mardi 26 juillet 2005

Paul Klee quote... Pas un jour sans une ligne... One of Swiss artist Paul Klee's quotes I've noted down and re-read so many times it's etched on my mind is, "Pas un jour sans une ligne" which translates simply to, "Not one day without a line." It's a good quote for connoisseurs, historians and followers of the canapé trail from gallery to gallery preview... but one which true artists don't even have to think about let alone remember because they do it. In a similar vein and often quoted, though frequently unfairly is, "Those who can do, those who can't teach." [For an insight into this over-generalisation, plus many recommended remedial actions, have a look at the cool Creating Passionate Users site... it's worth bookmarking.] The inference is the same... it's one thing to talk about something as if you can do it - but another thing to actually do it. I'm on the cusp here... I'm starting to talk about art (as I said a few days ago... tentatively) because I think I can do it (art that is). However, I'm not good enough at art to let it speak for itself... and I'm not experienced at talking or writing about matters of art to make sense or impressions on knowledgeable readers about what it (my art) is representing. As such I'm still learning forty years after I left art college... during which time I haven't been directly involved doing any of the "decorative" arts although I've been on the periphery many times and sometimes for lengthy periods by photographing artists and craft workers depicted using materials ranging from brush and paint, chisel and wood, arc-welder and metal, breath and hot glass, wool and loom, thread and patchwork, clay and kiln, and many, many others. And for several years my professional work in TV brought me close to actors and performers, writers and directors, carpenters and painters, make-up artists and costume designers... all using their creative skills to interpret their basic materials at different stages from a raw scenario in a script on a rehearsal room floor to a visual and often sensual performance at an artistic level above that of the reality of a hot, falsely lit, over-equipped, tense-faced populated and, to a fly on the wall, bizarre studio situation. On the other hand there are artists who purport not to be able to make a line... at all! Which reminds me of the audible public groan every time the Turner Prize nominees are announced. The 2004 winner Jeremy Deller (and here) confessed that he could neither draw nor paint (nothing unusual with that revelation most critics thought)... yet won the £25,000 First prize with an oversized "flowchart" depicting lines, of all things, linking words including, in no particular order, "Acid House, Brass Bands, Civil Unrest, Deindustrialization... Ibiza... M25... Tonka..." and such like. However, Lord Saatchi (and here) long standing patron of former Turner Prize winners declared the prize had become, "pseudo-intellectual rehashed claptrap." No doubt being in certain company at the time he was extremely polite with his quote. There's so much art to be seen which utilises the simple line that it becomes difficult to make a choice without excluding important images. My own image at the top of the page is another interpretation of the Vitra chair theme I started working on in the 1970s. Here the line has been drawn and then feathered with shading both inside the original shape to make a positive... and outside to make a negative image. As a student I was impressed and probably influenced by the beauty and flow of the continuous intertwining line drawings of Bernard Cohen... his 1964 exhibition "Drawings 1961-64" at the Kasmin Gallery on New Bond Street in London being subject to more than one visit and the occasion of my first purchase of any artwork - one of his prints. Cohen is still using the same technique today and his display of works at the Angela Flowers Gallery East is fascinating and vibrant... modern art to concentrate on as your eye and mind trace and weave their way through his complex map-like mazes of line, colour and pattern. Surprisingly, because it is hidden away as a category in the Salon.blogs community, there is a fine site of visuals from Dr.Omed... his "Seated Nude" shown above right being just one of many complex, yet simple, images called "Chaos Drawings" and which will surprise and possibly amuse as they pop-up on your screen... do visit... you'll enjoy it! I can finish this page by writing that I have taken note of Klee's mantra, "Pas un jour sans une ligne" and produced a line drawing. Actually it was attempted as a recollection of a regular exercise at art college... to draw or paint a subject in a very short time... usually two or three minutes, but sometimes in a vanishingly fast one minute. The exercise here was completed in two minutes... I was sunbathing mid-afternoon and quickly drew my legs and feet with black Conté Crayon on a 12x16 inch piece of cardboard torn from a supermarket packing case. I was sitting on a white towel... which took on the slightly raised texture of the corrugated cardboard as I dragged a white Conté crayon flat across it's surface... a chance visual surprise which came of actually doing it. As I implied before, you can teach a technique and maybe understand it but remain unimpressed... but if you do and/or discover a technique through practice and application, it enhances your art. 9:16:12 PM    comment []