History of art...

In Leila's art history group we looked at the Nazi's and how the failed artist Hitler stole art from Europe and displayed it in his 'Degenerates' exhibition to ridicule the artists. It was all very interesting and it kind of ties in with the set of images I was making for a set of cards....

'Alternative careers that could've changed history..No.1...Adolf the catalogue model'...

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Francis Bacon...

Through my drawing project I've been looking at various artists who concentrate their works on the nature of people and one that really stood out to me is Francis Bacon.
His figurative paintings are worryingly brilliant and show scenes of terror, discomfort and what can only be described as torture, both mental and physical.
To understand his works we need to look at his life and what drove him to make the paintings he did.
He was a very complicated individual, constantly battling with his addiction to gambling, alcoholism and the publics un-accepting view towards his homosexuality. But as sad as all this seems it all worked in his favour towards making his paintings.
Born in Dublin in 1909 his family moved to London in 1914 and by 1949 he'd started his series of 'Screaming Popes' paintings and in 1954 he represented Great Britain at the Venice Biannale.
His three paintings of Lucien Freud were the most expensive paintings ever sold and fetched an amazing $142 Million Dollars to the sister of Quatar's Emir.

'Three Studies of Lucien Freud', 1969. 

Bacons paintings are so interesting and intriguing to me. 

The confusion of each face or body, the vivid background colours and the dark areas interrupted by slashes of light make them visually eye-catching to any observer. 

'Study after Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X', 1951. 

One of his most famous paintings is a reworking of another artists work. The original painting by Velazquez shows a powerful figure sitting in full glorious religious clothing staring straight at the observer. The painting shows the pope as people saw him, in control and strong.
'study after Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X' was painted by Bacon in 1951 and shows the pope sitting in the centre of the canvas on a large golden coloured throne which is the first thing we notice when first seeing the image. The throne seems more like a cage or trap, keeping the pope imprisoned with its hard thick yellow stripes. It reminds us of Warhol's 'Little Yellow Chair' a painting showing a solitary electric chair in a prison. The pope could almost be tied to it at the wrists and close inspection reveals his tightly gripped hands clutching the chairs frame as if the electricity is already flowing.
His ghostly figure wears the same purple and white outfit but we see through the clothing to the backdrop, more of a disappearing apparition than a person.
The backdrop itself is scrawled onto the canvas in downward strips of dark greys and blacks that appear to have been applied in a rage or through anger like Bacon was attacking the canvas and the straight lines could be prison bars or more likely a set of dark closed curtains stopping the daylight coming in or denying anyone looking at the pope.
The face is screaming, terror filled and tortured, screaming something at us or at something he's witnessing? The black deep mouth hangs wide open with purple lips and is almost skeletal like. The eyes are purple smears with dark black circles directly underneath and he has the look of someone recently deceased.
In religious ceremonies the priest or pope can sometimes splash holy water onto someone as a blessing but in this painting we see the same thing has happened only the holy water is actually blood splatters across the foreground of the image. These could be a sign of the artists hatred of what the figure symbolises or a symbol of the loss of blood from religion.

This painting is the total opposite of what we see in Velazquez's painting. This figure is strong in a different way and it frightens us with whats happening to it and what it means. Why is he screaming and why is he disappearing? Is it the end of religion or a comment from Bacon on the church and homosexuality?
Like the man himself we will never fully understand what the painting is saying but fully and deeply understood or not these paintings are amazing to view and will be a great inspiration to many artists in the future.
'The man that paints those dreadful pictures' A quote by Margaret Thatcher, died in madrid in 1992 of cardiac arrest after an asthma attack.

David Shrigley visit.

David Shrigley's visit was the highlight of the Cultural exchange festival. He spoke of his artwork in the way it should be viewed 'not very seriously' and kept the audience entertained with stories of his creations and his friends, not taking the Turner prize too seriously and how chuffed he is to be making the fourth plinth in London.

When questioned by a younger audience member about her art school teacher telling her she isn't making art correctly he simply replied "forget about it, do what pleases you and don't worry about exam results, they mean nothing".

His talk echoed what we'd discussed earlier that day in the group presentation project, "work hard, open the doors for yourself and don't stop trying" giving an example of this through the stories of him selling his first books to drunk people in the pubs of Scotland. 

All in all a great visit and a perfect example of how these artist talks should be done. 

Leicester indoor market...Pre-demolition

Leicester Indoor Market is shortly to be demolished. The building and its occupants have been there for decades and the once bustling centre is now almost empty with just a few stall holders remaining until the very end. Its a sad old place, empty, tired and cold and I wanted to reflect that in these images.

Visiting artists...or not...

It was a real shame that Peter Blake couldn't make it to DMU but I still got a chance to see his work close up.

