September 30, 2011
Filed under: Unusual Art — Alan @ 9:13 am
Copper tube from Yorkshire sculpted into art
Deirdre O’Daly Judge is a Dublin based artist and has recently created a new sculpture that has been made from copper tubing. The new piece of art is called ‘Orb Weaver’ and has been created from pieces of copper tubing that the artist sourced from Yorkshire Copper Tube. It also involved glass and wires in its construction.
The sculpture is a sphere and is fixed to a steel base; the new piece of art is based on something previously made by the artist called ‘Vertical Gardens.’ It took Judge over two months to take it from design to completion and it is now on display in Dublin at the National Botanical Gardens. It is a part of this years ‘Sculpture in Context Exhibition’ which is intended to bring attention to sculptors in Ireland. It is also acting as a new way for artists to show off their work in an environment that is not like a typical gallery.
Judge has said of the work, “I needed something that was very easy to shape by hand and copper tubing seemed like the perfect material to do this with. It is also nice to look at which is always important when creating a sculpture. I was able to find the copper that I needed from Irish Metal Industries and they provided something that was ideal for me to work with.”
The exhibition at the gardens has some 170 works of art and most of the guests who have come to see the art have reacted in a very positive way.
Neil Overton, Commercial Director at Yorkshire Copper Tube, said: “We were delighted that our copper tube was used to produce such an interesting and beautiful piece of artwork, which could be viewed in such a prestigious setting.”
September 24, 2011
Filed under: Exhibitions — Alan @ 11:51 am
In his time, John Martin was an artist who was also a best seller as his paintings were so remarkable, displaying their apocalyptic scenes that they were wondered at by the crowds of the 19th century. His art was so popular that it was not just shown in art galleries, but in theatres and music halls because they could accommodate more guests.
Martin was also known because he came from a family living in poverty in the north of England and he became a friend of the royal family because of his art. This was something very remarkable in a time where class was even more notable than it is today.
What is strange is that his legacy today has somewhat faded, for someone who was so popular at the time he is strangely not of note in today’s art world. The Tate Britain will be hosting an exhibition starting this September that they hope will answer some of the questions surround his career and lack of legacy.
He was born in the late 17th century and began his work as a painter of coaches but he later moved south to London, where he became a different kind of painter. He became famous quickly for painting vast canvases filled with scenes showing the end of the world. His art work was so popular that it is estimated that around one third of the population saw at least one of his most famous pieces. Others were so controversial that they had to be kept guarded from the public to prevent vandalism.
His work was very popular and often found on the walls of European dignitaries and emperors from around the world. The art critics at the time though were less flattering about his work, saying that it was designed to appeal to those who were unsophisticated.
Martin Myrone is the curator of the Tate and has said, “It is interesting to read what critics at the time said about him. Their opinion was that if art appealed to the man on the street it was probably not that good.” Today’s art world believes that this criticism isn’t a judgement on the quality of Martin’s work but more a statement of the snobbery of the 19th century art world.
What also made Martin notable was that he had a much greater commercial sense than other painters at the time. He realised that there was a value in reproductions of his paintings and was a pioneer of printing reproductions – he would then send these to fans around the world and in doing so accumulated a fortune.
The director of the Tate Britain is Penelope Curtis and she has said, “The politics that existed in the art world at the time meant that Martin did not get the critical praise to match his commercial success. The art scene at the time favoured a type of art that was less showy. Today though the situation is different and some of the art being produced today is full of showmanship.”
September 17, 2011
Filed under: Exhibitions — Alan @ 11:57 pm
It is only in recent years that Edgar Degas has been categorised as an artist who painted ‘pretty’ pictures, and the upcoming exhibition of his works is meant to counter, if not scotch, that perception. Degas himself would surely be surprised and horrified at such a reputation; he was a radical in his time and some of his finest creations were criticised as being far too lifelike and even sordid.
“Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement” opens at London’s Royal Academy on September 17th to run through December 11th and will feature about 85 of Degas’ works, including a bronze cast of his controversial sculpture that offended a lot of critics when it first appeared in 1881. “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen” is the only sculpture that was ever exhibited while Degas lived; the original was done in skin-toned wax, with a real tutu and a wig of human hair.
