Final subject of Critical Review

The Post Partum Document (Mary Kelly 1973-79) is a subject that could be studied from many angles. There is a huge dialogue around this work which had great impact in the artist world since it was first shown. It was discussed in terms of art, feminism, psychoanalysis and politics.  For the purpose of my Critical Review essay, I decided to discuss the objects and their use regarding the rendering of the artists underlying concept and purpose. Due to the fact that PPD is consisted of a large amount of works and it is divided in six parts, I decided to focus on the Introduction Part and Part IV for my discussion.

The title for my critical review is: A discussion of how objects are used in Mary Kelly’s Post – Partum Document (Introduction Part and Part IV) regarding mother- child relationship and separation.

Contextual focus point:Frank Auerbach’s portaiture, Part 5

Frank Auerbach works over and over on a painting by scraping off the paint and reapplying thick paint. His drawings are built up of layers of paper, charcoal and chalk. In this way the surfaces and the palette change over time. In the artist’s own words: “Painting is not manufactured. Each picture haw it;s own history. The only contents are the fact that it always takes a long time, sometimes a very long time…”(https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/frank-auerbach-676/how-its-made-frank-auerbach)

Auerbach’s works and reworks repeatedly his drawings and paintings over a long period of time.  His drawings evolve from repeated revision. (https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp06347/frank-auerbach)

His models remained the same for all the years of producing portraits. He believes that familiarity results in a more beautiful and instinctive image. Each painting is completed in a single session so that he retains the same state of mind aiming for cohesion and interdependence. To my understanding when a subject is familiar the artist creates an archive of images of that person as an archive in his mind and also through painting the same person over and over again. respectively each painting is built up of layers of all those ”snapshots” that are internalized to the artist regarding his model. This repetition of portraits of the same model create a narrative through the passage of time. (https://www.artsy.net/artwork/frank-auerbach-self-portrait, https://www.artsy.net/artwork/frank-auerbach-head-of-eow)

Self-portrait, 1958 Charcoal and chalk on paper

In the drawings like Head of E.O.W. 1959, 1959 and Self portrait, 1958,1958, layers of charcoal, patches of paper, worn paper and water-borne paper create a solid picture with great depth, rich texture and interesting mark making . Through the procedure of creating the drawing which takes actual time to be completed, the signs of time are part of the image and are additive to the essence of the depicted person.

Tim Adams write in The Observer regarding the work of Auerbach : “All of them dramatise the act of understanding the strange world beyond his eyes – you can look long and hard, for example, at his pair of “reclining heads” of his wife Julia, from the mid-1990s, stepping forward and back from the wall, before the expressive energies of his broad, up-close brushstrokes resolve themselves into something fleshy and living.” ( https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/oct/11/frank-auerbach-tate-britain-review-60-years-retrospective). This is relevant to my thinking that having to look closer and deeper in the artwork/painting engages the viewer in a time related response. The time needed to look and observe the drawing or painting reflects the long time that took the artist to complete it. It is like the viewer is trying to follow the brushstrokes, the sacraping or any other act of the artist while making the artwork and tries to undercover the hidden layers under the thick paint or the layers of charcoal, watercolour or chalk on a drawing.

Regarding the difference between drawing from a photograph and drawing from life I would comment that the time spent is experienced in completely different way. Time spent in front of a person painting him or her carries a different energy that I believe is inevitably transferred to the portrait. The time spent demands devotion from both parts, the artist and the poser. A life portrait drawing is a dyadic action, while in drawing from photograph only the artist is present. In a life portrait drawing the passage of time is a shared experience that possibly is conveyed in the drawing or painting.

 

 

Art in context

Even though I struggle to find time to engage with my art projects and actually draw while raising little humans, it is easier to find time and read about art in media! I was reading the following interview of Jennifer Samet (https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.conversationprojectnyc.com%2Fblog%2F2016%2F12%2F20%2Fjennifer-samet-i-believe-that-what-i-call-the-voice-of-the-artist-is-becoming-lost-in-art-history&h=AT28PUulrzKU_ydLLxI9iR5DY5kbT0vCJnpwaGsA_cdFi5UzN4YkyHR5EDQrvC1Z5jz_oN3HP-U9bahF9cjKrluOCJhyCMDBMV0AuzKxNt9xsXDKarH74oK1p6I19YsdQY4), a New York based art historian, curator and writer. I was surprised how relevant this came out to be regarding my interests in art. She mentions that the artist is not only the product of the sociological and political context, but also an individual. This is relevant to my thinking about my work, which I perceive as more personal than political, in relation to Mary Kelly’s work, which I think is primarily political. Mary Kelly creates Post Partum Document in 1973-79 in the context of political and social patriarchy and feminist movement.  Mary Kelly aims to introduce the voice of the woman-mother that is missing form art. (http://www.marykellyartist.com/post_partum_document.html). Jennifer Samet through her interviews with artists she is aiming at listening to the voice of the artist as an individual and as a part of the societal context. To my perception, whether the artist is primarily an individual or a social ”product” is as a matter of where the more weight is given by each concerned. Mary Kelly gives more attention to the voice of the artist-mother as part of the context, and through her personal experience makes art about woman’s position in the societal and political context. Jennifer Samet wants to reveal the individuality of the artist and listen to the artist voice literally and through the work of art as a visual object, but also without omitting the societal context. Listening to the work of art as visual object also is relevant to the work of Mary Kelly and the importance of  the artwork as object, which I deal with in my Critical Review.

