes, Watermill Press, 1994, p. 10.”
$1,250

"My Aviary - a Play on Words and Images"
By Elaine Langerman
Washington DC: Elaine Langerman, 2021. One-of-a-Kind.

9 x 8.5"; 8 leaves. Computer collage consisting of printed and painted layers. Each page of an Avery catalog, front and back, was used as a base for layered and painted elements composed in Photoshop. Laid in cloth covered clam shell box with silver titles on lid.

"My Aviary" is built upon a 1983 exhibition catalog of Milton Avery's work held at the Grace Borgenicht Gallery in New York City. The forward is by his wife Sally M. Avery, also an artist. The exhibition consisted of twelve of Aviary's oil paintings.

Using Avery's paintings in the catalog as her inspiration Langerman has created new images with collage and paint. As with all her collage work she has a feeling for image and color, space and organization. Each collage is an invitation to look for hidden treasures.

Her vision starts with the catalog cover which has as the background a blue cathead that she found in "The Art of Alice in Wonderland" by Lovett Stoffel (1998, The Wonderland Press, NYC). With "Onrushing Wave" Langerman thought the sky shapes reminded her of birds, so she sort of enhanced them. She inserted a horizontal section of ocean and two figures from Pierre Bonnard's "Beach" painting of 1922. Each collage invites the viewer find connections.
$1,100

Ravishing Radishes
By Elaine Langerman
Washington DC: Elaine Langerman, 2013. One-of-a-Kind.

6 x 6.5"; 10 panels. Mixed media: paint, collage. Materials include acrylic paint, vegetable beads, thread. Exposed binding with bead accents. Typed explanation sheet accompanies book.

Elaine Langerman: "Each page consists of an image collaged on the computer, whose parts are taken from many and varied sources. The sky's the limit and everything can get stolen."

Even though the title seems to indicate a book about radishes, it is a book of collaged images of several vegetables and fruits. There are "Beauteous Blueberries"; "Plump Pomegranates"; "Soignee Strawberries"; "Tender Tomatoes"; "Chuckling Cookies"; "Ecstatic Eggplant"; "Avid Apples"; "Peeping Peppers"; "Aspiring Asparagus"; "Chubby Cherries and Plucky Peach" and the back cover even has a ghost cucumber slices.

Elaine Langerman: “Ravishing Radishes is a celebration of ourselves and the teeming abundant beauty—and bounty—of the natural world around us, supporting our lives. One day I sliced a radish for our daily salad, and found it to be so strange and beautiful that I was compelled to scan it into my computer. I then placed it (repeated three more times, using Photoshop) in front of a sheet of previously scanned-in origami paper with its very rich pattern and, of all things, uploaded it onto my Facebook page. Everyone responded to it enthusiastically . . . so my mind began to take off from there. I seldom work on a single image—one image almost always leads to another, so one at a time, images began to form themselves composed of vegetables with richly patterned backgrounds. I went back to the cover page of what by now was to be a book, adding its beribboned title and our friend flying his training plane amongst the radish heart-clouds. I was then inspired to include at least once something human (or sort of human) on the each page. Creatures and creations fly, sleep, play, and float among birds, trees, water, diagrams, and of course, vegetables and fruits or all sorts—mainly ones I like best.”$1,200

Tomatoes
By Elaine Langerman
Washington DC: Elaine Langerman, 2009. One-of-a-Kind.

6 x 6"; 8 panels. Mixed media: paint, collage. Materials include plexiglass squares, acrylic paint, varnish, glue, beads, thread. Exposed thread binding. Typed sheet of explanation of images accompanies book.

Elaine Langerman: "I used 'tomatoes' as a theme because as a child, 'Tomato' was by middle name (according to my father). I adored tomatoes as a child when summer tomatoes were wonderful. Now, as an adult, it's hit or miss.

"'Tomatoes' was created using light plexiglass squares as a base, mounting the printed pages composed using Photoshop onto each. I then painted and varnished the pages. I added some drawing on the computer to several of the pages."

