from there to here: Autumn Drawing development

Rules for art and planning a drawing. Artist research: Ad Reinhardt

 Ad Reinhardt, contemporary of abstract expressionists, had more in common with minimlists and rejected the angst and expressiveness of Pollock et al.
His late works, Black paintings (1964-67), inspired by Malevich, sought to remove all extraneous references including representational elements. 

"a pure, abstract, non-objective, timeless, spaceless, changeless, relationless, disinterested painting—an object that is self-conscious (no unconsciousness), ideal, transcendent, aware of no thing but art." Ad Reinhardt


What appeals to me about Reinhardts work, though I have yet to seen any 'live' in the subtle use of gradations of colour, the lack of expression, may imply a lack of emotion and disconnection, but I like this contrasting lack of ego to the maniacal expressionism of Pollocks more muscular and passionate work.
This is an artist being more mindful and contemplative, especially towards the end of his life, and he mentions that the black paintings could only have been done in those years.

 On a different note, he also contributed a series of technical rules.
In contrast to others who would use inspiration and guidance to create their works, note number 3!
I can relate to the thinking what I want something to look like before starting. But the drawing and experimenting has led to further ideas and as a result, clarified what elements I need and has highlighted how important composition is. As it had felt a bit instinctive before, and a nod to photographic rules, I had dismissed it before as something I should be erasing and approaching things differently with a more complete covering of the paper. However the smoke paintings that I ended up liking least were the ones that had the most marks and were least thought through, even if the marks made by the candle were spontaneous.

The Twelve Technical Rules (or How to Achieve the Twelve Things to Avoid) to be followed are:

1. No texture. Texture is naturalistic or mechanical and is a vulgar quality, especially pigment-texture or impasto. Palette-knifing, canvas-stabbing, paint-scumbling and other action-techniques are unintelligent and to be avoided. No accidents or automatism.
2. No brushwork or calligraphy. Hand-writing, hand-working and hand-jerking are personal and in poor taste. No signature or trade-marking. “Brushwork should be invisible.” “One should never let the influence of evil demons gain control of the brush.”
3. No sketching or drawing. Everything, where to begin and where to end, should be worked out in the mind beforehand. “In painting, the idea should exist in the mind before the brush is taken up.” No line or outline. “Madmen see outlines and therefore they draw them.” A line is a figure, a “square is a face.” No shading or streaking.
4. No forms. “The finest has no shape.” No figure or fore- or background. No volume or mass, no cylinder, sphere or cone, or cube or boogie-woogie. No push or pull. “No shape or substance.”
5. No design. “Design is everywhere.”
6. No colors. “Color blinds.” “Colors are an aspect of appearance and so only of the surface,” and are “a distracting embellishment.” Colors are barbaric, unstable, suggest life, “cannot be completely controlled” and “should be concealed.” No white. “White is a color, and all colors.” White is “antiseptic and not artistic, appropriate and pleasing for kitchen fixtures, and hardly the medium for expressing truth and beauty.” White on white is “a transition from pigment to light” and “a screen for the projection of light” and “moving” pictures. 
7. No light. No bright or direct light in or over the painting. Dim, late afternoon, non-reflecting twilight is best outside. No chiaroscuro, “the maldorant reality of craftsmen, beggars, topers with rags and wrinkles.”

 

 

Ad Reinhardt, Abstract Painting, 1960–1966.

 

 8. No space. Space should be empty, should not project, and should not be flat. “The painting should be behind the picture frame.” The frame should isolate and protect the painting from its surroundings. Space divisions within the painting should not be seen.9. No time. “Clock-time or man’s time is inconsequential.” “There is no ancient or modern, no past or future in art. A work of art is always present.” The present is the future of the past, not the past of the future.10. No size or scale. Breadth and depth of thought and feeling in art have no relation to physical size. Large sizes are aggressive, positivist, intemperate, venal and graceless.11. No movement. “Everything is on the move. Art should be still.”12. No object, no subject, no matter. No symbols, images or signs. Neither pleasure nor pain. No mindless working or mindless non-working. No chessplaying.




