CollegeWorkz: Steve Rayner - Art History.

Task 1.

(Task 9 included)

Art has come along way through the ages, from dung and berries, to oil based paint.

From dark rooms to photoshop.

From clay sculptures to architecture.

There are so many different thing that have come such a long way.

Back in the Stone Ages, Paintings were done with berries, dung, fingers and sticks, they were only for the higher class tribes and that lasted for quite a while until religion came into art when the churches began to pay artists to create paintings and such to display in the church,

Even in parts of Asia the different religions wanted painting to commemorate their god.

Some of the most memorable sculptures began with the slaves wanting to commemorate their leaders inside their tombs with a pyramid, One of the most famous being The Pyramid of Giza, built for King Khufu.

They would decorate their tombs with hieroglyphics and their coffins were painted, The best known coffin was Pharao Tutankhamun when discovered it was best known for being made from solid gold and semi precious stones, The head dress of the face mask had the two strongest animals known to man at that point, The tiger and the cobra to protect him in the after life.

The Hockney-Falco thesis.

In laymans terms the Hockney-falco thesis is basically a belief that painters in through the years (1400's +)

used optical toys to create more natural and more realistic looking pictures because there was a massive jump in the boldness of the work

EG.

The crucifixion of St Peter (Fillipino Lippi 1484-5).

And again (Michael Angelo 1601).

You can see a massive difference in the boldness tones lighting and realism

One is almost flat the other near 3D.

The Hockney Falco Thesis, talks about how different the 2 periods are and they couldn't just get better like that, The whole point of the thesis was to prove that there was optical toys used in late renaissance art.

The evidence they found was:

Advances in realism after renaissance were partly due to optical devices, e.g. Camera Obscurer, Camera Lucida and Concave Mirror.
Impossible visual and detail to human eye, Optical errors in image and styles suggest optics evidence such as lighting.
History claimed they have sources of describing technology images of lenses mirrors in the painting.

Dark room photography.

Dark room photography was were you would have a small hole in a room projecting an image onto a wall, then the artist would have to draw his image.

As time went on darkrooms became portable and they were basically like tents, this tent idea was used by Roger Fenton, who was the first war photographer, he used a process known as wet plate processing, this was invented by Fredrick Scott Archer in the 1850's (aproximately 1851), this process was done using a plate that was kind of like film is these days it was a plate that was coated in a special jelly then in a dark room placed into a holster and loaded into a camera then a photo was taken on an approximately 3 mins exposure, some times if models were used they would have brackets holding them up to avoid motion blur.

Negatives were originally created by Henry Fox Talbot and Louis Daguerre in the early 1800's (Hence the name Degero type) Degero Types were a photographing process each one would be one of a kind made in this way as they could never print the same.

Cenotype - A direct printing process that could be used to make negative pictures or photograms.

In 1861 the first colour photographs were created by scottish scientist James Clerk Maxwell.

Painters and Photographers.

Photographs were sold to artists for them to re make and claim their own.

For example Man Ray (Emmanuel Radnitzky) and Lee Miller.

Man Ray was a Painter who did many works in photography and other medias Man Ray's work was heavily influenced by wife Lee Miller she was a model/Fashion - Street photographer, Man Ray called himself more as a painter than photographer but a lot of photography was involved in his work.

Lee Miller thought of her self as a surrealist artist and photographer, She did many of Man Ray's fashion assignments so he could focus on his painting, Many of the photographs that were credited by Man Ray were actually the works of Lee Miller, They took a lot of photographs together and started the idea of Solarisation.

She had a slight influence in the surrealist movement with her witty and humorous work, In the 1930's she left Man Ray and returned to New York with her brother and set up her own portraits studio.

She was included in The Modern European Photography Exhibition in New York in 1933.

The Camera.

The first photographic camera came about from 'The Camera obscurer' (Coming from the Latin meaning, Dark Chamber), a device going back to the ancient greeks that used a darkroom and a pin hole to project the image of a scene upside down onto a surface. Before there was ways of processing images cameras images had to be hand traced by hand. They started off as a whole room that was pitch black with a small hole somewhere, Then they moved on to being boxes that they could carry around with them, they were not very portable but they were the closest you could get.

It was later discovered that a small box could achieve the same effect as a whole room, This is known today as a pin hole camera.

