The most prevalent theme explored throughout the journal has been that of the gallery space. Research in this area was furthered by watching the documentary “A History of Art in Three Colours” as well as by Brian O'Doherty’s book “Inside The White Cube’, which became the main inspiration for the journal. The first two pages of the journal are based on the idea of the modern white gallery space and this is a theme which continues through to the end following the idea that white has become ‘the cold and exclusive colour of the artistic elite’. In the early exploratory stage of the journal various approaches and materials were explored such as painting, collage, brush and ink, as well as formal elements including line, shape, colour and texture. In the initial journal work, bold block colour and minimalist shape were used to explore the concept of the gallery and the monetary value of artwork. These techniques were visually successful and were carried on into the final works.
I created a series of pieces based on famous artworks including a reinterpretation of “Mr and Mrs Andrews” by Gainsborough to explores the concept of fine art in a modern environment by using abstract aesthetics and digital media as new methods of making. The work merges the visuals and techniques of modern art with the wealth and class relations of 1700’s art by reinterpreting the piece Mr and Mrs Andrews in the style of artists such as Henri Matisse and Piet Mondrian. The original painting includes many significant visual devices, especially in the context of power and money. For example Mr. Andrews’ hat, shoes and gun, in my reinterpretation of the work the hat and the shoes are specifically included because they represent the period of the original painting and the wealth and class of the sitter. The gun represents Mr. Andrews’ power and control. The choice to make the gun bold, black and unmissable to the eye serves to highlight this strong sense of ownership. Mrs Andrews doesn't feature in my reinterpretation of the painting as in the original her only purpose is to further Mr. Andrews’ status to the point in which she is so unimposing she almost blends into the background. As Gillian Rose (1993) observes ‘Mrs Andrews is painted as almost part of that still and exquisite landscape’.
The colour blue is used to signify wealth due to its association with expense and lavish lifestyle. White has been used, as having white skin reflected the ‘upper class privilege of not having to work for a living’ (Fox 2014) and is a prevalent feature in the original painting. The dimensions made it difficult to reinterpret landscape images, but as the landscape plays such an important cultural aspect in the original image as an expression of wealth it was vital to include it as a significant part of the reinterpretation.
My interpretation of the artwork began with acrylic paint but the technique wasn’t skilled or refined enough to create a bold statement. Because of this and because of the time spent in the print room for other modules, the work surrounding this piece of Mr and Mrs Andrews and other famous paintings moved into print making. The medium of print created a bold and simplified form of image-making that could be repeated but still contain individual differences By using a monoprint technique the work become more abstract and layered. This part of the development of the work was contextually and aesthetically inspired by information gathered in the university lecture programme about Andy Warhol. Warhol's work was a project of art as ‘anti-art’. By undermining the ‘sacred truths’ of talent, originality, passion and preciousness he ‘essentially pulled the rug out from under “fine art.” As I was attempting to create art whilst criticising the fact that art is a form of bourgeoisie control, this research became an important influence in my work.
The journal intended to combine both digital and print techniques but I took the contextual ideas of Warhol and pushed them further into fully digital work so that the hand of the maker was almost non-apparent. Here the digital artwork is further undermining the traditional fine art values of talent, originality and preciousness arguably found in the original painting of Mr and Mrs Andrews and this idea of creating anti-art relates to the overall theme of how art is often controlled by the ‘personal, political and financial ambitions of the rich.’
The second piece is a final collection of my previous work digitally composed to be presented in a gallery format. This conclusion to the work was informed and developed through the research carried out into Damien Hirst and Charles Saatchi, specifically the view that the value of modern art is dictated by people of power and influence. Andrew Rice (2012) comments on HIrst ‘his work found particular favor with art investors who prized it as much for its appreciating value as its aesthetics’. This quote specifically inspired the choice of researching the most expensive paintings ever sold and extracting aesthetics to question whether the pieces lose value to the viewer and raise the question of whether value is constructed, aesthetic or conceptual. This links to my overall quote for the module and the questions it raises about whether art has inherent or decided value.
The image takes the most visually successful artworks from the final stage of the journal and places them in a formal white wall gallery setting. This decision was made to illustrate how an environment changes the way the viewer sees the artwork. As Brian O’Doherty states ‘the gallery will make it art anyway’ By using existing elements and visual aspects of the most expensive art works ever sold the piece is commenting not only on the transformative power of the gallery but also asks the question, ‘what made the original pieces so successful?’ and ‘what distinguishes them from my own work which will never be of the same value?’.
Ideally, to conclude the work I would have liked to have conducted a social experiment involving getting the work shown in a gallery to observe the visitors to space and gauging whether the value of the work had increased. However, I'm aware this would have been well beyond my capability and time to achieve for this project. Because of the nature of the quote being explored, the meaning of my work became difficult and convoluted. In trying to illustrate that art is controlled by the elite I am aware that at times I have conceptually tied myself up in knots and that the work can come across as confusing and ambiguous. I believe this to be the biggest weakness of my work for this module. In the COP module next year I will start off with a more concrete theme that will be able to synthesise successfully rather than picking a direction which was contextually intriguing but difficult to translate into physical art work.
Fox, A. Essay; Thomas Gainsborough's Mr. and Mrs. Andrews, Kahn Academy (2014) available at:
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/monarchy-enlightenment/britain-18c/britain-ageof-revolution/a/thomas-gainsboroughs-mr-and-mrs-andrews
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/monarchy-enlightenment/britain-18c/britain-ageof-revolution/a/thomas-gainsboroughs-mr-and-mrs-andrews
O'Doherty, B (1986) Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space
Rice, A. Bloomberg Press. 2012. Damien Hirst: Jumping the Shark (updated November 21, 2012,) available at:
Rose, G (1993) Feminism and Geography: The Limits of Geographical Knowledge Google Books
The Lying Truth; Andy Warhol and the Deep Surface (September 2010) available at:
https://thelyingtruthofarchitecture.wordpress.com/2010/09/08/andy-warhol-and-the-deep-surface/
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