Despite the slightly heavy duty nature of his paintings, in terms of their possible difficulty in being appreciated for their apparent uniform colour, they would be difficult to reproduce.
Subtle crosses become more visible the longer one stares at them, due to the different shades of grey and colours that are used.

In contrast to his strong views on the strengths of abstraction, and the need for art to be 'art for art' not 'artists for artists'
he had a satirical side and was known for skewering the art world in his cartoons...
 
  

Ad Reinhardt, untitled cartoon originally published in PM

 Links:

http://www.art-agenda.com/reviews/ad-reinhardt/
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-reinhardt-ad.htm
http://www.artnews.com/2015/01/24/less-is-more-ad-reinhardts-twelve-rules-for-pure-art/

artist research: Richard Hamilton

European 'pop artist' contemporary of David Hockney, trained at the Slade after working in advertising in the 1940s.
Much influenced by Paolozzi, a scottish artist of Italian descent, himself influenced by american artists defying stylistic conventions such as Pollock and Dubuffet.
Hamilton liked the use of collage, as an antithesis to painterly, time consuming art, he named the collage as an 'instant art form'.
Using pages from magazines and catalogues, combining images to produce surreal stylistic visuals that challenged the idea of 'high' art.
Social progressive change, especially across the Atlantic was important during the times. Europe was developing it's own pop culture, with the Beatles (and their Peter Blake designed album covers. Over the pond, Jasper Johns, then later Roy Lichtenstein would be revolutionising pop art culture in turn.
One of the other greats that influenced Hamilton was Duchamp, whom he met and befriended after travelling to the States after Hamilton's wife died in the 1960s.

i came across Richard Hamiltons works when looking for collage/representations in art of female faces.
Looking for similar more modern takes after Man Rays disturbing images of obscuring the eyes on portrait sitters faces. This old world objectification and fetishisation of the female sitter sat alongside what I've been researching for Freudian symbolism for the Edwardian cloakroom.

Study for a Fashion plate, Richard Hamilton

 

Man Ray: Aurelien, 1944

Man Ray: Marchesa Luisa Casati portrait, technical error caused the blurring which Man Ray used in later photographs

LInks:

reference:Fineberg J, (2000) Art since 1940 Laurence King Publ. p239-240

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/jul/25/richard-hamilton-duchamps-exhibition-tate-1966 

 

artist research: David Prior

Reasearching british sound artists, came across soundfjord website with links to liminal website: official website of collaboration between David Prior (Sound artist and composer) his partner Frances Crow (architect and designer).
I came across mention of a project completed during a residency for  binaural media 
called 'Of this parish'

a film explaining a live soundart recording made on a residency for binaural in Portugal.
the concept was of delineating in a real time recording, the geographical boundaries of a parish. 
Where bells tolling ceased to be heard at a parish boundary, meant you were within the adjacent parish.

At the time I was researching ideas and symbolism for a sound piece for a project for Theaster Gates's Sanctum November 2015.

Already had ideas around
->timeline
->repeated stories of the parishioners
->the church was dedicated to weavers of Bristol, repetitive mechanic sounds...
->using more repetitive elements of sounds to create meditative pattern and series of noises

 
I'd started with an idea of referencing the historical timeline of the Temple church where the final sound piece would be played.


The film produced for liminal was more about using 

using sound as a means to articulate space

rather than time, but I was really struck and taken by the calm thoughtful, simple concept. 
 'The film is both a sonic portrait'
Coincidentally, the film then showed at the Arnolfini, I was able to go and hear David Prior speak about the ideas and logistics of the recording and video editing.
The actual recording in live time that was done of the church bells wasn't included in the film which I was disappointed about.
But I came away excited and energised by hearing about contemporary artists work that I felt touched on some of the themes/content I'm enjoying exploring on the course:
How and what media to use to communicate an idea and feeling

How does this relate to my work?
Interesting the comments on liminal website that the preparation
for the project.