The cameras of today are done pretty much the same way of light entering a dark box through a lens then an image being captured by a sensitive coating but there difference from the light box is they have a small mirror inside which flips the images around and flips your viewing so your not seeing it upside down because if they didn't do it like that you'd have to stand on your head to get the photo the right way around.

After there invention of the camera the value of fine art dropped dramatically when people realised they could take snap shots faster than an painting was done to the same standard.

The futurists and cubists were influenced by something called 'Chrono-photography' (Time lapse photography) which was a study of man and animals.

Examples of Chrono-Photography:

The idea of long exposure chrono photography relates back to the Italian Futurists

For example this work by Fortuato Depero the movement all flows together with the form of chrono photography,

Many futurists world pay photographers to take pictures like this or do it themselves and then re paint them in the futurist style.

The camera obscurer. (Also known as dark room camera.)

Pin hole camera. (Also known as light box).

Kodak Folding camera.

Pentax film camera (Mine :))

Samsung Disk Film Camera (Mine)

Kodak Pocket Isntamatic (Mine)

Fuji Film My first ever digital

Polaroid. (My Baby).

Home built pin hole cameras.

Camera's Today.

Task 2. Artist Research.

1, Salvador Dali.

Born in May of 1904,

He went to the Sanfernando academy of fine art in Madrid.

Inspired by Walt Disney's Fantasia, He was also inspired by his wife Gala Eluard.

Born in Catatonia Spain, 16 miles from the French border.

Mostly Famous in the Surrealism period, He joined a group of surrealists lead by former Dadaist Andre Brenton, Dali Later took over said group after his painting "The Persistance of Memory", As World War 2 approached Dali began to differ from the rest of the surrealist group and was expeled in 1943.

In the Early 40's Dali lived in USA he had his first major exhibit in the early 40's at the New York museum of modern art then shortly after he wrote his auto biography "The Secrete Life Of Dali"

In the late 40's he opened the Teatro Museo in Figures, Spain, this was followed by retrospectives in Paris and London at the end of the decade.

in 1989 Dali passed away from Heart Failure and Respotory issues

My favorite images are :

Modern Rhapsody 1957.

Rose Mediative 1958.

Ballerina in Deaths Head 1939.

2. Banksey.

Born in Bristol in 1974.

Graffiti and Street Artist.

Banksey is a very awkward artist to research as he tries to remain anonymous so im half using general knowledge and half using a book i have on graffiti artists.

In 2005 he created a print of Queen victoria as a Lesbian pro forming sexual acts n another female. I enjoyed this image because it said to me "what are the royals really like" and also looks as if he is poking fun at the royals, the image its self caused alot of issues because people dont like to see things that poke fun at "important" icons.

Later on in the year the print was sold to Christina Agulera for £25,000.

In 2006 he created a series of Kate Moss paintings where he had based her on Andy Warhols pop arts of Marilyn Monroe he kept the hair and image the same just changed the pictures to Kate Moss's face.

In 2007 He created "Bombing Middle England" which was a print of a few middle class men playing bowling on a bowling green with bombs instead of bowls.

Also in 2007 transport for London painted over his pulp fiction image of John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson holding Bananas instead of Guns.

in 2011 Banksy released a print of a petrol bomb inside a tesco value bottle in protest of a tesco being opened in his local town.

Also during the Riots this summer he created a poster in order to raise money for local groups in bristol for legal defense against the arrested of the riots they were sold in book stores at £5 each.

This month he has unveiled a piece called 'Carnadial Sin' at the Walker Gallery in Liverpool, this bust replaces a priests face with pixels as a statement against child abuse in the catholic church.

My favorite work by Banksy:

You Lie Rat - 2011

I Think We're Not In Cansas Anymore - 2009

(Loved this one so much I have t framed in my kitchen).

Girl with Heart Balloon - 2007

Gay Bobbies - 2004.

3. Dan Gold.

Dan Gold Isnt known as a typical artist as he uses a massively different canvas -

Dan is a London based tattoo artist.

35 Year old Dan Gold was born in Cobern Hagen - Denmark,

asposed to Banksy,

He works with a lot of bold and fluorescent colours and tends to do a lot of robots.

In 2007, Dan starred in a documentary based television programme calle "London ink" starring along side Louis Malloy, Nikole Lowe and Phil Kyle.

This show is what brought me to realise that tattooing is another form of art.

He moved to Lancashire with his uncle as a child because his mother couldn't handle his reble like behaviour.

