Rebecca Horn, Part 3,Project 3

Rebecca Horn is a German artist born in 1944.

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/rebecca-horn-2269, http://www.rebecca-horn.de/pages-en/biography.html

Ulrike Lehmann, titles her chapter on Rebecca Horn  in Women Artists In the 20th and 21st century, edited by Uta Grosenick, 2005, ”A Journey into the interior of the body.” She describes how Horn’s personal intimidating experiences as a child and her isolation due to her illness caused by inhaling polyester while making her first sculptures, might affect the development of her artistic work. Her first works ”The Overflower”,  ”The Unicorn”, “Lead Pencil Mask” and “Glove Finger” are performances created and filmed privately. The human body or body action is part of the work in which the protagonists are body sculptures attached on the human body.

In the case of “Lead Pencil Mask” drawing marks are created by the pencils with the movement of the human head through the sculpture attached on the head. However, the work of art is not the drawing created, but the total performance.

Ulrike Lehnmann, also refers to Rebecca Horn’s Mechanical sculptures. She states that the themes, materials used  and the juxtaposition of familiar objects in unfamiliar contexts have to do with the flow of life and are dealing with power, struggle, isolation, liberty and eroticism. the machines develop a life of their own. Lehnmann also states that the collective archaic symbolism of the Horn’s work communicates with the consciousness of a person.(Uta Grosenick, 2005, p159).

“My machines are not washing machines or cars. They have a human quality and they must change. They get nervous and must stop sometimes. If a machine stops, it doesn’t mean it;s broken. It is just tired. The tragic or melancholic aspect of machines is very important to me. I don’t want them to run forever. It’s part of their life that they must stop and faint.” Rebecca Horn (The Bastille Interviews II: Paris 1993)

Taking from Rebecca Horn’s own perspective on her work, I understand that she humanizes her machines. She gives human qualities as she states. I believe that through her creations she might want to study human nature. With my own reasoning she tries to understand the functionality of a human body by recreating it in a mechanical way.

By viewing her work, I get the feeling that the art pieces are ”alive”, which corresponds to her own declaration that her machines have human qualities. I observe that the sound of the motor and of the movement of the objects is a part of the art piece. Also the speed of the movement, the shadows created by the objects and their movement, the shadows, and the rhythm get my attention and they are equally important to the character and substance of the artwork.

https://vimeo.com/193609149

 

I also looked at her drawings (https://www.artsy.net/artist/rebecca-horn?medium=drawing) and I would say that they are drawings that do not seem to had been created with traditional drawing methods. I can sense the movement that created the mark and I feel the link between the mark making media with the body that holds it and generates the marks on the paper.

The drawing ”Tree of Winter Dew Drops, 2007”( http://www.artnet.com/artists/rebecca-horn/tree-of-winter-dew-drops-rXeVSoaHtuuxen25HfWPRg2)reminds me of the work I for Watercolour Practice OCA Course (https://marina491189.wordpress.com/assignment-5/), and mostly the drawing I attach below.

 

”Random collage”41 x 60 cm, (collage, w/c, blue artist ink and white ink

In both drawings there is a flow that goes downward which is generated by the dripping of the paint and the composition that is it is dense at the top and is spaced out downwards. The most static parts of my drawing are created by the placement of the collage pieces. In Rebecca Horn’s drawing the more static parts of the composition are created by with horizontal strokes of short length. The chromatic palette is similar, with mine being more bold tonally. In Rebecca Horn’s drawing acrylic, ink, pencil and grease pencil is used along with watercolour, while I used only watercolour and ink. I also put collage which is not included in Rebecca Horn’s drawing.

 

Luc Tymans

After Submission of Assignment 2 my tutor suggested that I look at the work of Luc Tymans.

Luc Tymans

”Pictures, if they are to have effect, must have the tremendous intensity of silence…the silence before the storm.” Luc Tymans

Luc tymans (1958) is a Belgium born artist that lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luc_Tuymans)(http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/luc_tuymans.htm)

According to Raimar Stange in Art Now (edited by Riemschneider & Grosenick), content and reflection are more important than blatant sensuality for Tymans ”immaterial pictures” as the artist calls them.

This reference leads me to a realization about my own work. I feel like I am wavering between blatant expression and simplification of imagery in some more ”silent” works.

