bauhaus textile designs

In my opinion, Gunta Stolz and Anni Albers are underrated members of the Bauhaus movement.  They were key members of the Bauhaus design team and taught textile design, and developed innovative techniques and designs during an important historical era.  On the Gunta Stolz website Anni Albers is quoted as saying "There was no real teacher in textiles. We had no formal classes. Now people say to me: 'You learned it all at the Bauhaus'! We did not learn a thing in the beginning. I learned from Gunta, who was a great teacher. We sat down and tried to do it. Sometimes we sat together and tried to solve problems of construction."

The drawings and watercolours produced as sketches for the textile ideas are directly aligned with my own interests in geometric patterning.  I am interested in both the precision and the fluidity of these small sketches.



Our trip to the Bauhaus Archiv Museum in Berlin made it evident that although they are geometric designs and fit well with the masculinity of the Bauhaus movement - these designs display the femininity of their makers in their use of colour and materials.

The following page is an excerpt from my 'Berlin' sketchbook:

Done while in the Museum this note in my sketchbook is based on a drawing for a wallhanging design by Bella Ullmann (also known as Monica Bella-Broner) c. 1929.  My note about this design reads: " the red stripes are a really important feature of this design.  Prior to adding them it looked like a jumble of colours.  The precision of the stripes creates a contrast and a focus.  A small but important detail."

Tracey Emin @ the Hayward

This month I visited the Tracey Emin retrospective 'Love Is What You Want' at the Hayward Gallery in the Southbank Centre in London.




I am interested in Emin's ideas but I have never really been a huge fan of her work.  Things that I do like about her work are the crossovers between art and craft; and how daring she is to display her life to the public.  However, the 'diy' nature of her work has never really appealed to me.

Seeing the retrospective gave me a much better appreciation for her whole perspective and how her work connects so directly to her own experiences and that in some regards her 'diy' approach is important so that the work feels like it is coming from an individual and that it is handmade.  I was particularly taken with the room on her life and family.  The dynamics, influence and relationship with friends and family are crucial to Emin's work - particularly her relationship with her father.

One other thing that struck me while touring the exhibition is how closely associated her work (below left) is with that of conceptual artists like Mary Kelly (below right) who created her series of works titled 'Post Partum Document' in the 1970s.

         

In seeing these two works side by side the connections between Emin's work and that of conceptual artists like Mary Kelly is more than apparent.  The idea of creating work that is autobiographical is by no means new and Emin is drawing on a vast history of artists who develop their work based on their own experiences in life.  What makes Emin more popular today, perhaps, is our fascination with watching other people's live that has developed out of 'reality television' and the voyeurism which is now inherent in Western cultures.  As a result, we are more and more fascinated by Tracey Emin's documentation of her life and her openness about events that have made her in to the artist that she is.

Graham Crowley Visit

Graham Crowley visited the Atkinson Gallery today in advance of his exhibition this autumn.  He mentioned a really great link to his blog (he is on blogspot too!) and reference to recent interviews at the Core Gallery.

The links are here for you to view:

Graham Crowley's Blog

Core Gallery interview with Graham Crowley

Graham Crowley's Website

Have a look and think about relevant question that you could ask Crowley about his work.

Beautifully Abstract

I recently read an article in Artists & Illustrators magazine on the painter Jennifer Durrant RA titled 'Bright & Beautiful'. Durrant has been a Royal Academician (RA) since 1994, as such she is recognised as having contributed significantly the development of Art in Britain.  In the article her works are described as being "large-scale abstract works of colour-driven, meditative intensity."  I am attracted to her work because of the joy of colour and her confident use of colour.  I was also taken back by the modesty and hardworking nature of her career.  Coming from a middle class background she was always hardworking and felt that she would do an apprenticeship and work away until she was recognized.  As a result, she has been steadily produced work since the 1960s.  A small bit of inspiration for the day.

 

isolation / interaction

"If isolation tempers the strong, it is the stumbling-block of the uncertain." - Paul Cezanne, artist

“The television image … is an expansion of the tactile sense … a medium, which includes all of our senses in an in-depth interaction.” Marshall McLuhan, media theorist

The terms isolation and interaction offer the opportunity for students to develop work that is based on either one or both of the concepts.  The terms also provide an opening for a variety of genres, media and subject matter.  So ... it is up to you to discover your own way of interpreting these ideas and also to try and create a concept that will explore things that inspire you as well as play to your strengths and extend your artistic vocabulary. 

A variety of artists could be linked to this area of exploration.  Below are a few examples and possible interpretations.  Select an artist and explore/analyse how their work might be an effective response to the title 'isolation/interaction'.

... of form - Artists: Graham Crowley, Wanda Koop

 

... of people - Artists: Peter Doig, Elizabeth Peyton, Jenny Saville, Chiharu Shiota

         

... of objects – Artists: Vija Celmins, Luc Tuymans

   

... of ideas – Artists: Joseph Cornell, Keith Tyson, Yoshitomo Nara, Tracey Emin

     

... landscapes - Artists: Caspar Friedrich, Eleanor Bond, Paul Noble, Paul Catherall    

What is Art?

In an article published this year titled 'Now pay attention everybody. I'm about to tell you what art is' Germaine Greer discusses the idea of 'Art'.

   

In Greer's article in which she discusses different works of 'art', as seen above (Warhol, Marcel Duchamp, London's Hyde Park), she makes some interesting points.

Greer writes, "drawing and painting are fun, and most people like doing them, especially if they are considered good at them, but they are not art until they acquire separateness" (Guardian, 6 March 2011)
What is seperateness?  Greer describes how seperateness is when the painting (the object/thing/performance) attracts its own attention (or position).  It is not the subject of the piece, for example Marilyn Monroe, that makes the Warhol print important but rather that it is a Warhol print and it has its own message, its own interpretation and its own presence.

A second more relevant point to A-level Art is made when Greer states that "[s]tudying art for A-level is really tough because of the inherent contradiction between being trained to reach a standard and finding out how to be spontaneous. The value the examiners demand is creativity, but creativity cannot be taught." This aspect of spontaneity is one that is encourage through experimentation.  It is one thing to know who to use a paint brush or create a screenprint; however, it is also important to learn to experiment and 'play' with an element of spontaneity so that you might discover something that was not anticipated.  This show a higher level of creativity and requires you to be confident about your abilities as well as trusting of your instinct.  Ultimately, creativity has to come from within.

A thought provoking article that makes us question - What is Art?

factual beginnings

Terry Winters in the Tate Shots video clip discusses his 'factual beginnings'.  He sees factual beginnings as the concrete starting points for a painting or group of works and notes that like a landscape painter looking at landscapes he is an artist who looks to science for inspiration.

I too have looked to science for inspiration.  My work produced through my time at university was heavily associated to botany, biology and the natural world.  For instance, my interest in lichen and microscopic form was linked to associations with lung function and air pollutants. 

A second aspect of Winter's work that is of interest is his use of paint and the characteristics of the material.  Within one of his statements Winter's recalls how "painting’s capacity to make images through the manipulation of materials seems to be its most powerful and magical quality. How a painting is built is a big part of what it means. Mark-making, gesture and touch—those are the key components as to how to generate images through painting." (artzizzle).

Below is an example of Winters' work, In Blue, 2008, oil on linen 

and my work umbilicaria torrefacta, 2002, oil on canvas.

What is your 'factual beginning' and why?