Dan left school with no qualifications and unable to read and write,

but had always had a thing for drawing.

then he got into graffiti, designing tattoos for friends but felt they didn't look right to him.

In the 80's tattooing was still in the days anchors and swallows.

At 17 Dan created his first tattoo gun, (as they were unable to be purchased as easily as they are today)

he built it using the engine from his scaletrix, his mothers sewing machine foot pedel, a brio and the strings from his brothers guitar. he got the instructions on how to build the gun from a

n article about russian prisoners smuggling them into cells. He tested his gun on himself then he did a small squiggle on himself, that swelled his arm up.

After the incident with his gun he began hanging around studios to gain ideas on techniques. one day an artist handed him the keys to a studio which became his first of many studios.

Dan Gold has a small tattoo on his hand of a heart done by his fiend Kate Moss.

Dan has tattooed many celebrities in the past such as Kate Moss, Kasabian, Peaches Geldoff and during the London Ink series Olympic Jumper Ben Challenger.

Task 3 + 5.

Photograph.

Painting.

Both of these are by unknown artsist.

I think they're both similar in the fact that they're same subjects.

Maybe this image could of influenced lay out and lighting of the photograph.

But the angles are completely different, the painting is straight on and the photo is slightly up from the subject.

A lot of the colours in the images are similar such are the greens reds and blacks.

The differences in the images are that in the painting there is a glass of what i assume is wine.

In the photograph, there is corn and nuts which are different from the painting.

but they're both same in the way that they're quite lumped together but in the painting there is more too it, but the zoom on the photograph gives the illusion of the same fullness.

The passion of christ - Unknown.

Nick ut - Vietname War. 1972.

The image of the girl who was attacked by napalm became a very popular picture in the 70's the girl was called Kim Phuc. This image became popular because of the fact that Kim was holding her arms out like Jesus on the cross and this is why I am comparing the two images.

Jesus died like that on the cross and if Nick Ut hadn't taken Kim to hospital to be treated she would of died in a similar way.

Raphael - The Madonna.

Dorothea Lang - The Migrant Mother.

These two images are similar because they are of two women with children.

the poses are similar as they both have children embracing them they're both known as women who sacrificed for their chid(ren).

The woman in the image is Florence Owens Thompson before the picture was taken Florence was a Beet picker of a farm, she went to Waston Ville in the USA to find better paid work to look after her children when the image was taken they were travelling towards Watsonville on the 101 Highway.

According to Langs notes the family were waiting for Florence's husband to fix their car when she took the picture.

Task 4 + 5.

Don McCullin - Homeless.

Kristin Calabrese - Fear of the poor.

I think this picture was ment to show a humorous side to the homeless and the other was ment to be the depressing side to it.

The painting is ment to be amusing because the woman who photographed then painted them paid them $5 each to pose like a zombie. She painted this because she didn't want people to feel negative about the homeless.

The one By Don McCullin is ment to make people feel sorry for the people in the image, but Don Mc Cullin could of influenced Kristin Calabrese because she showed a similar image but in an opposite way but she still wanted to get a same message across because in most people mind they fear people that are homeless usually because they're dirty and such, In a way i think she wanted to show theres actually nothing to fear about them.

The bird man - Underwood and underwood.

The Bird man - Gudnessa Guston.

This painting and photograph are both of two different versions of the bird man, one the original mechanical machine which a man created ad tried to use to fly deeming him the bird man, the second is of a modern day half man half bird. I think that the idea from the original bird man could of influenced the idea of half man half bird,

i think they both make a statement of expect the unexpected.

Woman once a bird - Joel peter witkin.

Ingres - The bather of Valpincon.

These images are pretty much influenced by each other really because they are both in the same position, they're both women wearing little clothes and they're both taken / drawn from the back were you cant see their faces.

the pictures as a whole are both really feminine and it says to me about women and beauty and how under the mask every woman is beautiful.

Task 6.

Task 6 Is a video that will not work.

Task 7.

Banksey - 'I think we're not in Cansas anymore'.

I love this image because if you've seen The Wizard of OZ you'd understand that Dorothy goes through a whole world of illusion and starts seeing loads of stuff about witches being hit by houses and seeing her family in scare crows lions tin men witches and fairies and she goes up a yellow brick road to find a wizard in an Emerald City, then she wakes up and tells people and they're thinking she's lost it completely, In the real world we'd think she's taken something thats made her illusional, So Banksey has made a poke fun image of Dorothy having her basket raided by the drug police.

