Artist Research
Daniel Buren
Daniel Buren has been thought to be a Minimal artist, who has been known for his regular, contrasting coloured stripes in an effort to integrate visual surface and architectural space, notably on historical, landmark architecture. His work can be classed as site specific due to its relation to the setting in comparison to its prevailing ideas of an autonomous work of art. Daniel Buren's work lies between being sculptural, installation art and paintings, as well as action and intervention.
Daniel Burens work links very well with my project on CLEAN CUT due to the regular use of lines, colours and the involvement of space. His glass ceiling work also helped to inspire my work when looking into shadows and work with projection.
Sol LeWhitt
Sol LeWhitt is an American artist linked with various movements such as conceptual and minimal art. He came to fame in the 1960's with his large wall drawings and 'structures' ( a term he preferred to use instead of sculpture) but was known for his wide range of media such as; drawings, printmaking, photography, painting, installations and artistic books. He also believed the idea itself could be the work of art. LeWitt’s decided to reduce his artwork down to its very essentials after reading a book left in his apartment. However, unlike many strict minimal artists he was not interested in the use of industrial materials. In addition to this, he focused mainly on the system and concepts such as; volume, transparency, sequence, variation as well as irregularity. LeWitt’s reduced his work down to basic shapes such as the quadrilateral, sphere and triangle, basic colours like red, yellow, black and blue but also down to basic types of lines. Much of what he made was created using specific ideas and instructions. These plans were logical so that the result was unseen. However, when it came to the making of large scale pieces LeWitt’s hired assistants and they would be credited for the outcome of these logical ideas. LeWitt’s allowed for his assistants to have freedom with the work that they also could become part of the art work, this was due to the vague instructions given to the line drawings.
Kenneth Noland
​Kenneth Noland is an American painter who was best known for his colour field paintings. In the 1950's Noland was thought to be an abstract painter but throughout the 1960's he was moving more into the Minimal artist style. His work has explored pure colour which created a reductive approach to his work, linking it to the minimal word. Within his work his interest in working with flat colours developed into a fixation with simple shapes such as; chevrons, stripes and bullseye's. Besides that he also applies Josef Albers's theory of 'the interaction of colours' to his own compositions, which explore the relationships between contrasting or complementary colours; painted in thin yet opaque layers, each tone reveals its particular characteristic weight, depth and transparency. As seen in Kenneth Noland's paintings its very reductive in the sense that the texture, gesture and emotion has been removed, leaving the work as a hard-edge abstraction piece. Kenneth Noland also worked on shaped canvases which were filled for edge to edge to leave no space for suggestions of depth or background.
Sean Scully
Sean Scully is an Abstract Expressionist who is influenced by Vincent Van Gogh, Henri Matisse and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Within his work you can see a continuous use of the grid technique . Scully's paintings include intersecting lines and bands which form a rich optical field. By using colour contrast helps to create an illusion within his work which creates depth and space, this was an influence from Op art. When looking at Sean Scully's work you can see the use of the stripe. This stripe work was influenced by the trip the artist took to Morocco in 1969 and taken from the textiles and carpets there. In 1972 Sean Scully started to experiment with new techniques which included the use of tape and spray paintings composed of grids of interlaced vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines and bands. After years of experimentation Scully took an interest to the Minimal side of art and created some monochrome paintings which became part of the series called 'Black Paintings'.
I have taken an interest into Scully's work due to the neat and clean cut edges and how they are very uniform when being created. This can also be seen in my own work.
Jim Lambie
Jim Lambie's work has evolved from from the response to the psychology of colour as well as space and has been influenced by movements in art and the history of place.
Within Lambie's work you can see that he has source the materials directly from the world around him, and has also made references to popular culture, which is often drawn to the subject matter of music and iconic figures. when making his work from the everyday industrial materials he uses them both as references as well as original objects, which also transform into new sculptural forms. by doing this he re-energies the objects and allows them to have a new and unique function, rather than them being used for the original soul purpose.
Jim Lambie's work with vinyl tape has influenced my work 'Clean Cut' due to the use of straight, repetitive lines. By looking into his work i created a small replica of his work using some recycled wood and some coloured tape bought at a local craft store. This piece will be uploaded to my artwork page soon.
Frank Stella
Frank Stella is an abstract minimalist artist who took inspiration from Pollock, Kline, Newman and Johns. His work consists of many paintings which contain repetitive colours and lines and also referred to the relational character of European painting which were all balanced by placing things opposite sides of one another. Whereas Stella had no thought of balance and just repeated his shapes. For example, Gran Cario 1962 started off with a coloured square in the centre of the canvas and was continuously repeated stretching out to the edge of the canvas, which only refers to itself, which was Frank Stella’s intentions.
Stella only wanted the audience to get the whole idea of the work without confusion and states “what you see is what you see”. So overall, the work is direct and you understand it straight away without any thought needed behind it. With most of Stella’s work it also has an assertion to flatness and an anti-illusionism style, where it is not pretending to be anything else.
