HISTORY OF SOME OF MY FAVOURITE ARTISTS.
Today I thought I'd write a little piece on some of my favorite artists throughout the ages. Starting from the newest, all the way to the oldest.
(A lot of the images I'm using have been outsourced from pinterest.com in case you're wondering)
Jamie Hewlett
Born: 1968
I absolutely adore Jamie Hewlett's stuff, from Gorillaz to Tank Girl. I think it's all amazing. Jamie's style is very reminiscent of mid 90's shows like Batman: The Animated Series, with jagged edges and intimidating characters; it's all very clean and well done. You can tell this man knows what he's doing. He is also an Animator, I like how he animates in a very cartoonish slap stick style with such detailed creepy characters.
If you're very into making cartoons and want some grade-A inspiration; I can not recommend Jamie Hewlett enough.
His first "Claim to fame" was creating illustrations for the magazine called Deadline in 1988.
By 1992 Hewlett had become a bit of a legend in the comic industry notably for his comic "Tank Girl" (which was even eventually developed into a film) . And of course we cannot forget about the thing he's most well known for... The virtual animated band 'The Gorillaz'! 'The Gorillaz' is a band formed by Jamie and his friend Damon Albarn. They released their first EP in 2001. Since then they've been climbing the charts with each and every album and garnering a massive fan-base while they did it; winning people over not just with fantastic music, but with amazingly animated music videos and interesting characters on top of that! They even did live performances with holograms of the titular characters performing the music; a revolutionary thing back in 2001 and amazing today.
It may seem like Jamie effortlessly climbed his way to the top, but that's not the case; before his fame he used to do any kind of job to survive, from designing the decor for a nightclub called 'The Factory' in 1996, to even opening a secondhand clothing store, which was unfortunately closed within a year. But he couldn't have made it through this struggle without the many people that helped him along the way, like Peter Milligan (A British writer mostly known for comic books) who helped get Jamie's foot in the doorway by working with him on the comic 'Hewligan's Haircut'. Jamie also got some recognition by illustrating Magazine covers for 'Shade, The Changing Man' also written by Milligan. And of course I have to mention Brett Ewins, who fell in love with Jamie's stuff and contacted him after leaving college and invited him to create material for a magazine with Artist Steve Dillon in 1988, and... What magazine was this? Only Deadline! That's right, Jamie managed to score the magazine job that eventually leaded to his explosion into popularity just after leaving college! He's also heavily supported by the BBC; he's worked with them on a two minute short called 'Monkey Movie' to start off the Olympics in 2008.
'Monkey 1' a piece to promote the short.
One thing I like to take away from Hewlett is finding inspiration from the strangest things; Jamie watched 'The Exorcist' a film about a demon named Pazuzu, which ended up giving him the idea to hide references and drawings of the demon in many of the Gorillaz music videos. I plan on putting in subliminal references and inspirations in some of my future projects that are coming down the pipeline. Jamie's stuff has inspired my work in many ways on top of this, I don't think I would draw people in the same way if I had never found his beautifully ghastly animations. Or as he called them in an interview for 'The Guardian,' by Mark Kemode in 2008, 'Video Nasties'
Here's some of my art that is very obviously Hewlett inspired.
And I don't plan to stop at just drawings, one of my biggest dreams is to animate my characters as holograms like Jamie has crafted in many live performances of the Gorillaz and it may be possible for me to achieve this someday as technology is quickly evolving. Jamie's stuff has helped me tap into the unknown potential I have in terms of art. I even reached out to him on Twitter asking if I could ask him a few questions or maybe have a very short interview. Now as I suspected due to him being famous and the amount of time that must take up I did not get a response. Here are three of the questions I would have liked to have asked him:
1. How do you feel about your fame?
2. How would you recommend getting your art seen?
3. What are your plans for the future?
After scouring the internet for interviews and such, I found potential answers to two of those questions
So the first question was, how do you feel about your fame?
Well, back in 2012 Hewlett took a few years off, after all. He had been working on Gorillaz for a solid decade. And in an intereview with Genevieve Roberts for the magazine 'Independent' he claimed 'My brain is like a dried out sponge.' Thankfully since then he's come back out of his shell and is seeming to take fame well.
I'm still awaiting a response on Twitter for my second question, 'How would you reccomend getting your art seen' but I can fully understand why he hasn't answered me yet. Of course, being as huge as him is very time consuming.
My third question was if he had any plans for the future.
