Howdy partners,
I am still in the process of finishing the final instalment of the "Embrace the Chaos' trilogy.... the reason it has taken longer than expected is due to me reading a book on the Chinese philosophy - Tao Te Ching! As well as watching the film Limitless and finishing a book by the awesome alternative comedian Stewart Lee. This will follow shortly and these will intertwine with the previous prose and summarise my thoughts neatly (well as neatly as possible ... calming chaos etc). In the mean time, I am setting myself a challenge of writing a review on the National Portrait - BP Portrait of the year 2011 exhibition, in the 30 minutes I have before I have to be at some good friends wedding reception in my favourite place in London (Wilton's Music Hall)!! So here goes.... Even as I approached the National Portrait gallery from Covent Garden, I was confronted with an ultra realistic portrait of a gentleman on one of the large banners adorning the front facade. For someone whom is trying to break away from producing artwork verging in the OCD photo-realistic side, I was already a little disillusioned. As you walk into the building and through the ornate entrance hall you emerge into a bright and spacious reception room. A set of photographic portraits confront you as you enter the ground floor viewing areas (some photos of athletes preparing for the olympics and some images of Danny Boyle and one of his creatives). As we move further in to the depths of the building there are usual suspects hanging in different places than they were the last time I visited ( I am thinking here of the paintings of Prince W and Prince H, the video of D. Beckham sleeping etc). Don't get me wrong these images are there for a reason and each have there aesthetically pleasing dimensions but I swiftly weave through the throng of tourists and dawdlers! Boom, and we're are in ! Straight away I am confronted with portrait after portrait of ultra-realistic photographic images!!! I walk and speed read the text by each... skipping over the educational backgrounds of each with added velocity as their various backgrounds have made little difference to the final images offered to us. Ok there are a few I am taken with and I will come to those in a second and I would like to stress I am not undermining these individuals who have probably worked ridiculously hard to get these images to look so perfect. I am not, I stress not saying these aren't great works of art but what I am asking is ... Are they pandering to a high percentage of society which will marvel at the skill they see in recreating a perfect carbon copy of the sitter??? Lets draw a line here between this and what Stewart Lee stresses in his fantastic book 'How I Escaped My certain Fate - The Life and Deaths of a Stand-up Comedian', within which he describe main stream comedians (Peter Kay, Michael MaaacciinTIIIRRREeee etc) as repeating peoples lives to them for comedic effect! Is this comedy ? Yes to the masses of people who refuse to come out of their comfort zones and exist in a stepford wives parody. No to those of us that like to be challenged, have our opinions / beliefs questioned and see things from someone else's point of view. Therein lies my cause for concern for this years competition! As someone who will enter something next year (which will NOT be photo realistic) I am dissappointed in the choices made this year. We have hundreds of portrait photography competitions in London, so rather than going through the turmoil and doggedness of doing the paintings, why don't they just submit the photographs to these?? The perfection seems to over power any meaning they were trying to convey to me. I found myself moving on to the next image without having my attention grasped! Which is the job of the artist! unless it is his or her intent to move you away from the canvas in this way (and I am sure this was not the intention of any of these artists). The photo-realistic was a outstanding achievement before the technological revolution brought us Mac Books and digital cameras. Now it is all to easy to take a few study images and work away to your hearts content. Before this there was skill in setting up the model and background and painting from real life. Let me just move my little soap box out of the way .... done..... So as I said there were some exceptions. The fifth painting in, is of a student wearing a blue and black stripy jumper he has made himself and holding his lucky plectrum. It is achieved through acrylic and permanent market pen by Rual G (see above). There is a something fresh about the way it works and stands out amongst the other pieces (there may be some resonance here due to my penchant for acrylic and working over with pens and inks.. but I try to be independent lol). Daniel Fook has produced some amazing images of Paul Capaldi (of In the Loop fame), these are striking and I felt the tiredness and age within Paul's numerous faces. A piece of work by Diaz Alama, a fantastic dark portrait of a young girl and a pet bird (shown above) - I loved the Munsters factor of this painting, a kind of weird Lily Munster and the raven element! - By the way I am not old enough to have been around when this was aired, it was reruns when I was 6 in the mid 80's, you cheeky punks! The winner of this years BP Portrait Award was Wim Helden's 'Distracted' with his portrait of a young man he has been "studying" since he was 7 in dark thoughtful pose - I would be distracted if I was being followed by an artist since I was 7 !! Artistic resolve or verging on disturbing obsession? we don't know enough to pass judgement but it is an interesting piece and you do feel the subjects distraction / melancholy. All in all, an interesting exhibition which is free, so get your limbs moving in the national Portrait direction!! Please please please NPG lets not pander to the artistic Peter Michael McIntyre audiences (nothing against these too, ultra