Frank was one of the first artists to introduce the use of shaped canvases and producing objects the generated space outside of them. From looking into Frank Stella’s work I have taken inspiration from his use of repetition, colours and shaped canvases.
Yayoi Kusama
Yayoi Kusama is a 90 year old artist who is well-known for her repeating dot pieces and her variety of media including; paintings, drawings, fil, sculpture, performance and installation pieces. Since 1977 Kusama voluntarily has lived in a mental institute, which has led to her work to be thought of an obsessive and show the desire to escape from a psychological trauma. Kusama creates these huge installations which immerse the viewers in her obsessive visions of never ending dots, nets and mirrored spaces, to express and share her past experiences. Her drawings started off small and then expanded onto the walls and floor in which they became large installations and Yayoi started to call herself an “environmental” artist.
Yayoi Kusama’s work is mesmerising and very hallucinogenic due to the repeating of patterns and shapes. The sculptures placed within the work are large and often blend into the backgrounds of the installations. Besides sculptures matching the installations, Yayoi Kusama’s outfits often blend into them too.
From looking into Kusama’s work I admire her use of repetition to show her traumatic past and to create a style which is unique to the artist. Besides that I really like the way in which she allows the audience to interact with the work, to experience what she feels. All in which I will take further into my next upcoming project.
For further information:
http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/yayoi-kusama
Criscoforo Scorpiniti
Crisco is an Italian artist who has created a large range of painting which are quite unique. They glow in the dark. Crisco Scorpiniti believes that art shouldn't just have to be viewed in visible light, but should become great art by being visible in the darkest of lights too. His work is beautiful in both the daytime as well as the night time but also has a beauty while the light is changing.
To create this stunning effect, Crisco, uses glow in the dark paint to not only allow the canvas to have one painting but two. The majority of his paintings include landscapes as the paints work well in the scenery. Besides just having the landscapes Crisco adds animals, forestry and starry skies in silhouette forms.
With looking further into Criscoforo Scorpiniti's work i really like how he creates two paintings on one singular canvas and the way each painting transforms. Besides that, i really like the fact that the brush marks are visible on some of the paintings as it gives them a sense of texture. These pieces of work will help with the creation of my current project as i am thinking about using glow in the dark paints to add a similar effect.
for further information: https://www.facebook.com/pg/criscoart/about/?ref=page_internal
Roy Lichenstein
Roy Lichenstien is an American Pop Artist who worked along side the likes of Andy Warhol and was thought to be the leading person to start the Pop Art movement. His work was inspired by the art within comic strips, books and also advertising and were all painted with precision. Lichenstien often stated that pop art was, "not 'American' painting but actually industrial painting".
His most famous paintings are Whaam! and Drowning Girl. Within his career he has created over 5,000 paintings, prints, sculptures, drawings, murals and several other types of work.
The style Roy Lichenstien uses includes block colours and a thick black outline. By looking at this technique i will take it further into my upcoming project
Steven Brown
Steven Brown is a beloved Scottish artist who has created his own unique and highly recognizable style of art. Steven started painting as a form of therapy after suffering from depression and two heart attacks this was painting with the use of gusto.
Throughout this time Steven Brown experimented with a range of colours, materials and techniques to finally come to a abstract style which is loved today.
Brown has multiple series of painting all relating to his love of animals and personal topics. his first series was called McCoo which contains multiple paintings of colourful highland cows. Then grew the series of the McZoo family, containing elephants, giraffes and penguins. Besides lots of animal series there are pieces including the Scottish seasons, people and mythical creatures.
Steven Brown sells his work all over world and publicises them using his website and Facebook, often doing live streams of his paintings. Often the money raised from selling his work is donated to charities close to the artists heart.
I love the techniques used within Brown's work to create an original style, which is recognizable. Looking further into the artists technique I will try and incorporate his style into my upcoming project.
For further information: https://www.stevenbrownart.co.uk
Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock is an abstract expressionist from the 1950's who created these large scaled gestural paintings, to express himself. His most famous paintings were his drip paintings created between 1947 till his death. In 1936 Jackson went to an "experimental workshop" with his younger brother where he explored using new techniques and materials on a large scale mural. His experimentation included the use of spray guns, air brushes, synthetic paints as well as lacquers. During the workshop splatters and drips of paints covered the floor due to something called "controlled accident" in which the paint was spontaneously applied, which was what influenced him in his future work.
The paint in these murals are applied all over the canvas, including right to the edges, which meant that no part of the painting was more important than the other.
In the Jackson Pollock book by the Museum of modern art it states that Pollock's paintings were neutral and made the viewer look at a painting for what it was - pure painting.
Within the book Jackson Pollock says within an interview "Most of the paint I use is a liquid, flowing kind of paint. The brushes I use are used more like sticks rather than brushes- the brush doesn't touch the surface of the canvas, its just above."
"Well, I'm able to be more free and to have greater freedom and move about the canvas, with greater ease."
Pollock has no fear of making changes throughout his painting process or to destroy the image as the painting will be its own outcome.
The way in which Pollock creates a performance in the way he paints the canvas creates a beautiful outcome and allows the paintings to have a sense of movement.