Elaine Langerman, explanation of images for Pages 3-4: "I, in my photograph as a child I appear naked above an armada of sailing ships off, I am sure, to explore the New World. This time, it is halved cherry tomatoes that appear, skewed on forks. The dress (the original photograph was of me clothed in that dress, a favorite of mine; here I invented me as a the nude kid) was one of my favorites. The photograph was of me and my parents, standing stiffly in front of the Concord, a hotel on the borscht circuit. It was taken the year before I was sent to camp for the summer – a rather hellish experience for me, to be repeated for five more summers – a monument, surely, to my ability to endure."
$1,200

Au Risque de Tomber
By Elaine Langerman
Washington DC: Elaine Langerman, 1983. One-of-a-Kind.

5.4 x 7.5"; 10 leaves. Gouache pencil and crayon on Black Arches paper. Bound in black cloth.

Eight original abstract studies, colorful morsels on a black page, each identified by a French phrase.

Elaine Langerman: "Why do I make books? From the time I would beg my father to read me the funny papers, reading and books were magical to me. A small object, held on my lap had infinite power to take me to a place where angry thoughts and things didn't happen — or more important, didn't happen to me. So, over time, in the midst of my sculpture and painting activities, I would pause to make a small book containing stars, fish, or simply marks."
(SOLD)

Book of Colors
By Elaine Langerman
1994. One-of-a-Kind.

Six plex disc, each 8" in diameter. Mixed media on plex with leather cord & wooden bead to string together. Each of the pages is numbered on the face.

Elaine Langerman: "With Book of Colors I was exploring ways of making a book, both in form and content. Does a book have to be bound? How? Do the pages have to be rectangular or can they be round? How have other cultures treated the book form? Do their books look like ours? Are they made of the same sorts of materials? Does a book have to be bound by ideas of sequence and the passage of time?

"And how could books be made so that the viewer could see them all at once, instead of having to turn pages—rarely possible in a gallery setting--which is how the book was being presented when it was made.

"I wished, too, to explore the limits of imagery and how it could be used without text or limited text to form a book. And how abstract shapes and design could suggest cosmic space outside time so that a sense of floating and detachment could be depicted. The viewer could be a part of but apart from what she saw--working rather like a mandala to induce a meditative state."
(SOLD)

Cahier de Musique
By Elaine Langerman
1990. One-of-a-Kind.

2.5 x 9.1 x 2.25". Mixed media using acrylic paints. Sculptural book.

Elaine Langerman: "The word 'cahier' is the French word for notebooks. I was reading about Satie at the time, and I believe he was making what he called 'cahiers de musique'--hence the name."
(SOLD)

Early Cunning
By Elaine Langerman
1997. One-of-a-Kind

9.5 x 11.5". Altered book with collage, cuts, acrylic & metallic paint. Sewn binding.

Elaine Langerman: "I being with a seed—a tiny germ of an idea which I let cook in my brain and psyche for a while. I begin to notice images in my environment—real things and pictures. I look through books, magazines—even catalogs, I watch TV, I talk to people. Perhaps I read some poetry or some mystical text. Then, it's off and running! First, perhaps, the cover is collaged using images scanned into the computer. Then the dialog with the idea and that first image. The images begin to unfold—in a very real sense creating themselves. Once the images are composed, I print them and construct the pages themselves, then add paint and varnish. Then they are bound together."
(SOLD)

Click image to enlarge

En/Unfolding
By Elaine Langerman
2006. One-of-a-Kind.

8 x 6"; 14 pages including cover and back. Collage and acrylic paintings in an exposed-spine sewn binding. Red sewn stab binding with glass bead accents. In blue cloth box.

Through paint and collage, Langerman explores the dual worlds of our existence posited by physicist, David Bohm - the invisible (enfolded) universe and the visible (unfolded) universe. For Bohm, all forms are manifestations of countless enfoldings and unfoldings between these two orders.

Langerman's no-frills page-by-page guide to the source of her images is available.
(SOLD)

G-A-R-D-E-N
By Elaine Langerman
1996. One-of-a-Kind.

4 x 4 x 4.5"; 12 pages. Acrylic on 400 lb. black Arches paper. An accordion structure book. Accompanied by an acrylic painted board for the book to be displayed on.

A depiction of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Elaine Langerman: "I explore miracles – the miracle of memory, the miracle of dreams and the miracles described in fairy tales, poems and mystical interpretations of our history and beginnings. I make paintings, constructions and unique books."
(SOLD)

The Fairy Tale
By Elaine Langerman
1998. One-of-a-Kind.