Unlike gathering field-recordings for future use in an edited work, these recordings are made in a single take. Like Aleksandr Sokurov’s film Russian Ark (2002), or indeed our work Another Poisonous Sunset (1998) or Janet Cardiff’s The Forty Part Motet (2001), Of This Parish is dependant upon real time rendering of space. For this reason, a significant portion of the residency was devoted to devising and preparing these simultaneous walks. Each walk was undertaken by two recordists providing equipment backup and ensuring that the primary recordist is not disturbed by the need to communicate, map-read or negotiate other practicalities.

 Ideas first, preparation, then controlled but spontaneous process that results in finished piece.

For final Sanctum piece, the sound recording, was edited live during the performance. Thus, the timeline and concept remained unchanged, but controlling and altering which elements allowed spontaneous editing during the performance eg altering volume or what sounds took 'centrestage' aurally.

from Liminal website,link below my italics

Of this parish Review

the talk given by David Prior was articulate, succinct and unpretentious. He spoke warmly and with interest about the themes in the work, the voiceover script and subsequent projects.
The film, was beautifully and simply edited but with a few additional effects eg children appearing/disappearing.
I will be interested to keep an eye on further projects by Liminal and I've also been looking into the binaural media links and other projects.





Links:
http://www.soundfjord.org/listeningpost.htm 
http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/film-screening-of-this-parish
http://www.liminal.org.uk/contact/
http://binauralmedia.org/news/en/about
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/mar/28/sound-art-radio-4
http://www.quietmark.com/

food for thought, sol le witt

Sentences on Conceptual Art

by Sol Lewitt 

1. Conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach.
2. Rational judgements repeat rational judgements.
3. Irrational judgements lead to new experience.
4. Formal art is essentially rational.
5. Irrational thoughts should be followed absolutely and logically.
6. If the artist changes his mind midway through the execution of the piece he compromises the result and repeats past results.
7. The artist's will is secondary to the process he initiates from idea to completion. His wilfulness may only be ego.
8. When words such as painting and sculpture are used, they connote a whole tradition and imply a consequent acceptance of this tradition, thus placing limitations on the artist who would be reluctant to make art that goes beyond the limitations.
9. The concept and idea are different. The former implies a general direction while the latter is the component. Ideas implement the concept.
10. Ideas can be works of art; they are in a chain of development that may eventually find some form. All ideas need not be made physical.
11. Ideas do not necessarily proceed in logical order. They may set one off in unexpected directions, but an idea must necessarily be completed in the mind before the next one is formed.
12. For each work of art that becomes physical there are many variations that do not.
13. A work of art may be understood as a conductor from the artist's mind to the viewer's. But it may never reach the viewer, or it may never leave the artist's mind.
14. The words of one artist to another may induce an idea chain, if they share the same concept.
15. Since no form is intrinsically superior to another, the artist may use any form, from an expression of words (written or spoken) to physical reality, equally.
16. If words are used, and they proceed from ideas about art, then they are art and not literature; numbers are not mathematics.
17. All ideas are art if they are concerned with art and fall within the conventions of art.
18. One usually understands the art of the past by applying the convention of the present, thus misunderstanding the art of the past.
19. The conventions of art are altered by works of art.
20. Successful art changes our understanding of the conventions by altering our perceptions.
21. Perception of ideas leads to new ideas.
22. The artist cannot imagine his art, and cannot perceive it until it is complete.
23. The artist may misperceive (understand it differently from the artist) a work of art but still be set off in his own chain of thought by that misconstrual.
24. Perception is subjective.
25. The artist may not necessarily understand his own art. His perception is neither better nor worse than that of others.
26. An artist may perceive the art of others better than his own.
27. The concept of a work of art may involve the matter of the piece or the process in which it is made.
28. Once the idea of the piece is established in the artist's mind and the final form is decided, the process is carried out blindly. There are many side effects that the artist cannot imagine. These may be used as ideas for new works.
29. The process is mechanical and should not be tampered with. It should run its course.
30. There are many elements involved in a work of art. The most important are the most obvious.
31. If an artist uses the same form in a group of works, and changes the material, one would assume the artist's concept involved the material.
32. Banal ideas cannot be rescued by beautiful execution.
33. It is difficult to bungle a good idea.
34. When an artist learns his craft too well he makes slick art.
35. These sentences comment on art, but are not art.