In my first work which is a self portrait, I used charcoal applied in a very gestural and unplanned way. It is a bold expressive drawing. The other drawing is a portrait of my daughter executed in a very different way than my self portrait. I used pale tones of watercolour. My movements are carefully premeditated and I left no possibilities for chance. The lines, tones, composition and paint is minimal. However, the purpose was similar and was to give information of the depicted person. In the first portrait this was achieved in a blatant expressive way, while in the second case was achieved through a narrative mild and gentle way.

Stange also refers to the artists influence of film and photography, apparent in the use of picture sequences from films and to the faded colours from old photographs. Also it is stated that Tymans themes derive from the Flemmish German and American history and the artist acts as a participant to the subjects he depicts and in a way to understand certain historical events. This can be seen in his work ”Reparation” 1987, where he uses cut outs of photos of children’s limbs found in the desk drawer of a former concentration – camp doctor, aligned on a sheet of paper. (reference: ART NOW Burkhard Riemschneider/Uta Grosenick, TASCHEN ,ICONS p166/167) Here we see another way of using photgraphs which is a collage way of presentation and not a painting from photographs. Collage is a method I have used in Project 1. (talk more about the method I used and compare) 

Micahel Archer 2002 in his book Art Since 1960, refers to Luc Tymans under the chapter 6: Globalization and the Post Medium Condition, where the expansion of the artistic viewpoints and attitudes of art that includes the variety of cultural contexts and forms and material in art are addressed. It is mentioned how the occupation of Tymans with film making has influenced the way he frames photographic images and recreates them as paintings with  muted colours. The initial silence the paintings evoked is soon replaced by a disturbing feeling that stems from the subject of the imagery, (M Archer 2002, p 224).

(reference: Art since 1960 new edition Michael Archer, Thames & Hudson, world of art,2002)

Tymans themes derive from family and history memory representations as he himself mentions in the following video. (www.youtube .com/watch?time_continue=12&v=2G1c9mWBRqE) He mentions also, how the tone, colours, size and format are affected by the inadequacy of memory. He refers to the element of media imagery and especially TV and how this imagery is reworked and recreated into paintings. For him the the painting has a different physicality and the painting is about what is not there because of the inadequacy of memory.

In the following video of 2010, Luc Tymans reflects on his work on show at the David Zwirner Gallery in New York. He explains how a painting might be influenced by a a photograph or movie as a source material, but it goes across media images and does not derives directly from it. The painting is also about missing elements and works through time, over tome, with time and across time. I realize this can be perceived in the selection of what to include in the painting. The artist decides what to take in use from the source material and what to leave out, how to convey colour, tone, lighting and focus taking from the given information of the source image and conclude to a certain composition.

In the following video Grace Adam & Joshua White discuss also the relationship of photography to the way Tymans encounters his work. what I noted from their discussion is their statement that despite the stillness of the image the viewer is drawn into the picture. Also they refer to the the way a huge cropped portrait takes us uncomfortably closed to the face and skin of the illustrated person. Also despite the deformation (which is like the digital printing and manipulation deconstruction of pixels) and the reduced palette the viewer has enough information to fill in the gaps.

 

 

 

 

 

Elizabeth Peyton

Elizabeth Peyton

Artist suggested by tutor to look at (after assignment 2)

Elizabeth Peyton is an artist living and working in New York. She was born in Danbury in 1965. (https://www.moma.org/artists/8042)

Her subjects are pop singers, friends or boyfriends and historical figures like Ludwig II of Bavaria, members of the British Royal family like Princess Diana, and characters from writings of writers like Marcel Prust.(ART NOW Burkhard Riemschneider/Uta Grosenick, TASCHEN ,ICONS p. 128/129)

For me Peyton’s work is one to fall in love with. Looking at the portraits I get the feeling that they exude eroticism, intimacy and sentiment. Her disclosed brush strokes and transparency of paint imply immediacy and emotionality. (ART NOW Burkhard Riemschneider/Uta Grosenick, TASCHEN ,ICONS p. 128/129) I get the feeling that they are like nude life drawings. Also they give to me a poetic sense, they are kind of illustrative and they consist a picturesque world that she has created as a ”home” for all those models that come from different worlds and historic moments. They all meet to that  environment that she has created for them and as a viewer I feel like I am invited to enter and visit that world.

The models are young and beautiful, they have an erotic sense , but at the same time they emerge a sense of sorrow probably for what they will be missing when they overtake youth and probably to portray their tragic endings that is something the artist is aware of at the time of painting for some of her subjects.(WOMEN ARTISTS IN THE 20th AND 21st CENTURY EDITED BY UTA GROSENICK TASCHEN 2005,p 262,267)

The models have common stories, like suiside (Kurt Cobain,Ludwig II).