 I've always been interested in screen print art and Brad Faine's printed pieces were inspiring and a pointer towards what professional work should actually look like, i.e. - perfectly framed, printed with skill and a quality finish.

The work of one of our finest printers was also on the walls. Brendan Neiland makes images of vividly coloured metropolis scenes and structures. His mirrored prints are full of inspiration to me and his quality of finish is something I intend to master as part of my degree.

'The Complexities of We'...2014 Major Project

'The Complexities of we'...

This project was something else I was working on in Feb 2014, mixed between drawing and self directed. I decided not to present this work for assessment but have included it in my blog anyway. 

'The eyes speak volumes', pencil on paper, 30cm x 18cm, 2014

Freud said "Dreams are often most profound when they seem the most crazy" and I think the same can be said of people who can be multi levelled, deep and intense.
I wanted to base a series of works, mainly portraiture, on the complexities of humans, split personalities and the hidden sides we all have.
I've started to make a body of work looking at people but in a very mixed up and confused style reflecting the personalities of humans and their darker sides.

Untitled, 2014, 200cm x 160cm, Ink and Paint on Fabriano Paper.              

Robert Longo works in dark charcoal. Deep black spaces fill his images and the areas of detail, shining through in bright white, stands out and makes each of his beautifully drawn pictures come to life but with a feeling of darkness or intimidation.
Van Eyck did the same with oil on canvas.  His portraits stand out from the dark surrounding backgrounds making the vivid colours glow.
'A pilgrimage to San Isidro black painting' depicts several distorted faces highlighted against a dark backdrop and is part of the black painting series made by francisco Goya in the 1800's which also includes the brilliant 'Dos Viejos Comiendo Sopa', or '2 old men eating soup', I prefer the spanish name.
These artists all use this same technique in their creations, the dark background forces the image towards us and gives it tonal strength.
For this next set of drawings I wanted to see if I could get the same effect in a set of bizarre portraits.
Nothings as it seems, like nightmares in daylight. The faces appear out of the featureless dark background and stare at you, threatening, intense and unsettling.
The seven deadly sins was a starting point for them, a base to work from, suggesting a set of images and expressions to aim for, but only a single face can manifest itself on each sheet of paper.

                      "Wrath" Charcoal on Fabriano, 100 x 80cm. Jan 2014. 
                   

                       "Lust" Charcoal on Fabriano, 100 x 80cm, Jan 2014. 

                          "Envy" Charcoal on Fabriano, 100 x 80cm, Jan 2014. 


Photography captures a more 'real' set of images but they can still be twisted to show a darker side.
These were all single shots, no photoshop, but the use of various techniques can distort what we actually see.

Our faces show what we feel, what we want to express and what we really think without using words. 

Faces are complex and very interesting to me. I like the way a slight change in mood can make a massive change in a persons facial features. Anger can make our faces open up, wide eyed and explosive or it can close us down, squinted and frowning. Both faces completely different but showing the same feeling. Someone laughing uncontrollably could be mistaken as crying and an intense look of happiness can be mistaken for craziness. 

I've worked in the real world in a lot of different positions and the most complex, messed up group of people I've witnessed are office workers. They either love their job or absolutely hate it. This love or hate feeling can make them over keen and power hungry or can make them back-stabbing two faced maniacs. I've seen them all!

I chose to make this set of images on old office paper which was used for keeping records of accounts and audits, stock etc and I really like the dull grey/green tone reminding me of the office lights constantly shining down on you.  

The grid of lines also represents the endless continuation of days spent at a desk. The criss cross of bars working as a prison cell holding the workers inside and the splatter of paint spreading over the page imitates the lives and time invested in the workplace. 

The faces are all based on characters I've worked with, none drawn from life but distant vague memories; 

The miserly boss watching your every move, the accounts executive dreaming of a better life where he might actually get to see his family, the overworked unexploded bomb about to blow....

All images drawn in ink, 42cm x 60cm. 

The office theme reminded me of countless executive, completely pointless meetings enforced by idea starved management staff and I wanted to make some images showing the face of one of these individuals who seem to talk and talk but never actually say anything. Everyone can relate to this....

'Waa Waa Waa',     Ink and acetate on paper computer print. 

'Sell Sell Sell',    Ink and acetate on paper computer print. 

I really like this set of small drawings and wanted to try and distort the reality a bit further through more manipulation. The results are quite nightmarish and work well in the context of the project. 

'Life of Exo'...Major project 2014.

"Little Red Riding Hoodlum" 90 x 75cm, Ink, Acrylic, Marker pens on Thick Paper. 

Carrying on with my drawing project and the "Red Riding Hoodlum" print, I wanted to create the 'life' to accompany the bulldog hoody character and build a story and a body of work for my project.
I started by looking at 'tagging' on walls around Leicester and recording different blocks of flats, estates, streets, graffiti, roads, etc in my sketch book to build an image in my head of where this character might live.
I wanted to document an imaginary existence that isn't too far from the lives of real people.