By looking at Jackson Pollock and the techniques he uses to apply paint to the canvas, I will take this further into my upcoming project.
Robert Morris
Robert Morris was one of the Leading Figures and most important theorists of the Minimal and Site Specific art movement. He had a great influence from Phenomenology which was the philosophical approach which focuses of the study of consciousness and the objects of direct experience. Within his work he used simple, spacious, three-dimensional, geometric structures, which were carefully positioned in specific places in a chosen location. He was able to create a theatrical role for the audience when viewing the work due to his previous knowledge and work within the dance industry. This meant he knew how the audience could effect the meaning of the work and how the space around it could interfere.
His work 'L Beams' shows three identical 'L' shaped structures lay in the centre of the room. One on its points, one lay on its side and one standing up right. The audience can move around these site specific structures and as the do so they cannot imagine another outcome for the shapes to be stood.
Robert Morris has influenced my Clean Cut work due to the fact i have learnt to create simplistic repetitive objects which can be specifically placed in a space for an audiences viewing
for further information: http://www.theartstory.org/artist-morris-robert.htm
London Brain Project
The London Brain Project are a group of people who hold workshops to explore the sciences of the brain through the form of art. In the workshop "Beyond the Ticks" they work with a range of people who have Tourettes syndrome or know someone with it. Each part of the session was held exploring the different parts of Tourettes and expressed through art, to create a final exhibition to show the public.
In one part they discussed the social aspect behind it and how OCD was associated with the ticks. The outcomes showed the feeling of ants crawling up the inside of your arms, the withholding of a sneeze feeling when holding in ticks as well as the verbal ticks and their context. These feelings are shown through prints using clay and ink.
Another part of the exhibition was using string art and was called Tick Tock. The work in this part were all to show images of things which could be associated with the disorder and these included, brains, neurons and other interesting repetitive patterns and images.
Besides there being prints and string art, there was a range of poetry, dairy entries, conversation notes, photography, murals and stick art showing ticks in a creative light.
The exhibition was created by over thirty artists in total.
These pieces of art will help with my current project as they will help me understand further how people with Tourettes feel and express themselves through the medium of art.
For further information: http://www.londonbrainproject.com/beyondtics/
Tony Taylor
Tony Taylor is an artist who has created a series of work in which shows the world’s political matters in a humorous way. Creatively, the way that Tony does this is by taking images of these political leaders and giving them a head of an animal, in which some of the chosen animals have similarities to the person in the portrait. The majority of these portraits are painted using oils on large pieces of birch paneling. However, there are some which are painted on canvas with acrylic paints. By looking at the artist’s work I can see that there is a sense of realism in the way that the people are realistically painted. Despite the fact that there is realism, the paintings are also influenced by surrealism due to the dream like portraits of people with animal heads. When looking closely at the painting technique Tony Taylor uses very technical strokes to get the fine detail into the features and hair of the animals.
When it comes to painting within my project I will take in these techniques and the
thought process he uses to match characteristics between two opposite creatures.
For further information: http://www.tonytaylorart.com
Band of Artists
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTo-gic1_no&feature=emb_logo
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Band of Artists is a group of people working together to create amazing pieces of art using their neurological disorders as the key concept. The group is made up of educators, performers and also scientists who are giving a powerful voice to those who are different through the performance of dance. Sutie Madison is the founder of the group and is currently suffering from tourettes syndrome, which was the focus of her idea. Using both physical and verbal ticks, not only from herself but also from others, Sutie creates choreography to create outstanding dances following the syndromes effects.
“My vision is to bring empowerment and respect to people by using my own disability as a main point of reference throughout our presentation. My story is just the beginning. I aim to draw from others through developing, collaborating and directing different media pieces, scientific lectures, and performing arts events. Each will highlight both social and self awareness in the lives of people who have the courage to embrace their challenge by finding a unique way of expressing them.”-Sutie Madison.
When watching the videos taken of the performances the group not only use the form of dance to show the disorders but also use videos taken of the performers having tick and also props. Most of their shows follow the movements of people having ticks which is an interesting way to show the syndrome in a more pleasant light.
With looking into the work of this group i will take inspiration from their work and think about movement throughout my upcoming piece and try and involve it into my work.
For further videos and information i have left the link below to the Band of Artists page:
ARCHIATRIC by Federico Babina
Federico Babina has created a sixteen piece series of work which is based around how different disorders and syndromes look. The reason behind this series was to show people who did not understand, exactly what it may look like in an architectural styled manner. The artist uses a cubist form with a look of surrealism, which adds a dark feeling to the work. The majority of the artists work is graphically made and are often made into small animations to bring the work alive and express the images more to the audience.
The reason I am really drawn to Babina’s work is because of the way that he tries to show the audience exactly what it might look like to have these disorders and syndromes. Also when looking at these images, I find that the way in which they are displayed definitely speak to people suffering from the specific topic, which was the artists intentions. This series will help with my upcoming project due to the idea behind it being to show the views exactly what it looks like to have a specific syndrome.