Currently, Jamie is touring the world with his musical friend Damon Albarn for 'The Gorillaz Humanz Tour' and is playing his hologram animations and 2d animation on screens and stages across the globe. Turns out, as revealed in an article by Sam Barsanti for AVClub; Jamie's working on getting a ten episode long TV show developed about the Gorillaz! On top of that supposedly there have been plans for Jamie to return to the Tank Girl series for another full graphic novel!
In conclusion, Jamie is an amazing artist and seemingly a cool guy. I hope he doesn't stop creating anytime soon and I'm definitely going to take pointers from him. He's taught me to always keep in contact with anyone who can help you and reach out to as many people as possible for the widest amount of exposure; and hey you're going to make friends along the way. So it's a win win!
I hope to someday maybe have a fraction of his fame.
Here are some examples of the art he has created over the years.
Ron Mueck
Born: 1958
Ron Mueck's sculptures are truly incredible.
He creates sculptures on a massive scale. It's all extremely surreal, it gives you the feeling of being transported to another world, and it's because of this that he's become some what of a legend in the art community.
I think his art can be very influential towards anyone's creation. It's that good! It has the kind of style which can supply any artist with vast amounts of inspiration. It's realistic, yet somehow feels cartoon like. It's huge and all encompassing. It looks as if it's alive and should be moving around!
Ron was born in Australia, and started out working on the show called Shirl's Neighbourhood as the Creative Director. He also helped make and operate the puppets for the show.
It was quite difficult for him in the early day's though, having to make puppets and dolls for small art exhibitions just to scrape away a meager living, thankfully he was able to get his foot in the door by making a small sculpture of Pinocchio for Paula Rego, (a Portuguese Artist best known for her painting, War) who helped get his name known around the area; later causing his sculpture "Dead Dad" to sky rocket in popularity, (I'll get into that in a second.) Some other notable things he did in his early career would include the film Labyrinth and the Jim Henson series 'The Storyteller'. Surely it must have made for some amazing inspiration and a great learning experience from the Muppet man himself Jim Henson.
He provided sculpting and model making for both Labyrinrth and The Storyteller
In 1996 Ron moved to Fine Art creating works like his sculpture named "Dead Dad" which is a replica of his fathers corpse on a large scale (A bit graphic if you ask me).
After this he went on to create tons of well known Sculptures, some include "The Boy" (a boy curled up in the corner that's almost as tall as the building in was exhibited in) and "In Bed" (another larger than life sculpture of an almost depressed looking woman in her bed).
He's been seemingly very reclusive in where he shows his art, hardly any company's or exhibitions have managed to work with Ron, some notables are the Fondation Cartier I'Art Contemporain in Paris, and the Feren's Art Gallery in the UK, which are two of Ron's most frequented exhibitions.
His creative process is quite different to most artists, as he and his work are quite different. Seeing as most artists use wire or brass for the armature, but when you're dealing with a sculpture on the magnitude of Ron Mueck's. You need to get a bit creative; this is why, in most of Mueck's large scale sculptures, he'll actually use chicken wire for the armature, such as with the piece "Pregnant woman".
His process as a whole is incredibly interesting, with Pregnant Woman he started off by drawing 3 sketches, each one bigger than the last; and pinned them on the wall so he could figure the best size to work from.
Then of course he'll go through the usual casting and moulding of a sculpture that every artist has to do.
Some of Ron's sculptures are so heavy duty, they actually require being made in parts!
Things like the head, arms and legs are created separately and are all but together in the end.
Some day I would love to go to one of his exhibitions, and get a true grasp on the magnitude of his sculptures. Perhaps minus the recreation of his fathers corpse...
Actually now that I come to think of it; some of my more recent creations are extremely reminiscent of Ron Mueck's. I like to take inspiration from the almost cartoony faces that somehow still seem real through the exaggeration. I tried my best to carry this over in my Relief sculptures and I think it came of as very 'Mueck-ie' but still remained my own.
My sculpture titled 'Relief' Ron Mueck's sculpture titled 'Ron'
Now unfortunately Ron himself has never taken part in a public interview, but people who have had the privilege to work with him have spoken about the man and his art.
Anthony d'Offay, (a British Art Dealer) referred to working with Mueck as "an extraordinary privilege, to see him become one of the most famous and sought after contemporary artists in the world." "I love artists that have come from nothing, Ron didn't attend art school."
(excerpts taken from Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain's Interview with Anthony)
Gautier Deblonde (French photographer) said "You can almost see yourself in his work, it's scary, yet interesting."
