JACKSON POLLOCK’S AMERICAN SAGA
I had just put the car in reverse to back out of my brother’s drive when I saw my niece, who we had just dropped off, running back towards us with something in her hand… Daddy says this is for you she panted as she put through the window an old book about...
IT’S THE RISK, STUPID
I was obediently standing in the queue with my groceries in the little red basket and staring into space as one does, when some familiar squeaky sounds coming from the sound system caught my attention. I tuned in… Of course! It’s Mick Jagger singing that ridiculous ‘discoish’ song from years ago! The long...
ANTHONY CARO DIED!
I was just about to head off back to the studio when I heard my wife call from the bedroom: - Anthony Caro died! She then carried on talking going into detail about the artist’s death and the coincidence that we had been talking extensively about him together with another friend only a...
PIETRO LONGHI’S EMPTY CANVAS
If you were an eighteenth century painter set out to do a painting of some “Duck Hunters on the Lagoon”, most likely you would triangulate your piece around a lagoon, some hunters and a bunch of ducks. Pietro Longhi thought differently; in his 1760 canvas there’s a lagoon and some hunters but the...
OIL ON SCREEN
Circa 2003 AD: “One of your paintings has been sold over the internet” “What kind of collector would buy a painting he’s seen only on a computer screen?” “You’d be surprised, it’s becoming quite common… ” “Henry VIII married Anne of Cleves after seeing her in a portrait and then rejected her...
LEWITT ON THE WALL
Following the quote by Sol LeWitt that I posted some time back I was contacted by the Creative Team of Avenues School in New York, who were working on a video about LeWitt’s Wall Drawings, a couple of which have been installed in their institution – Why can’t all schools be like this?...
ARTIST QUOTE: KAZIMIR MALÉVICH
In his book That’s The Way I See It David Hockney speaks of going through an artistic crisis in 1973, which would end up with him leaving the painting George Lawson and Wayne Sleep unfinished and eventually moving away from what he refers to as ‘obsessive naturalism’. The artist left London to live...
JAN VAN EYCK IS A REAL ARTIST!
Jan van Eyck’s ‘Arnolfini Portrait’ is a fascinating painting in so many ways that I won’t attempt to enumerate even the most obvious ones… Actually, maybe I will give it a little try: That wonderful degree of photographic realism that has survived the 579 years since it was painted and still creates the...
IT’S A GIRLS ARTWORLD
At the beginning of the academic season some years back I remember remarking to a colleague that I was under the impression that there were more female than male students at our art school, and he informed me that the exact ratio was 60:40. I don’t know why he’d bothered to memorise this...
LET’S TAKE A LOOK UNDER ROTHKO’S HOOD! (2)
This post is a follow up to Let’s Take a Look Under the Hood, which you can read here. On the theme of art school critiques (or crits) and the need for a student to talk about his or her work or not, I think it’s important to differentiate between two ways...
LET’S TAKE A LOOK UNDER THE HOOD! (1)
What can you tell us about your piece? Nothing What’s it about? Nothing Where did you get the inspiration or idea? I don’t know… nowhere Can you explain it to us? There’s nothing to explain, you just look at it This is an exchange I’ve been through a thousand times with students of...
LONG FORGOTTEN BEAUTY
Follow us, we’re going to show you something you might like! I looked at them in search of giveaway body language that they may be planning another prank, finished brushing the sand off my feet, put my flip flops back on, buckled the kids into their seats and did as I was...
All schools should be art schools.