I think that they could all be self portraits, representing different aspects of oneself and the unity of human kind as we all share certain characteristics and experiences. The artist probably identifies with the model, something which is apparent through the androgynous look of her models for example Piotr, 1996, which is a portrait of the artist colleague Piotr Ulanski. ((WOMEN ARTISTS IN THE 20th AND 21st CENTURY EDITED BY UTA GROSENICK TASCHEN 2005, p 267)

Although they are portraits of ”stars” they are so much different of Pop art portraits as they are very sentimental in contrary to the pop art portraits of Warhol and Lichtenstein that remain mere depictions of the pop culture. They take publicity in a very different way.(Style, Schools and Movements, AMY DEMPSEY, The Essential Encyclopaidic Guide to Modern Art, Thames & Hudson 2002).

 

 

 

 

Parallel Project

The first idea for the parallel project came from the first part of the course. (https://drawing2blog.wordpress.com/2017/01/31/part-1-exploring-compositions/).

In project 1 I had the opportunity to explore compositions from photographs of myself in a collage way. In the drawings I placed my half self portraits in a way of positioning myself in time and place. The half portraits were completed with drawing.

In further exploration I would investigate relationships with self and other significant persons. More specifically I wanted to explore how parts of one’s self is consisted from internalized manifestations of the influences we receive from important others as well as from legacy manifestations of ourselves that are directly related to the person who bequeathed us like our parent and our offspring. Also, how do we see ourselves embracing our own offspring in our own person and in the face of our offspring.

Methods:

The general idea for depicting this subject in drawings was to use collage in conjunction with drawing to present self and significant others portraits. To combine photographs of real life events.Combine pictures of everyday life with drawing. To fill the face of one with the face of the important other. By specially editing in a photo editor, one person’s pretense with each other and then complete with drawing.

After the submission of my second assignment my tutor suggested that I explore the subject of relationships in a narrative way including those significant others in the actual process of the project. The idea emanated from the narrative project (https://drawing2blog.wordpress.com/2017/04/06/part-2-material-properties-3/),where I did some ”portraits” of my children with me. My tutor suggested that I work with / alongside my children, co-create work or remake things they’ve made.

I think the idea of collage, half portraits and processed pictures could be combined with the idea about co working with my children to serve the aim of this parallel project.

The general idea could be explored through a combination of those two methods mentioned above.

A more clarified presentation of the parallel project’s subject:

The aim of the parallel project as I see it at this point is to show a narrative of self ”portraits”. To present a ” portrait ” story/narrative as it is being crafted and created through the journey and the course of time.

Prospective Methodology:

1. Draw a half portrait and place a mirror on the other half. the viewer would look on the mirror in a way to complete the picture with his/her own face. ( see the work of Cypriot artist Kouroussis.)
2. Place a small  mirror on my ”significant others” portraits in order to recognize, reflect the part of self that is related or connected to them. How I see myself in them as their mother, or how I am reflected through my mother’s portrait.

Questions:

• Should all portraits or narrative portraits include the idea of others? Could some of the portraits depict representations of only one person, maybe in an effort to explore their identity separately?
• What are the ways that I should work in order to retain a connection between all different pieces so that it is obvious that they are parts of a common theme?

As a part of my parallel project exploration I keep a journal where I write some thoughts and make simple drawings. This journal could act as a supporting piece parallel to the other works for the project. It could also act as an auxiliary guide for the declaration of my ideas for me and for the viewer to take a sneak peak to the progress of the project following the path of creation.

The following self portraits are part of the exploration of my identity. They are drawn by looking at the mirror instead of photographs that was a method I used previously. They were drawn during a certain sentimental face.

The following drawing is part of exploring my son’s identity as I see it and of the way that we are related. It started as a descriptive portrait with the addition of elements that I associate with him. The collage part is a copy of one of his drawing books. I plan to ask him to draw on it. I associate it with his journey in life, the routes that he might take. I also associate it with his complicate way of thinking, his intelligence and his engaging in deep questions still in this young age. In this way I try to explore similarities in our characters and how these attributes come from the inherited genes as well as from learned behavior through the environment I provide him with.

I was trying to achieve likeness and I wasn’t happy. Subsequently I tried to make corrections that let to a detrimental result. I then had the idea of using an adhesive mirror to cover the face. This decision evoked from one of the ideas that I noted above regarding for my exploration. The Idea was to use mirror on the drawings so that one could see himself in the others portrait in a way of reflecting connectedness and relationship.