In many ways that figure epitomises the artist’s view of his world. Degas was not trying to glamourise the dancers he used as models in so many of his works. In fact much of the impact and allure of his art lies in his ability to portray the reality behind the fluid grace of the ballet as performed on stage. Degas was in his element when he haunted the backstage rooms of the Paris Opera, sketching the dancers as they practiced or adjusted hair and clothing prior to the opening curtain.
‘Still life’ is not a term that applies to Degas’ art, even though he died before the video camera began to take over from single frame photography. His passion, according to his contemporaries, was depicting movement. He was quoted as saying that those who called him a painter of dancers were missing the point, that he used them as a source for “pretty fabrics” and movement, both of which he captured to a marvellous extent.
Degas was fascinated by the cameras that appeared during his lifetime; he bought his first camera in 1895 after the technique became more sophisticated, and spent a lot of time in the dark room. But the fact remains that his paintings manage to convey a sense of life and movement that no ‘still’ camera shot could match. The artist would circle his model with painstaking precision in order to obtain the entire three-dimensional perspective that enlivens his paintings.
In later life (Degas died at the age of 83, in 1917) his eyesight began to fail and he turned to pastels instead of oils, presumably a less exacting medium, and those pastels are the images that attracted viewers who saw them as ‘pretty’ but seemingly failed to recognise the depth and intensity under all those layers of colour. Degas was a master at capturing both the ‘froth and lace’ of beautiful fabrics and the often sweaty, striving bodies that wore them.
Critics and viewers in the general public may disagree about the sources and motivations behind Degas’ work, but in the final analysis there is a consensus about his place in the history of art in all its forms. He was a dynamic and immensely talented artist with a tendency to flout convention and invent new methods and techniques that had a major impact on his contemporaries and his successors.
September 10, 2011
Filed under: Art News — Alan @ 8:26 am
Few artists have worked from more dramatic and tragic inspiration than the Cambodian painter Vann Nath, who died last Monday at the age of 66. He was one of only seven survivors of the Khmer Rouge
prison known as S-21, where in the years from early 1975 to late 1978 as many as 16,000 people were tortured and killed for having violated some ambiguous precept of the Khmer Rouge regime. In all nearly 2 million deaths due to overwork, starvation and execution are attributed to that regime.
Before Vann Nath was arrested and taken to Tuol Sleng, a school-converted-to-prison for ‘enemies’ of the Khmer Rouge and its leader Pol Pot, he had been making a living as a relatively undistinguished sign painter. The records that exist indicate that he would have been executed at some point if not immediately, but his paintings won him a reprieve; he was kept alive on condition that he supply portraits of Pol Pot and other leaders.
Vann Nath spent about a year at S-21, and he watched and experienced the tortures and deprivations inflicted on the prisoners. When Vietnamese forces overcame the Khmer Rouge in 1979, there were only a handful of prisoners still alive and with the death of Vann Nath only two are still living. However, while the artist lived he created a momentous legacy of art depicting the horrors of that regime and that prison.
He was also the first to testify as an eyewitness at the trial of Kaing Kek Lev, the man known as Duch, who was the prison chief at S-21. In June 2009 he spoke to the court about the evils propagated by Duch and his cohorts, and his words were compelling, but his pictures are even more so. Vann Nath spent the years from 1979 until his death painting detailed and horrifying scenes of the remembered hell of his prison.
He also wrote a vivid memoir of his experiences, titled A Cambodian Prison Portrait, and spent most of his time, even when battling ill health, speaking and writing in his passionate desire to express his experience as a reminder and warning to his countrymen and the world of the physical, psychological and spiritual damage that man is only too capable of wreaking upon his fellow man.
The tribunal that has been dealing with Khmer Rouge crimes is entitled to try and sentence those who were “most responsible” for the genocide and accompanying atrocities of the regime. Last year the prison chief Duch was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison for crimes against humanity, but four more accused criminals like him have yet to be tried, and there is concern amongst some human rights organizations that they never will.
For Vann Nath, that would be a sad commentary on the judicial system and the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal (called the Extraordinary Chambers), as the trials have been so long in process that some believe the participants just want to be done with it, and the remaining accused are getting more support from sympathizers while the victims of their crimes wait for justice that is too long in coming.