Another issue that Jennifer Samet mentions is the present political situation in America that it is like making women issues and women’s bodies invisible and unimportant. This reminds me of the absence of Mary Kelly’s representation of the body of the mother-artist in PPD, representing the lack of the woman in the patriarchal context of her time. Jennifer Samet also took part in protests that made her feel like good, old-fashioned feminist rage was back in the world. It seems like history is recycled as similar issues are reappearing and artist cannot but deal with them. Jennifer Samet organised a show called “PussyPower” with over 40 artists including pioneering feminist artists such as Carolee Schneemann and Hannah Wilke and younger artists such as Giordanne Salley.

 

Sketchbooks

 

 

Appraisal for Part 5

Through this final Assignment, I intended to take the opportunity to combine work of the Parallel Project to the exercises of Part 5 in a way that would help me to draw conclusions on what I want my final work for my Parallel Project to be. So far I managed to combine the exercises of all parts of the course to the Parallel Project. I created a big collection of raw material relating to my Parallel Project. This, time related Assignment would be appropriate to engage with the time issue regarding my Parallel Project which I have been working for a long time, since the beginning of the course,  which is actually almost two years!

As my Parallel Project refers to the relationships with my family, so most of the exercises include those family members. For example, for the Changing Scene exercise, my children were participating in the scene I tempted to draw. My surrounding is the subject of my drawings, is my reality and my external inspiration. Simultaneously, my relationships to my surroundings including environment and people is my internal inspiration. My drawings have reference to my surroundings and my own conceptual and expressive reflections on it. People and places meet on my drawings through my own interpretations and my own lived experience. This was also very obvious on the  actual Assignment 5 work. It is a work made on my daily environment. I traced shadows of objects we use as family in our yard(watering pot), placed on a specific spot by one of us without the intention of drawing the specific object. It just happened to be there for me to draw it! Me, with the identity of artist-mother, I captured this scene and transferred it in my art. Additionally,I incorporated my own shadow in the drawings to reinforce my presence in a time passage context. The making of this final assignment lead me to the decision of my final Parallel Project artwork. I intend to combine this drawing method with other elements to end up with four connected drawings as ”narrative” portraits of me and my family members, that document our presence in our environment and our interconnected identities as part of a family and the experiences we share while being separate persons.

 

I plan to combine those the element of thread and the traces of my shadow and the shadow of each family member’s piece of cloth hanging on the drying loft on four sheets of paper that I will connect with the thread giving the form of an artists book as the sheets of paper are folding. At the making I will decide whether to put also writing on the drawings, that would be poems I write in my diary relating to me and my family.

A second idea is to make another four folded sheets connected with thread. In this case, each sheet would have a blind drawing of each family member, and also a mirror where each member could see him/herself along with the portraits of the other family members. This would be related to Lacan’s  theory of intersubjectivity, which was explored in Mary Kelly’s Post – Partum document that I deal with in my Critical Review.

Generally, I feel that I am finally going towards a final statement that would have context and structure. That should be supported by well executed work and qualitative artwork.

Reflection on tutors feedback for Assignment 4 submission

Through Assignment 4 I managed to find ways to explore the many ways that art can be manifested. I went of the traditional paper and medium drawing. I discovered found images and explored on how these images are seen by an artistic eye and how they can be transformed by artistic manipulations.

I interacted with the environment in free, playful and conceptual ways with interesting results. However, I need to consider the documentation of works that take place in changing surroundings and they have installative form. Also have in mind how people who do not know the background would respond to the documentation. Make sure that the documentation (film or photographs) gives the necessary information to the  viewer to ”get” the work.

Another point mentioned by tutor is the ”recycling” of methods or ideas in new context and in new works. this is important because I understand how each work can connect to the other and how different works can be used as raw material for subsequent work.

Regarding the Parallel Project I understand that this is the point that I need to go towards a conclusion. This could be achieved by reviewing what I have done so far. Visual progress  could be done by apposing the work and aiming at finding possible connections. All the raw material I have created through the assignments that is related to the Parallel Project along with work I did specifically for the Parallel Project, seen with a fresh eye could lead me to the end ”product”. The final artwork for  my Parallel Project should be a comprehensive statement of my project’s intention. The final work, should have a solid ground with structure and framework.