---

First published in 0-9 (New York), 1969, and Art-Language (England), May 1969

scratch and smoke

1. 

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

These are scanned A4 watercolour smoke drawings.
Starting point to my project.
Following summer work developing ideas and works for a residency at All Saints Church, Clifton.

THe use of incense in the church, spirtual connotations of transformation and the movement embodied in smoke and incense interested me.

Looking at these now and photos I took of the interior of the church I can see how these link in also to soot marks above the heaters in the church.

Traces of things no longer there.

I like the subtlety of the marks

Using the candle to paint like a brush was a technique that was initially tricky to master.
It had to be done outside. 
I soon learnt to use a face mask!
Tilting the paper at 45 degrees to the upright candle flame produced the right amount of carbon residue that would mark up the paper.

Marks like feather were produced by carefully moving the candle in brush stroke like manner against the paper.


The feathers seem the most obvious reference marks.

After a tutorial discussing these, it's become apparent, that they have a photographic type quality, I think the shape of the paper, aswell as the depth of the black references this.

THis isn't so surprising given I've always been drawn to black and white photos from the past, whether Ansel Adams and Sally Mann 
one a landscape photographer whose breadth of tones and scale amaze me, the other a contemporary photographer who usually uses human subjects as her focus.

Moving forwards I need to decide where to go with these.

My favourite piece remains no. 8, I love the depth and vertiginous sensation of this. I didn't recognise a possible suggestion of a face in the ring, which is entirely accidental. I'm not sure I like this as it detracts from the more stark abstract qualities to the piece.


numbers 1-3 were more like a graphic design and could see how they were referencing Emma McNally's large scale more intricate and intriguing works in graphite.

The B's have it

                                                



B flat minor

slowed this down to 0.25secs
makes the whole tune even more frickin freaky and goosebumpy
trying to find a way to combine this with stop-motion footage of smoke and time-lapse of semi-opaque windows


time and time again,'le fil' by Camille keeps nagging at the back of my mind. One note plays through the whole album. A sustained B note.....


Play both of these together and I think I've had my herbal tea spiked with something a bit more hardcore than licorice.

walk the line

richard long lonely hearts
loner rambler 
likes mud
WLTM fellow introverts for cross-country walks and rock hunting

each bio i read about Long talks about him being kicked out of art school
not just any art school
the one i'm studying at at the moment
i suppose the point being is that 'in spite' of that he became famous and successful, ie it was a very good thing that happened

2 things of note here, why speak of a 'supposed' failure unless it's to big yourself up and stick 2 fingers up to an institute from your home town. Do we still need to know this? Why is it still part of his narrative

2. Long's current piece, boyhood line, is on the downs. Durdham downs, an expanse of grassland owned by the merchant venturers ( a possible shady secret type society if we are to believe cynical conspiracy theorists from Massive attack. Or is it just having beef over it mainly being a man's club of red trouser wearers). Anyway I digress. The downs, is cut in pieces by roads linking wealthy parts of bristol to each other. If this was Longs upbringing it does make me wonder about successful artists. 

He is of his time. Long and Andy Goldsworthy, outside making serious art out of nature long before cynical Saatchi got his mitts on the BYA and the landscape of Britains 9(capitalist) art scene changed forever.