September 9, 2011
Filed under: Exhibitions — Alan @ 6:53 am
My Bunny Art Exhibition is Full of Teeth and Other Stories
Heavily influenced by her background in theatre and literature and by contemporary socio-environmental events, Teague’s paintings are absurdist and dramatic
5th – 9th October, 2011
Private View 4th October 6pm till 9.30
The Roa Gallery will be giving a preview of Celina Teague’s new solo exhibition, My Bunny is Full of Teeth and Other Stories on the 4th October. These paintings are Teague’s impression of taking a hallucinatory journey into a strange and alternative existence, and they encompass the other side, under side, foreign and unknown side that the artist perceives to exist there.
In Teague’s other world people can eat themselves thin, women give birth to fully grown porns stars and Gorillas are the most revered of romantics. They are akin to the hero of Kafka’s Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa, as they morph into something completely alien. The hero of Teague’s stories is the body, and we see it violated, pumped up, chopped up and decomposed, and it is a glorious protagonist captured in time.
Teague’s background in theatre and literature are heavily influential in her work, and she has also combined elements from contemporary social and environmental events to produce works that are at the time same absurd and dramatic.
Her references are vast and varied; religious paintings and biblical legends, Hieronymus Bosch’s fantasy world, Pieter Breughel’s demonological works and the grotesque, cartoon like visions of Philip Guston, Jakub Julian Ziolkowski and George Condo.
These paintings explore the complexities of the existence of humans, and the sometimes bizarre relationship we have with the world we live in. Teague art is resonant with the darker side of a human’s nature and the unsettling nature of this speaks profoundly to us all.
Teague was born in London in 1981 and did her Masters in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins. Previously she studied Drama and English at Trinity College, Dublin and fine art at the Universidad de Bellas Artes in Oaxaca, Mexico. She has lived in Berlin and Shanghai – two cities that continue to inspire and influence her practice. This is her second solo show in London.
www.celinateague.com
Opening Hours
10.30 – 7pm weekdays
Saturday and Sunday 12-5pm
Roa Gallery
5b Pall Mall
Royal Opera Arcade
London
SW1Y 4UY
September 3, 2011
Filed under: Art events — Alan @ 5:18 am
Northumberland County Council are offering an iPod as a prize to young artists who will create an original piece of art that tell the viewer what ‘respect’ means to them. The ages of the contestants can be anywhere between 9 and 16.
Finalist will be chosen from their entry pieces and a live final will be held where the young artists will have to produce their design on a giant billboard. There are three age categories and there will be one winner from each age group. The iPod prizes are being donated by the Specialist Computer Centre (SCC) who are working in partnership with the council.
The event is part of a larger programme being operated across Northumberland which is called, ‘RESPECT.’ The winners pieces of art will be used as backdrops for this initiative. The original pieces will be kept on display at the councils public protection centre located in Morpeth.
The RESPECT initiative is an ongoing project to promote respect for each other and fellow citizens. It is targetted towards school age children. This project will allow for children to openly interpret what the word means to them. A representative from the County Council has said that they are very much looking forward to seeing what some of the young people design. Applications should be submitted on A3 paper with an application form that can be downloaded from the councils website.
September 2, 2011
Filed under: Art events — Alan @ 5:13 am
The 2012 Artists Rooms tour will be hosted by the Scottish towns of Dunoon, Banff and Linlithgow. The tour involves modern and contemporary art and was announced this week. Robert Mapplethorpe, the American photographer will have his work shown at several Scottish locations. August Sander, a German photographer will have works displayed in Banff as well as Leicester.
The MAC is a new contemporary art venue in Belfast and is a highlight of the 2012 tour. There will be art featured here by Robert Therrien. Also recently opened is the Hepworth Wakefield which will be displaying sculptures by Richard Long. The Ferens Gallery in Hull will host works by Andy Warhol.
The Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland are the joint owners of the tour and responsible for its organisation. There are over 700 pieces of art involved in the tour, all of which were sold to the tour in 2008 by Anthony d’Offay. He sold them for over £26m despite the entire collection being worth over £125m. This tour will be the fourth of its kind and will show the art at 44 galleries and museums across the nation. The tour is supported with a generous grant from the Art Fund.
