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Cultural Hierarchies – Top 10 Favourite

Cy Twombly

Cy Twombly inspired me as an abstract expressionist, he used different materials for each desired outcome which I followed myself instead of sticking to what I knew and trying the achieve a certain look. The use of text in some of his pieces is again a big part of what I admire in his work. The use of negative space juxtaposing the busy and messy marks are very affective especially on a large scale.

Edward Goss

I recently came across Edward Goss’ work and fell in love with the use of text and abstract depictions of humans/animals. His neo-expressive style stuck in my mind, the way his work is collectively similar. I love the use of texts, even the disjointed letters that perhaps don’t spell anything at all but to me are so effective in revealing a child-like carelessness which I strive to achieve myself.

Gerhard Richter

I have seen Richter’s work multiple times in the Tate Modern, each time to me a new experience. The height of his work and the impression it left on me is unforgettable, I loved his way of creating texture just through application rather than the amount of paint used. From afar they look like blurry scenes but as you get closer you see it is dragged and manipulated paint spread over huge surfaces. The colour combinations appeal to me so much.

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Basquiat has been a favourite artist of mine for years, introducing me firstly to neo-expressionism. The dark depictions he uses against bright, solid colours appealed to me initially and then studying further I took note of the words and scribbles he would incorporate on his pieces and grew to love them even more. There is so much story in his work that just engaged me to actively appreciate his practise, he had such a huge effect on the neo-expressionism movement and also incorporated his graffiti practise within it all.

Nathan Pendlebury

I re-discovered Pendlebury earlier this year, his work fits in well with the paintings I was doing in the first module. He includes depictions of real-life things and incorporates them with abstract paint marks, balancing the two of them and using colour as a contrast with them both. I love the composition in all of the pieces and the illusion of depth.

Tracey Emin

Tracey Emin has been a favourite of mine for years, her monoprints initially being what I focused on in her practise but recently have found a big love for her paintings. The negative space within each piece and the impact it has strikes me, the emotional complexity in all of her very personal paintings and writings contrast extremely well with the blank space and quick almost automatic scribbles or paintings.

Franz Kline

Franz Kline, unlike many of the other artists I have mentioned has an extremely simplistic style. When looking to my own work, it is hard to see where I find Kline’s work an inspiration, however the single mark makings and use of only black paint in multiple of his works create an ambiguous meaning that is left to the viewer to decide. Whether it is automatic painting or painting with a composition in mind his pieces are influential in different respects.

Philip Guston

Guston’s work is noticeably all with a similar colour palette which I liked from the beginning. His strange, almost surreal drawings within them attracted me and made me want to look further into the meaning behind it. Although usually I wouldn’t find this style of painting a favourite, I think the pinks and use of shape within them offer a new style to what I otherwise wouldn’t appreciate as much.

Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer’s large light/neon pieces were the first few I noticed by her, but then came to research further and become more and more intrigued by. I particularly liked her ‘Survival Series’, what Holzer says and means is so interesting to me, her statements are very strong willed. She also works on multiple mediums, for example, printing statements onto pencils and condoms.

Luc Pierre

I came across Pierre’s work on Instagram and instantly fell in love. The combination of pencil/text and paint work so well together and the compositions are so attractive to me. The pastel colours in contrast to the black mark makings and words create a really simplistic but effective outcome. His work continuously inspires me when I am lacking creativity in my own projects.

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Histories of my discipline- 10 Practitioners

Willem De Kooning

I came across De Kooning in my Foundation year of Art & Design, I was drawn to the expressionistic style as it was something I hadn’t experimented with yet at the time. I studied his paint brush marks and wanted it to be a familiar style in my own work. Initially the colour palette was something I liked however now the bold, primary colours are not something I use in my own practise.

Mark Rothko

I originally disliked Rothko’s work as its simplicity was something I wasn’t attracted to in painting at the time, but the lack of busyness grew on me as my painting progressed. His use of block colours at the size they are displayed have heavy effect because of the solid application of the paint. The size of these pieces really inspired me to explore larger surfaces to paint on during my Foundation year.