What was the man walking away, to or from. Heavily eyebrowed, intensely staring out of portraits of him at the arnolfini show. This is a man to be taken seriously. He might be a middle class Bristolian, but goddamit he's got gravitas and punk to him. He just chucked out of art school the little bleeder and makes art from mud. And stones. This artist is all man. Like the stonehengers before him, he is a pagan stone mover. If art is about context. His stone moving and walking is art. We call cave art, art, because it's visually recognisable and figurative. It may well just be a visual shopping list for a bunch of illiterate cave people, daydreaming about their next ideal feast. But we label it art. It's the context. We assume, holed up for the winter, fed up of bopping their female kin over the head with clubs and giving them a proper seeing to neolithic style, that they then got bored and needed a more cultured and creative outlook for their developing frontal lobes and energy. So of course they drew. We all know that drawing and painting are proper art. Using wood fired charcoal, ochre and probably spit. 

Fast forward a couple of millenia, and there's a bloke from BRistol, traipsing round the planet recording it all and then selling photos of it in books.

My annoying trains of thoughts when I was walking round are sadly like an amateur gallery botherer. Yes, but why? I get the pleasing duality of mud on black wall versus mud on white wall. I'm intrigued to know if he's even taller than his photos suggest and he didn't need a step ladder to reach the ceiling. I wonder about the sloppiness of the mud and the vessel he held it in. Not really the lofty thoughts of an art critic. There was something like nail marks down a blackboard, a slight slow meditative form to the strokes applied that seems like a controlled frenzy of a madman. Or just an obsessive. My doctor mind wonders about his wanders and note taking. A bit on the spectrum? But aren't we all
Recording details, miles walked, objects seen, thrush blood. All verifying the deeds and walks done. So it's not up for questioning. An impressive walk from Bristol to London bridge in 39 hours. Again, tall man, long legs, quick walker. This obsessive need to leave a mark. I was here, I matter, I did it really. It made me sad. If a woman had done this, I think it would be dismissed as contrived,conceited and light weight. I think Long looks too intense and scary to have his credibility called into questions. But the female vagabond artist? What was she doing all that time. On her own? Did no-one want to marry her? Why's she making such a spectacle of herself? With mud, can' she go to Glastonbury and be a hippy there. Nancy Holt, did similar trips, but on a slightly more altruistic and secretive mission, left objects for friends at places and recorded the locations.

All these conflicting ideas. How does he afford to do this? The downs. The guy grew up near the downs. Must be middle class. That explains it. Anthony Caro, Henry Moore, all growing up in penury.
Just like someone convinced to go to medical school and growing up a stones throw from the downs. Privileged and playing around with art. It's a disgrace. That's me I'm talking about now. Not Long, I have no real idea about his background. Although it's a familiar story throughout art history (and I reference these people for whom the only possible similarity will be our backgrounds, not our successes) but Tapies, Miro, Redon, all academic/professional families. This is why I'm bemused at the criticism levelled at Tracy Emin and Damian Hirst and friends, the little jumpstarts made it when they shouldn'thave done. They're not establishment. How awful for the british bourgeosie to be challenged by people they would never rub shoulders with otherwise. I think of this each time I see another oil painting in turdy colours at the RWA in an open exhibition. This is what the fight is against. People lauding the skills of people that can copy nature as proper genuine artists. This is still happening now, ie contemporarily. 

God I'm waffling. I think my reaction to work like Long's like that of the recent exhibition of Randall-Page's (ooh, double-barrelled, there's a surprise) at the RWA, was an irritation at the simplicity of it. Because that's what I'm doing and obsessed with. Where on earth does that leave the rest of us, if the 'successes' are keeping it simple. I turn that on it's head though as, despite the insistent critical middle class narrow minded art naive numpty in my head still screams the loudest, the other more, er..authentic one whispers, pleased, it's ok, this is what it's about. If other people label as art/not art. it doesn't matter. It's all context and it's about experience. Not skill. And how good is that. To stick to your guns over decades and keep making the work and journeys that please you. That make sense of things. To record them and show them on walls. To mark out a line with your feet, and use those marks to show how you've marked your time on this planet. I was here. This is what I did. I'm tall I'm intimidating looking, but goddamit, I'll do what I please because I can stay true to myself. I'm rebel like that. I won't live how you tell me, I won't not break the rules. Even if it means I get chucked out of art school. Said Richard Long. Maybe. Or never