(excerpts taken from Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain's Interview with Gautier)
In conclusion; I love Ron Mueck's pieces to the moon and back and I hope it will help shape my work in the future so that I might one day be able to create a piece half as surreal and beautiful as his.
Here are some of his sculptures:
Jeff Koons.
Born: 1955
This man literally has done it all! Jeff Koons has created amazing collages, sculptures and paintings! His surreal, majestic and sometimes shocking work leaves you feeling awestruck.
His style (in collage) is very much like the black and white classic Disney cartoons from the 1940's to 50's, but add in the factor of abstract design and it being on a MUCH larger scale. And you get something amazing! The other work is rather hard to put into words; the way he get's his enormous metal sculptures to look like Play Dough or balloon animals is puzzling and yet intriguing. But in the end, I've really come to appreciate it. If you want to be in a certain mindset for creating beautiful things to remember, then make sure to have a good long look at some of Jeff Koons's work. One thing he's most famous for was when his piece "Balloon Dog" was sold at an auction for $58.4 Million, the most that a piece has ever been purchased for from an artist that is still alive!
His childhood hero was the artist Salvador Dali who inspired Jeff to push himself and jam his foot in the door of the art world. Now Jeff Koons's rise to prominence was rather strange compared to most artists. Jeff opened an almost factory like building with over 30 different assistants to help distribute his work as fast possible in the mid 1980's. Thanks to so much of his work being mass produced he was practically forced to become incredibly popular. So he might not have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but his rise to popularity sure was fast and unexpected, with very little help from anyone. He's never really worked with any companies or businesses, his work is entirely his own.
He first started off making inflatable animals in varying sizes, Koons calls these his early work. Since then he's categorized his work into "series" The Pre-new, The New and Equilibrium series.
The New consisting of different vacuum-cleaners arranged in proportioned cabinets and the Equilibrium Series containing ceramic toy like sculptures.
(Tulips, a sculpture Jeff has mass produced across the world)
Another thing he's garnered a lot of attention for was when he created sculptures of him and his Wife
in sexual acts. Some names for these sculptures include "Dirty Ejaculation" and "Liona's A**hole"
Jeff And Ilona (Made In Heaven),
Has been exhibited in New York; but due to it's graphic nature, it is rarely exhibited
Which of course, is quite a big contrast from his almost 'family friendly' sculptures of balloon dogs and The Hulk.
Hulk (Wheelbarrow), Based in Vienna
(Balloon dog, another mass produced sculpture)
Whilst we were driving through Bilbao we actually saw the amazing piece known as 'Puppy' at the Guggenheim Museum, created from stainless steel and covered in soil so flowers can grow all around it; this sculpture is truly amazing and I was so glad to have finally seen it in person. The sheer size gave me a whole new respect for Jeff's work.
I feel like I take a lot of inspiration from the simplicity in his work, but I also appreciate the complexity of the vast scale. I think he is definitely about having fun with a project though, more than trying to create a masterpiece and I can respect that.
Popeye, (Exhibited in London)
Popeye, (Exhibited in London)
Some of my drawings. (Inspired by Jeff)
In conlusion, although many critics see Koons' work as Crude, inappropriate and Commercialized. (Geez I wonder why?)
I think if you look past all that, he truly has some amazing art to behold. I hope to someday get to that level of experimentation in my work, and I wish I could build sculptures on the same magnitude, and hopefully someday I can.
In an interview for TIME Magazine by Belinda Luscombe in 2012, he was asked about how his work is distributed, Jeff had this to say.
'You know it can be quite tricky to get my work in certain areas due to a lot of it being very sexual; so with my more recent work I truly try to let it transcend and let it have the ability to start a conversation on all dialogues.'
And in an interview for the website 'Christies' by William Cook in 2015; when asked about his mindset when starting out, Jeff said 'Wow! I can do this! I can actually be a part of the avant-garde! I can make art a way of life!'
I am always going to try and keep this motto close to my heart.
Here is some more of Jeff Koons work:
Michael Jackson And Bubbles (Was exhibited in Switzerland)
Play-Doh (Exhibited in New York) Triple Popeye (Also exhibited in New York)
Louise Bourgeois
Born: 1911
I wasn't quite sure what to class Louise's work as. Is it horror? Or is it Abstract/provoking? But then I realized that... I'm not supposed to categorize her work. That's almost the whole point; it's impossible to quite pin point what the art she creates even is! Louise creates sculptures and paintings which were very different to the stuff being made at the time. It can give you a feeling of uncertainty and unease. Now usually around here I would compare her work to other artists to give you an idea of what it's like, but... There's nothing like it! You just have to see it to know what I'm talking about.