Lucian Freud

Unlike many abstract expressionist artists, I seem to be drawn to, Freud’s portraits influenced my progression from semi-realism to more expressionistic depictions of real things. During my A-levels, I looked into Freud’s work, particularly at his use of colour to define the shape and depth in people’s faces, I appreciate Freud’s work still but more as a means of displaying an emotive painting of faces, rather than still using his work as an influence to my own.

Francis Bacon

It was Francis Bacon that exposed making things/people and turning them into surrealist scenes to me, I fell in love with the strange and almost haunting pieces he made and studied them to understand how I could paint abstract ideas whilst maintaining a reality within the image. The use of bizarre depth and dark colours were out of my comfort zone but I appreciated them because they were different to anything I’d seen prior.

Jackson Pollock

When I first experimented with abstract expressionism, I was told to research Pollock, however I disregarded him as inspiration to me, mainly because of the repetitive themes in his paintings. I later realised the impact he had on the movement and I now see Pollock’s work as a key part in the history of painting and how through his use of free hand and random paint application allows so many more elements of painting to progress.

Robert Rauschenberg

I looked into Rauschenberg when I was doing my GCSE’s because of the use of collaging and incorporating paint and texture into one piece. The aspect I loved most of his work was the expressive style he applied to otherwise refined and detailed pieces, such as photographs and cut out text. Rauschenberg assembled these collages in a way that from afar almost looked like a hand painted/drawn piece itself. The muted colours contrasting the bold primary paints were always something I focused on.

Paul Jenkins

Paul Jenkins created huge abstract paintings, his pieces appeared to me to have a soft texture just through his manipulation of the paint and the way it is fluidly applied to the canvas. The flowing works of art made me fall in love with fluid painting and experiment with it myself. The colours and composition even though they are randomly painted are so bold and expressive and were a huge part of my growth to an expressionist painter.

Salvador Dali

Dali’s famously surrealist paintings exposed me to a whole new art movement that I still follow today. The bizarre imagery and story telling that is within each piece influenced my desire to create narrative within my work without words. His use of false depth and disorientating depictions of animals/humans have always intrigued me.

Tracey Emin

Tracey Emin has been a favourite artist of mine for years, particularly her monoprints were what first involved me with the artist. The use of words was something I hadn’t considered in my own practise, but her work immediately inspired me to be more honest in my paintings/drawings and include journal entries. The heart-breaking reality in her pieces and how they can be related to your own personal life is something that struck me and is what I wanted to achieve through my own work.

Jenny Holzer

I first saw Jenny Holzer’s work at the Tate, and much like Emin, was attracted to the use of text and its rawness in emotional diary-like entries. I also loved the neon lights she uses, I have never been interested in using lights or technology to portray human emotion/words, but Holzer’s work gave me a new appreciation for using this media.

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Glossary

Provocation- action or speech that makes someone angry, especially deliberately. "you should remain calm and not respond to provocation"

Antinomies - a contradiction between two beliefs or conclusions that are in themselves reasonable; a paradox. "there are not many short novels capable of accommodating bewildering antinomies"

Imbrication - an overlapping of edges (as of tiles or scales) a decoration or pattern showing imbrication

Aesthetes - a person who is appreciative of and sensitive to art and beauty.

Kinaesthetic Art- Kinaesthetic art is art that deals with the body in movement.

Renaissance- French word meaning rebirth, now used in English to describe the great revival of art that took place in Italy from about 1400 under the influence of the rediscovery of classical art and culture.

Homogenisation - the process of making things uniform or similar. "the fear of cultural homogenisation is a barrier to some multinational businesses"

Dissemination - the action or fact of spreading something, especially information, widely.

Social Structure - In sociology, the distinctive, stable arrangement of institutions whereby human beings in a society interact and live together. 

Hierarchy - a ‘system’ (this may be a language system) in which members of an organisation or society (or different defining features of an organisation) are ranked according to relative status or authority.

Constructivism - A movement originating in 1920s Russia in which mechanical objects are combined into abstract structural forms. 

Dogma - A principle or set of principles which are laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true. 

Marxist Theory - The theories of Marxists which view and analyse class relations and social conflict, in terms of politics, the economy and society.

Topology - The study of geometric properties and spatial relations unaffected by continuous change of the shape/size of figures. 

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“Present a detailed, critical analysis of a Visual Artefact”