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Stuart Brownlee - 512319

Drawing 2: Investigating drawing - Part 2: Material properties – Project 1: Space, depth and volume – Research point.

The artists below all make work which both creates and denies three dimensions at the same time. Take a look at their websites then make notes in your learning log about these artists, your response to their work and how their work relates to what you’ve been attempting in this project.

Angela Eames: http://ww w .ange l ae a mes.com/ Michael Borremans: http://www.zeno-x.com/index.htmlJim Shaw: http://ww w .simonlee g aller y .com/Artists/Jim_S h a w/Selected_ W or k s

JIM SHAW

“Shaw … has curated shows of found amateur paintings, placing marginal works in central galleries” In: Foster, H. Krauss, R.E. and Bois, Y-A. (2004) Art since 1900: modernism, antimodernism and postmodernism. London: Thames & Hudson, p.647.

More than this … “Since the 1970s, Shaw has mined the detritus of American culture, finding inspiration for his artworks in comic books, pulp novels, rock albums, protest posters, thrift store paintings – his ever-growing collection of found artworks has been the subject of its own exhibition on several occasions – and advertisements.” Available at: https://www.simonleegallery.com/exhibitions/128/[Accessed: 3 March 2018].

And … “Christopher Knight writing in the Los Angeles Times (28 March 1990) calls the Thrift Store Paintings "an installation of found objects, created by a very gifted artist... As much as the anonymous artist whose work is on view, it is the audience — its tastes, values and points of identification or contention — that Shaw has deftly made the resonant subject of the show." Available at: http://www.metropictures.com/exhibitions/1991-09-12-jim-shaw/ [Accessed: 29 October 2016].

So, what are the works of Jim Shaw?

Avaialble at: http://www.metropictures.com/exhibitions/olaf-breuning-jim-shaw-cindy-sherman/selected-works?view=slider [Accessed: 31 March 2018].A pre-installation press release and images for the Magnificent Obsessions: The Artist as Collector exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery February to May 2015

Jim Shaw, Paintings Found in an O-ist Thrift Store - Pre-History, 2002. 24 mixed media paintings, dimensions variable. MP 148-E

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contains extracts form the exhibition catalogue [Yee, L. (2015) Magnificent Obsessions: The Artist as Collector. Germany: Prestel.] along with a couple of Shaw’s thrift store paintings:

In an interview with Lydia Yee - In Conversation: Jim Shaw, Wednesday 25 March 2015, Shaw shared his predilection for collecting ‘found objects’: “When I was a kid I collected comic books and monster magazines, and maybe some baseball cards. As a teenager I had friends who would go to the thrift stores in neighbouring towns and I started collecting weird stuff: old clothes, strange objects I’d find. It was the late 1960s or early 1970s, and you could still buy stuff from the 1930s and 1940s back then. And for me it was always a sort of archaeological or paleontological dig growing up. You know, when you’re going to somebody’s yard sale you’re imagining their life history as you look at the things they are selling. You’re spelunking through people’s subconscious.”

Weirder, expressionistic and surrealist are his cup of tea when it comes to collecting. This also applies to ideas, such as his fake religious movement of Oism – “the idea of the American artist” [Available at: http://fictive.arts.uci.edu/o-ism [Accessed: 31 March 2018].

“the idea of the American artist” – “a kind of historian of the trash vernacular, looking through the garbage of American culture.” Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2000/sep/16/weekend.oliverbennett [Accessed: 13 March 2018].

Recurring themes, “manipulated imagery and surreal sculptures”, underpin Shaw’s work, exploring “America’s underbelly”. [Available at: https://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/jim-shaw-the-end-is-here [Accessed: 16

Collection Jim Shaw23. Magnificent Obsessions: The Artist as CollectorPink Mountain Lion on Brown Background Collection of Eric DecelleCourtesy Jim Shaw. Photo by Paul Ruscha

Collection Jim Shaw21. Magnificent Obsessions: The Artist as Collector Decaptitated Okapi 1, Decapitated Okapi 2, 2014 Courtesy of the artist and Simon Lee Gallery, London.

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March 2018].

This is all influenced from previous artistic genres and artists, such as Jean Dubuffet’s ‘Art Brut’ (Raw Art), Picasso’s fascination with African tribal masks, the surrealism of Dali and Magritte, as well as Dada’s Max Ernst. All visual influences, from painting and sculpture, to film, video, installation, photography, printing and advertising are up for grabs in driving Shaw’s artistic vision.