Louise didn't exactly have the best childhood. Growing up her Father, who was a Tyrannical Philanderer; and at the time was in a love affair with Louis's English Teacher! Now she and her mother both knew what was going on but decided to turn a blind eye to the whole situation. This did however heavily influence a lot of Louise's early sculptures. She saw it somewhat as 'revenge' on her Father for making her deal with that during her whole childhood.
'Soft' (2009, exhibited in London) 'SPIRAL WOMAN' (1999, exhibited in Paris)
Some of the first things she created were small Wooden sculptures she made by hand from scrapyard materials and leftover parts from her Parents Tapestries.
'katsura' (Date unknown) Untitled (Date unkown)
Even though she was constantly pushed into a career in Maths and Geometry by her Father, Louise knew that art would be her true calling in life. And with help from one of her only friends Fernand Leger, a French Painter, he actually egged her on to create sculptures full time and abandon paintings; and she was shot up into prominence.
She eventually went on to join The American Abstract Artists Group and moved from scrapyard wood to marble. From there she made many sculptures. With arguably her most famous being "Maman" a steel sculpture, that stands more than nine meters high!
It is currently exhibited at the Tate Modern in London.
'Maman' (1999)
She was unfortunately unrecognized in her time, and could barely afford a living. She had to resort to teaching at the Pratt Institute, Cooper Union, Brooklyn College and the New York Studio School of Drawing throughout the 70's! But after this gap she kept marching on creating beautiful works until she passed away in 2010 at the age of Ninety Two. Her last piece was completed just a week before her passing! That takes some dedication.
Now even though she was swayed away from doing anything else apart from sculpting for a good while, Louise dabbled in many different art forms, printmaking, writing, painting and even working with fabric in her very last years. With most of her print work being done in the early to mid 40's she took it up again using her own recycled fabrics, some of which bore the signs of her use, with cigarette burns and stains left as tell tale signs of their ownership.
'Spider Woman' (1943)
Her creative process is perhaps the most mysterious part about her work, Louise kept many notebooks and sketchbooks filled to the brim with ideas and plans that she never showed to the public; and due to her resistance to interviews, we may never know what was going through her mind whilst creating her art.
Now I couldn't just look into Louise's work and not take inspiration from her. She seems to reference Spiders a lot in her work.
'Moma' (1996) 'Spider' (1996)
'Spider' (1998)
So the first thing I made shortly after researching her was of course, a Spider!
And, I tried to take inspiration from how uneasy and crooked many of Louise's sculptures are built.
Now I could only find one proper, concrete interview with Louise; and in this Interview for Artspace by Paolo Herkenhoff in 2003 she makes her distaste for Interviews very clear.
'Let us get something clear before we begin. In general I don't need an interview to clarify my thoughts. It is absurd, a pain in the neck! Interviews are a process of clarification of other people's thoughts, not mine. In fact I always have to know more about you than you know about me. All the same I like to be crystal clear when I speak. I like to be a glass house. There is no mask in my work. Therefore, as an artist, all I can share with other people is this transparency.'
And when asked about if her work is focused around suffering, she had this to say.
"No, because it is too vague. How can art save someone from suffering, from insanity? You have to ask a doctor. I can not answer that because I have never been there. I carry my psychoanalysis within the work. Every day I work out all that bothers me. All my complaints. This way there's always a component of anger in beauty.
Paulo, let me write in your book.
[She writes in red pen:]
I do
I undo
I redo
[Underneath she draws a large circle with the phrase 'the pregnant O'.]
That is the beauty of the drawing. Drawing opens our eyes and the eyes lead to our soul. What comes out is not at all what one has planned. The only remedy against disorder is work. Work puts an order in disorder and control over chaos. I do, I undo, I redo. I am what I am doing. Art exhausts me. Yet I work every day of my life."
I absolutely love this interview, it's a shame it's the only one she did.
I like to think that some of my work bears quite a bit of resemblance to Louise's, I've learnt to always take inspiration from even the darkest corners from my psyche. To take something I thought was terrible and turn it into something creative and great!
Louise's work has reached cult status and is extremely inspiring to an upcoming artist such as myself.
Here's some work created by Louise:
So these were some of my favourite artists at the moment, however there are thousands more for me to discover and take inspiration from. I hope you enjoyed it and maybe I will come back with some new favourites to analyze and research in the future, hopefully I've introduced you to some artists you didn't know about before!
Thanks for reading.
~ Jack
Nice breakdown, Jack! Great to see another artist on Voice.