3.4 x 4.3". Mixed media with acrylic paints. Boards bound with gold colored twine.

Elaine Langerman: "As a child I always wanted to escape. I think my spirit always wanted to leave my body to travel to a realm beyond....Reading books carried me far, far away to places of enchantment where I could see magic. Making pictures and objects did the same thing. I neatly combine the two activities. I can create fascinating, alternative worlds by myself where anything I want can happen. I can create my own dreams...."
(SOLD)

Flashbacks
By Elaine Langerman
1995. One-of-a-Kind.

5.75 x 5". Mixed media on Plasticraft. Six pages of eight images plus two cover images.

A cartoonish view of impending crises.
(SOLD)

Journey
By Elaine Langerman
Washington DC: Elaine Langerman, 1982. One-of-a-Kind.

6.6 x 6.75"; 7 leaves. Gouache on black paper. Bound in black felt.

Suzanne M. Singletary: "The book conceptually suits Langerman perfectly. An idea can be explored in successive images — incorporating the crucial notion of movement in time and space — while still maintaining a cohesive reading."

A simply told simple story: The first two panels, with precise diagrammatic symbols, suggest a sense of separation at journey's start (at least of this Journey); a two-page center spread signals the beginning of integration into a new landscape; two final panels indicate wholeness regained.
(SOLD)

Les Bois de Roses
By Elaine Langerman
Washington DC: Elaine Langerman, 1983. One-of-a-Kind.

5.5 x 6.8"; ten leaves. Gouache images on Black Arches paper. Handsewn book bound with black linen.

Ten original studies, colorful abstracts on a black page, each identified by a French phrase: "les bois de roses," "sous l'azur," etc.
(SOLD)

My Angel
By Elaine Langerman
1989. One-of-a-Kind.

2.75 x 5". Mixed media sculptural book.

"I wish to create realms of enchantment for the heart where it might find play and advenure. My wish is to coax the mind to give way to the spirit so that it may perceive and create in new ways, so that it might escape the illusion of limitation. Ah, to dance, to evolve through contemplation and joy!" (From "Women in the Book")
(SOLD)

Oh You Doll!
By Elaine Langerman
Washington, DC: Elaine Langerman, 2008. Open Edition.

2.5 x 4"; 8 pages. Single sheet folded. Printed on one side of an acid-free sheet.

Elaine Langerman: "Oh You Doll is a continuation of a series of painted/collaged wall works (10) that I exhibited back in January [2008] at a gallery near us. Seems like I am really getting involved in kids' stuff—illustrations of antique paper dolls, of found kids wherever they pop up, toys, and games. The background (all that pink) is a diagram of a pram that you can make by folding it over, thus making a 2-D object into a 3-D one. (Do you see the wheels on the back page?) Am I trying to recapture childhood images—or just having a bit of a romp?? It is kind of like doing a dance with all the parts coming together into a calibrated whole. I see the mood as somehow related to my Alice in Wonderland painting with all the personages moving around rhythmically and manically…. And there is the whole idea of dancing in mid-air, and of animals and humans dancing together."
(SOLD)

Book of Valentines. Book II
By Elaine Langerman
Washington DC: Elaine Langerman, 2007. One-of-a-Kind.

8 x 6 x 0.25"; 8 panels. Double-sided accordion structure. Mixed media: paint, collage. Materials include acrylic paint, found papers, glitter glue; thread. Exposed binding. Typed explanation of images accompanies book.

With paint, collage, and dizzying imagination, Book of Valentines offers a surrealistic romp through a world populated by valentines. Each page, laden with found paper and image, overflows with allusions to art, literature, and pop culture. The resulting blend smacks of earthy archetypes and heavenly laughter.

Langerman provides a no-frills page-by-page guide to the source of her images.

The first page – "Let us go through this world together" – combines a background of brick-type shapes from Quarterly of Interiors (2000), part of a valentine card found in Greetings with Love, the Book of Valentines (2003), a thank you card received from a friend in 2006, an angel from a coffee ad found on the internet — and even more. And the fun, both serious and light, has just begun.
(SOLD)