In the Simon Lee Gallery ‘Viewing Room’ programme of February 2018, a selection of Shaw’s drawings were exhibited, including:

“A polyphony of sources - comic books superheroes, Blakean mysticism, utopian idylls, symbols of pop culture - crowd Shaw’s drawings and demonstrate his unique style of post-modern eclecticism. The abundance of visual imagery on display, used by Shaw as a critical strategy in his work, is mirrored in the busy installation of the exhibition, at the centre of which is work from the Blake/Boring series. Here Shaw mimics the stylised bodies and fantasy world of the pre-Romantic artist William Blake and 1950’s silver age superhero comic style of Wayne Boring, a leading Superman artist of his youth. Like the inward-looking, imaginary trajectory of Blake’s oeuvre, Shaw’s feverish exposure of representational narratives and pseudo-worlds are charged with a supernatural, dream-like subtext.”

From Superman:

http://comicsalliance.com/tribute-wayne-boring/

Shaw, J. (2013) Study for “The golden age”. [pencil and ink on paper]. Available at:See link here [Accessed: 3 March 2018].

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http://www.supermanartists.comics.org/superart/wayneboring.htm

to William Blake:

Shaw, J. (2013) Study for “The golden age”.

In a talk hosted by the Simon Lee Gallery, London, 21 November 2015, to coincide with Jim Shaw’s solo exhibition at the gallery 19 November 2015 - 9 January 2016. Available at: https://www.simonleegallery.com/artists/jim-shaw/ [Accessed: 3 March 2018], we heard from the artist about some of his influences, thinking and processes:

William Blake (1795-c1805) Nebuchadnezzar. [Colour print, ink and watercolour on paper].Available at: See link here[Accessed: 12 March 2018].

A Memorable Fancy - The Marriage of Heaven and Hell 24Available at: See link here[Accessed: 12 March 2018].

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The following images are extracted from the video of the talk:

The seemingly apocalyptic image behind the conversationalists is painted on a piece of Americana, according to Shaw – an old theatrical backdrop which acts as a suggestion in this painting of a piece of the landscape – fake history, in other words. Shaw’s trigger points for this painting were his fake Oism fascination and a piece of American mythology – Mr’s O’Leary’s cow, reputed to have kicked over a lantern while being milked and started the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

The black lines on Xerox machine image of “Detective comics [DC] version” brings together historical and contemporary art references in a landscape reminiscent of Picasso’s Guernica and which was inspired by DC comic artists such as Wayne Bering:

[Video extract: 13.26.09 and 50.23.48]

Shaw’s colour painting of the same image is in its turn reminiscent of Adel Gorgy’s fine art photography:

http://www.adelgorgy.com/AdelGorgyPhoto/agorgy/024gorgy.html

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Shaw’s colour painting seems to question the artistic credentials of surrealism and abstract expressionism from a contemporary perspective. It is also painted on a found object as background – an Arabian fantasy backdrop curtain (Jim Shaw: Prometheus: Liver is the Cock’s Comb, 2015 – acrylic on muslin):

[Video extract: 13.27.13]

The apocalyptic undertones of Shaw’s work are also apparent in the next three paintings which display an overtly political message – Firstly, what I have called “Is this a Dollar bill I see before me?”; then “The whore of Babylon”; and finally the “Jolly Green Giant”.

[Video extract: 49.46.81]

The entwining green snake presents eyes into the scene – the background cliffs and cave and perhaps the victory of Siegfried or St. George and the dragon; and is that “Liberty” on the right in front of the cave? And there’s more! Look into the distance and what do you find but an apocalyptic ‘H-bomb’ type fireball – ruining it all – destruction.

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[Video extract: 1.15.14.30]

This ‘Whore of Babylon’ piece is painted in the style of a political cartoon. It is somewhat reminiscent of the psychedelic collages/posters of the 1960’s/70’s. The strong female figure is defiant and imposing, holding a flaming torch similar to that of the Statue of Liberty. The ‘Beasts’ of Babylon are imagined as the robber barons of the time, with the surrounding foreground masses depicted as tiny wee red outline figures (or suggestions of figures) – not in the least bit important in the scheme of things it would seem.