Exo is a 'NEET', a term created by the government as a label for 16-24 year olds currently 'Not in Education, Employment or Training' of which there are over 979,000 in England which costs just over £22 million pounds a week in job seekers allowance.

"King of EastGrey Estate" and "Victim of Society" are set in front of a burning red evening sky, full of his life, his habitat and his history. The images are all created in my mind, totally imaginary, but the life is very real and looks at a particularly large section of todays society.

Amongst the scattered graffiti are chemical symbols for recreational drugs, scrawled exerts from an imaginary diary, his tag name (EXO 111) and the the buildings and places he calls home.

I wanted the same gritty look that was seen in the french film 'La Haine', 1995, directed by Mathieu Kassovitz, which looked at life in a suburban ghetto. This black and white classic cult movie shows 24 hours in the lives of 3 friends caught up in a riot brought on by an aggressive police force.

"King of the EastGrey Estate" Jan 2014, Printers Ink, Marker Pen, 

Acrylic on thick paper. 100 x 65cm.

"Victim of Society" Jan 2014, printers Ink, Marker Pen, acrylic on thick paper. 100 x 65cm. 

Sketch book pages and research photographs:

Stair case of a tower block

These shots were taken around various high rise flats in the city and I think the striking lines, distinct tones, perspective and solid form make them really interesting. 

The dark patterns and lines work well on red background. 

Uncontrolled tagging 

Urban Habitat

Rough sketches. 

I've developed a way where the writing makes sense but isn't controlled enough to be understood. 

Tagging sketches. 

Through collecting photo's and images of different blocks of flats I wanted to continue my project with a drawing made from the various photo's. Working with rough sketches I arrived at a rough idea for a collage  which shows the view seen by the tenants of these buildings every day. The towering blocks stretch upwards with perfect symmetry and never ending continuity. 

The graphic abstract style of architectural sketches by Antonio Sant' Elia are a great source of inspiration for these images. The towers stretch up with strength and power but the hard direct lines are also delicately drawn by the hand of a great designer and artist. 

Antonio Sant' Elia

Antonio Sant' Elia

Anselm kiefer looked at tower blocks for his installation piece at the "Hanger Biocca" in Milan. "The Seven Heavenly Palaces" presents a set of towers which were all structurally loose in design and had a feeling of being able to topple at any moment which given the sheer size of them and the protruding metal work made them threatening to look at. These towers stretch towards heaven, straight up and straight down, monumental and almost spiritual. 

Anselm Kiefer

I like this idea of the towers stretching away into infinity and started working on a set of rough sketchbook pages to create an idea of the look I wanted to achieve. 

I want the harsh black and whites of the structures to show oppression and power contrasting with the vivid random graffiti and highlight the contrast between the straight edges and the scruffy writing. 

I want the images to have a monotone precisionist style, flat and geometric like Demuth's "My Egypt", 1927, but with the modern exciting twist of a recent colour-filled graffiti attack. 

Two rough sketches for the final piece. 

The four images below (all A3) bring all the elements together in a dramatic set of exciting prints. Combining chaotic colourful graffiti, uncontrolled text and contrasty monotone photographs gives a glimpse of urban culture to the viewer and a realistic view of Red Riding Hoodlums habitat. 

For the next drawing I concentrated on the claustrophobic yet endless towering structures that EXO sees all the time. We see these places and wonder what goes on inside but rarely get the opportunity to find out. To a lot of people they appear as a threat, somewhere not to go. To EXO they are home, safety and in a way, freedom. 

I wanted to 'draw' with the photographs I'd collected and screen printed the various pieces onto the paper before adding text and tagging.  

The next stage was to get inside one of the tower blocks in Leicester to wander the hallways and get some photo images. The first thing I found was how claustrophobic these places feel when you walk in. The doors are all mechanically operated with key pads and digital entry systems.

The thing thats started to really stand out to me is how repetitive these buildings are. Every floor of the 15 I walked through is exactly the same as the one before with the only difference being the slight change in paint tone on the walls and the strength of lighting which varies due to bulbs being blown. 

I've never spent any time in a prison but this place made me feel like I was in one. 

The guard on the front door told me not to take any photo's of the residents which live in the 275 flats but I walked 15 floors, every corridor and hallway and didn't see a single person except for the guy behind the glass door who literally scared the shit out of me.  The place was eerily quiet with the only noises being distant door slams and occasional voices behind locked front doors. 

The next set of shots were all taken on the outskirts of Leicestershire. The graffiti has been made on farm buildings in the middle of fields, nowhere near any housing and totally isolated. 

I like the idea of nomad graffiti artists making the effort to travel to new isolated places where they can leave their mark before heading back to their own environment.