What i like about this image is that the drug officer is wearing bright lue gloves which is what you'd probably imagine when you think latex gloves, what i really think would improve this picture is if it was in full colour because in the film there is a lot of primary colours and it would be a lot brighter and more drawing.

Salvador Dali - "Ballerina on deaths mind".

When you first see the image the first thing you see is the ballerina what draws my eyes into the image is the red thing on the nose bridge i aren't certain what it is, but when you see it on the ballerina i assume its some sort of scrunchie, then you're head moves down noticing the markings on the nose bridge, making the face, then notice the teeth forming the tutu then you look at it as a whole and you can see the eyes making the arms of the ballerina.

what i like abut this is Dali's attention to detail, but i cant understand how the red things work of a skull in general, they would definitely work on a ballerina as i said for the hair piece but to me this ruins the images.

Dan Gold - 'This is Halloween'

This image features Sally and Lock from The Nightmare before Christmas but with bright colours instead of muted colours.

The whole Tattoo its self it's self is very colourful which is a huge difference from the film, this ruins it for me i think it would work so much better in muted colour of black and grey but in another way this makes that tattoo unique.

What i love about tattoos this one specifically is that you can get so much detail from a needle and all the shades and colour.

Task 8.

Image 1 Banksy.

The nature of the image is that there is no idea as to weather this is interior, exterior, night or day or what the weather is like because its a print just on plain white with nothing around it to suggest any setting for the image, The image also does not expose any idea into the time of day or when the image was made.

To me the image looks as if its in a rule of thirds, so Dorothy is the main focus to me she is the first thing you see because she is the only character with less dark shades on her.

Banksy has used all black and white then he's used blue gloves on the officer maybe this is a suggestion towards what the officer has on his hands.

The uniform suggests that the officer is an officer and the fact that he is looking through her basket wearing blue gloves says that he's looking through for drugs.

What this image is talking about basically doing is questioning the state of mind of the character Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.

Salvador Dali.

The image is set at sea so the image is exterior, There isn't really a clear indication to the time of day but you can tell that its either late morning or early afternoon, the clouds being curved over like they are indicates that its windy. The main subject of the boat is slightly off center and is moving towards the left.

Then at the bottom right hand corner you have what looks like an island.

What I like about this painting is its quite fooling to they eye, so you kind of have to look twice at it because when I first saw it I saw sails not butterflies and thats what I like about Salvador Dali all together is that his images are really illusional.

Dan Gold.

The Tattoo is a Japanese style back piece, which covers the full back.

Again like the Banksy image there is no indication as to interior or exterior the weather or the time of day.

What draws my eye in at first is the bold oranges of the tiger, even though there is colour around the tiger but not as bold as the colours of the tiger.

I would say that the tiger is pretty much the centre of the back piece then the second subject of the woman is taking over the right side of the back, whats nice about the woman is shes slightly going off the back and onto the shoulder and the side.

What I like best about this image is that there is alot going on in the image but its still simple at the same time, also i like the fact that there is alot of colour but they aren't all bold and in your face most of them are, I also like how the tattoo all flows together around the back and its not just one the here another there they all blend into each other really well.

Task 14

Dali was a surrealist, his work was ofter very colourful and abnormal, he used the colour and bright contrast in paintings to show happiness, make things stand out and just flow slightly more together in a way.

His paintings were abnormal in which i mean you'd have to look twice to get what was going on, EG, Boat with Butterfly sails, at a fist look most people would just see a boat heading off then at another look you'd see the sails were made from brightly coloured butterflies, much like Banksy's Jody Marsh as Marilynn Monroe, The famous pop art painting was originally painted by Andy Warhol of actress Marilynn Monroe, Banksy re created this painting with Marilynn's hair and in the same style as Warhol just with the face being of Jody Marsh not Marilynn .

Banksy works in a Graffiti style, sometimes on a wall as apposed to canvas like Dali, Dan Gold also a graffiti artist, also liked to work on a different canvas but totally new from both Dali and Banksy he works on humans with his brightly coloured graffiti tattoos he was also partial to drawing different style things to most he mostly did robots and just general graffiti styled things that you dont always expect.

Extension Task

For my extension task i chose to re create 'Fingers by Man Ray',

I ended up with a few different styles of it all done through Photoshop.