[Video collage: 49.37.93; 27.36.74; 27.40.89 – top to bottom]

Attributed by Shaw as a comment on the chemicals industry – the JGG pouring (no happily pouring) chemicals in dangerous red onto, and killing, the green landscape.(Jim Shaw: ‘The Third Angel’, 2015 – acrylic on muslin).My sketchbook inspiration from looking at and thinking about Jim Shaw’s drawings and paintings led me to pick up a piece of someone else’s artwork – not from a thrift

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store, but from a charity shop – and have a go at reinventing it in the spirit of Jim Shaw:

Part 2 Project 1 - Research point Part 2 Project 1 - Research point for painting after Jim Shaw collage for painting after Jim Shaw

Part 2 Project 1 - Research point- finished painting after Jim Shaw

[Mixed media – collage, gouache, fineliner pen]I tried not to overwork this, but I did want to tell some kind of narrative around the use of chemical weapons and other nasties currently in the news. Using cut-out

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images from the Internet available at: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/uk-locates-source-of-salisbury-nerve-agent-nx8p39kqv [Accessed: 5 April 2018], and from William Blake’s illustration no.10 “Help! Help!” from “The Gates of Paradise” – In: Sabri-Tabrize, G.R. (1973) The ‘Heaven’ and ‘Hell’ of William Blake. London: Lawrence and Wishart, p.250.

The two chemical weapons symbols and one munitions dumping symbol are taken from an illustration by Andy Arthur that appeared in issue 14, April 2018 of Bella Caledonia, pp.12-13. These cut-outs from the paper act like comic book speech bubbles:

From the somewhat tranquil fishing scene we are now faced by a moreapocalyptic transition from normalcy.Dripping and suited monsters from the deep don’t provide much succour to the flailing ‘Blakean’ figure in the water and even the eerie hand poking through the sky is a fair way off securing a rescue. Beaufort’s Dyke is a sea trench in the North Channel between Northern Ireland and Scotland, while the Western Continental Shelf lies off the Atlantic coast of the Outer Hebrides. And what was dumped at 57,09”00”N / 01,58”30”W east of Aberdeen?

A wee bit fantasy and comic book inspired (à la Jim Shaw), but with something of the truth of the illusion that all is fine with the world. I suppose there is an element of foregrounding the background in this composition, along the lines of what Shaw himself achieves with much greater effect.

Reflection:

“how does Jim Shaw’s work relate to what I’ve been attempting in this project.”

Drawing by removing, drawing and layering, – in this project using charcoal – in an attempt to create a believable illusion of space and depth in two dimensions.

“The description of space, depth and volume relies on depicting the way in which light operates on objects and the change in tonality that this produces.”

I think that Jim Shaw’s work can be seen on various different levels, exploring allegorical, political, spiritual and cultural themes. His use of found objects such as thrift store paintings, the influences of popular culture and comic books, appeals to

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me – building up, layering and taking away, altering and adding – to deliver his take on his world as he sees it.

There are elements of the illustrative in his work, just as there are representational and abstract influences. However, I don’t find it particularly helpful giving names to such matters, rather preferring to see what I see, feel what I feel, when I look at paintings and drawings. What I see and feel when I look at the work of Jim Shaw is twofold – striking composition and an appreciation of his intention as an artist.

This idea of foregrounding the background is evident in the works I have looked at here and brings that sense of three dimensional space and depth on a two dimensional surface.

As a final thought, I am struck by the similarity of mark making in this untitled painting by Jim Shaw to that of Egon Schiele:

Shaw, J. (2017) Untitled. [Acrylic on wood Schiele, E. (1913) The truth unveiled.panel] Available at: [Gouache, watercolour and pencil]. In:See link here Fischer, W. G. (2006) Egon Schiele[Accessed: 3 March 2018]. 1890-1918: desire and decay. Köln:

Taschen, p.158.

In relation to my charcoal drawings for this project, I am not sure that I have captured this same sense of space, depth and volume as successfully as I could have – maybe requiring additional removing and layering to more effectively capture that essential essence of three dimensions on a two dimensional surface.

See:

https://stuartbrownleeocadrawing2.wordpress.com/category/coursework/material-properties/space-depth-and-volume/

Stuart Brownlee – 5123197 April 2018

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