Art in City : London addition
J MW Turner ‘The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up’ 1983 Oil on canvas Who could be described as the farther of impressionism, Turner tries to articulate light, transition, emotion and movement using paint. His legacy went to the national gallery in London.
Richard Hamilton 'Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing?’ 1956 Collage The two people in the collage who’re cut-outs from a magazine were at the time a modern day interpretation of Adam & Eve. This collage was exhibited in the 'this is tomorrow’ which was post war era, rationing had stopped and politicians were preaching “you’ve never had it so good”. Hamilton’s poster along witch the other work exhibited was the start of pop-art looking at society.
Lucian Freud 'Benefits Supervisor Sleeping’ - portrait of “Big Sue” Tilley 1995 Oil on canvas This painting is of a naked women, not a nude women. In this lecture I learnt to differentiate the two, when artists paint women nude they paint making the model as desirable to the eye as can be. However when Freud painted “Big Sue” he painted her naked, flaws and imperfections and has not idolized her what so ever. the position in which she is sat suggests she is unbothered by her naked vulnerability, she hasn’t sexualised herself in any way in fact in my opinion she looks asleep. I believe that to be extremely empowering to have that level of comfort within yourself to be exposed in such a way. Freud would never pay to paint a model and instead always asked friends or family, perhaps where the relaxation and tranquillity of “Big Sue” comes from is from knowing Freud prior to being painted.
Damien Hirst 'The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living’ 1991 Sculpture This Sculpture consists off glass, painted steel, silicone, monofilament, shark and formaldehyde.
Tracey Emin 'Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995’ 1995 Sculpture This piece of work consists of everyone’s name who Emin has ever slept with being in a square tent coloured blue, the names of which include family and friends and two numbered foetuses. Unfortunately the tent was destroyed in a warehouse fire and since Emin has been offered a huge £1million to recreate the tent but has refused to do so. A lot went into creating the tent emotionally regarding the foetuses as well as ex lovers, all her anguish and pain went into creating this piece of work and therefor can not be created with the same emotion again. The only other text that was not a name read inside on the floor of the tent “with myself, always myself, never forgetting”.
Marcus Harvey 'Myra’ 1995 Acrylic on canvas For this painting Harvey used casts of children’s handprints to recreate Myra Hindley’s mugshot, due to the method of which Harvey decide to paint this portrait is it now arguably one off the most controversial pieces of art in history. This image had an extreme amount of coverage having been reproduced in newspapers and magazines, as well as books and tv shows being made about her. Her image is in the public domain for artist to use just as much as journalists. 'Myra’ was hung in the sensation exhibition for young British artists at the Royal Academy of Art which there saw it be vandalised on several occasions, having had eggs and paint thrown at it.
Chris Ofili 'The Holy Virgin Mary’ 1997 Mixed media Ofili used genitalia from pornographic magazines to create this abstract mixed media piece. 'The holy virgin Mary’ is part of 'Sensation: Young British Artist from the Saatchi Collection’ which was going to exhibit in the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 1999. However Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani threatened to cut off the city subsidy, as well as remove the museums board if the show was not cancelled. He singled out Ofili’s piece as well as several other works as “sick stuff”.
Sarah Lucas 'Au Naturel’ 1994 Sculpture Lucas used a mattress, water bucket, melons, oranges and cucumber to signify sex with no mortality or guilt.
Jenny Saville 'Plan’ 1993 Oil on canvas Saville has painted a naked women, much like Freud she has not idolized the women. In fact the women has surgical lines all over her body.
During this lecture we were also informed on the YBA (Young British Artists) and how this gave many of these artists a platform and some may say a celebrity status.