research:Julie Mehretu

This artists work, often monochromal, gestural with intriguing marks was suggested to me when researching my drawing work.
I'm interested in the piece above particularly. I've been working on an A4 limited size, on ECG paper or MDF pieces in experimental work and do want to think about scaling up, using fragments that are completed pieces in their own right. Whether this feels less daunting than a huge empty board I don't know. I like the detailing of smaller work and find it alot more peaceful and absorbing and it would be interesting working on a larger scale to see if that feels the same.
 Do you have to go large or go home?!

"Typically, Mehretu begins these paintings by imposing a plan that will dictate the composition, then responds to these outlines with architectural drawings. Gestural marks inhabit those spaces: they act on and are acted upon by the built space of the painting."


I like the fact that there is some sparcity in her work, they're not completely covered, the marks are distinct whilst remaining coded, obscure and subtle.
She uses overhead projectors to lay the foundations of marks on a piece, draughtsmen colloborate to make marks, often architectural designs.
It was interesting to hear that she used to push the works too far and then realising she could erase back into it that the favourite repeated marks that were initially creating an obstacle could be pared back. She describes the work as 'moving back and forth'. That the 'resolution emerges' some pieces may take a couple of week others years.





b.1970 Addis Ababa Lives New York

Bio from website
Julie Mehretu makes large-scale, gestural paintings that are built up through layers of acrylic paint on canvas overlaid with mark-making using pencil, pen, ink and thick streams of paint. Mehretu’s work conveys a layering and compression of time, space and place and a collapse of art historical references, from the dynamism of the Italian Futurists and the geometric abstraction of Malevich to the enveloping scale of Abstract Expressionist colour field painting. In her highly worked canvases, Mehretu creates new narratives using abstracted images of cities, histories, wars and geographies with a frenetic mark making that for the artist becomes a way of signifying social agency as well suggesting an unravelling of a personal biography.

Mehretu’s points of departure are architecture and the city, particularly the accelerated, compressed and densely populated urban environments of the 21st Century. Her canvases overlay different architectural features such as columns, façades and porticoes with geographical schema such as charts, building plans and city maps and architectural renderings, seen from multiple perspectives, at once aerial, cross-section and isometric. Her paintings present a tornado of visual incident where gridded cities become fluid and flattened, like many layers of urban graffiti. Mehretu has described her rich canvases as “story maps of no location”, seeing them as pictures into an imagined, rather than actual reality. Through its cacophony of marks, her work seems to represent the speed of the modern city depicted, conversely, with the time-aged materials of pencil and paint.

Mehretu was born in Addis Ababa in 1970 and lives and works in New York. She has exhibited in several important group exhibitions including ‘Poetic Justice’, 8th Istanbul Biennial (2003); Whitney Biennial; São Paolo Biennial and Carnegie International, Pittsburgh (2004); the Biennale of Sydney and the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2006); Prospect 1, New Orleans (2008); ‘Automatic Cities’ MCA San Diego (2009); ‘From Picasso to Julie Mehretu’, British Museum, London (2010) and Document XIII, Kassel (2012). Solo exhibitions include Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; REDCAT, Los Angeles and Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (2003); St Louis Art Museum (2005) and MUSAC, Léon, Spain (2006); ‘City Sitings’, Detroit Institute of Art and ‘Black City’ Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark (2007); North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, (2008); ‘Grey Area’, Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin (2009) and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2010). In 2015 she was honoured with the US State Department's 'National Medal of Arts'.

Gallery representation:

White cube London

References

http://whitecube.com/artists/julie_mehretu/
http://bombmagazine.org/article/2714/julie-mehretu