successful but are they doing the comedy they started off with as young stand-ups? I agree with Mr Lee on this one). Right I better get to that wedding ! It took 40 minutes to write this .... that's not too bad at all! Although, it will have cost me £20 for the taxi to Wilton's now.... sod it, I would have paid £20 for the enjoyment I have had in writing this!!!! Edge out.......... I have proactively restrained myself from venturing out on the beverages for the last two Saturdays – A Dick Dastardly & Muttley-esk meddle has been dually earned!!. The reason for this self induced isolation is the very unproductive aftermath that ensues such tom foolery… Or… Have I succumbed to the inevitable onslaught of maturity? Surely not!! This is something I swore an oath never to conform too! My Thoughts: I read somewhere that it eventually dawns on the majority, that they are very similar to the thousands of other people they pass on the street! By this, I mean they are all programmed the same, have the same issues and flaws. I believe this is true for the majority of society, who subconciously conform to the ‘norms’ and be driven by social rules, governmental spin and media/advertising etc. While a driven few accept their flaws, accentuate their gifts & achieve a dream or manage to keep the pursuit of that dream alive (which in some cases is just as valuable). Currently, I seem to be existing somewhere in between – My own personal purgatory or a state of unwitting paradox?… thinking my thoughts about non-conformity/flaws profound, when actually everyone born of my ilk is thinking the same !! The inspiration for this post came from reading an aricle on Picasso's new exhibitions and 2 Guardian articles (11th July) covering female artists that do/did not conform to the commercial norms of aesthetically pleasing artwork. The new Picassso exhibitions at Tate Liverpool and the Gagosian address the political undercurrents of his work, his later years in the med and provide a microscopic study which illustrates his many different characters: the lover, the icon, the ego, the genuis, the monster. I am very intriged by political undercurrents hidden within artwork, but I am also aware that with enough research, hypothesies and assumptions you can make a case for an apple being an orange!! So shouldn't we cease our penchant for over analysis and view him in totality; as 'brilliant, complexed and flawed'?. The late Alice Neel’s incorporated individuals flaws within her portraits, she did not induce an 'Emperor’s clothes'-esk feeling to pander to the subject's ego. They are if anything a ‘characteristic accentuation’ of humanistic features (or what advertising and media peddle to society as 'flaws') we all posses and feel compelled to hide. While, 76 yr old Rose Wylie, produces 7ft stretch canvases working immensely hard to produce a piece of work that looks like she hasn't made any effort at all. Images trail of the edge of canvases, wording is spliced between subjects as if scrawled in haste. What I admire about Rosie (apart from she is having a good innings) is she still refuses to conform to gallery recommendations to scale down or rework her technique. She thrives off being 'an escapist from the Royal College of Art' in order 'to a return to untaughtness and spontaneity'. You may become aware of her work over the year as Sienna & Susannah Miller are using her images in their latest range of clothing.
Message to take away and chew the fat with: History is littered with artists breaking rules, whether these be visable or hidden messages. 16th Century Netherlandish painters such as 'Bruegel the Elder' for example were thought to have painted hidden religious meanings within their work, messages deemed heretical in nature, during their time. I see our progress being driven by non-conformists, without them who would challenge entrenched/antiquated beliefs? Without such visionaries life would be governed by a few and be very dull! What I am taking from this post is, you have to dare to live, accept your flaws, challenge & question everything & enjoy doing it while chasing your dreams. Granted this may have been a little deep (...Deep Deep Down ... as East 17 would say)... but I enjoyed writing it, I hope you enjoyed reading it!! Edge PS - Andrea Bocelli's - Dare to Live Well England have exited the World Cup in a highly embarrassing way!! Was it Fabio's fault, the media's or the over paid millionaires ?? I believe it is a combination of all three. We need to reassess english football from the grass routes up. Anyway this isn't a football blog its and art one! But now we are out I can now get back to concentrating on building up me portfolio and laying future plans for starting this as a real venture.
As I mentioned in my post the other day, parents edge recently unearthed some of my art homework from when I was 14. While I was back in the shire this weekend I decided to have a quick dig around myself. As I rummaged through the boxes a bright light emanated from a dark corner, angel's began to sing, seraphim's carrying the lord himself appeared..... and there it was.... the drawing bible of my youth!!!...... RH's - Your Cartoon Time I spent many hours learning from the oracle through these pages.... It was from hours of doodling and this book that my love for drawing cartoons came. I also found a drawing of a leopard I did at 13 for a competition for Chester Zoo - these were exciting times in Cheshire obviously! I won my age group with it and received some local press coverage (small column in the Chester Chronicle with my side parting and cardigan shining in the sunlight). But more importantly, I won a ALBA Hi-Fi (yep one of those crappy ones) and the sponsorship of a leopard for 2 yrs (which I creatively named Leo on my plaque and the Zoo forgot to remove for 6 yrs). A brief view of the past I thought might be of interest. Now to the future. Edge |
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