Ian Bunn | Political & Popular Culture Arts

Dave de Leeuw the 31 year old Dutch artist painter and video installations has been interviewed by Homa Nasab for an article published in Blouin Artinfo titled ‘Q&A with Dutch Artist Dave de Leeuw’. During the interview Leeuw states “Birth, life and death are always quite astonishing experiences, but I like to step out of my perishable self and see a slightly bigger picture. When I see both the sun and the moon in the sky I have this natural urge to figure out the true proportion of this phenomenal triangle of celestial bodies. When I manage to do this and I feel the burning heat of the sun on my face I can experience a fraction of the sheer power and greatness of the universe. And then, I can put my existence in a more realistic perspective again for another day or so. Sometimes I wonder if this is real, because if it is not, then it could be art! …[When asked who was the most influential person in his life, Leeuw stated] Andre Franquin (1924-1997), a Belgian comic artist most famous for his Gaston and Spirou series. As a kid I used to read his comics every night before I went sleep. I remember his drawings as the first works of art that fascinated me. I stopped reading the story to watch the amazing lines he used to make his fantasy world come alive. I didn’t undestand properly how this was possible but I knew this was something I wanted to do too. …The best thing about the art world is the stage you get to show your art, to share the thoughts and feelings you put in your work with others and let them experience this in their own way. …The responsibility of artists is to produce an artificial experience of their ideas and/or feelings. Not only for entertainment, but most important to provoke the mind.”

Inspired by Homa Nasab, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/lMFAE Image source davedeleeuw ow.ly/lMFmS

Luigi Ontani the 69 year old Italian painter, sculptor and multifaceted artist who expresses himself through various artistic forms has been featured by Karen Wright for The Independent in an article titled ‘In The Studio: Luigi Ontani’. Wright states “…Ontani has only just moved into his studio near the Piazza del Popolo in Rome, but already it bears the mark of this inimitable artist, the doorbell highlighted by a tiny portrait of himself as Pinocchio. Called maestro by those who know and revere him, Ontani is an Italian treasure and is unmistakable, dressed today, as always, in a three-piece silk suit, this time the colour of spring greens. …The studio we are in belonged to Canova, the famous sculptor. Ontani recalls that he was walking in the area he now considers home and saw “affittasi” (for rent) in the window of the building. He got on the phone and the building was his by the end of the day. …”I don’t like to separate my life from my art.” The rooms are high and vaulted with wonderful light. He has painted the concrete floor mauve, his favorite colour, and one that recurs often in both his work and dress. He was – and is still – beautiful, and uses himself, as do so many contemporary artists, as the subject of his art. Many feature him posed as mythical characters, often nude. “My photographs are not documents, not simulacra, but are imaginary. There are others that are documenting, but not me.” Shown in Paris and New York, most notably in The Kitchen in the early 1970s, his work clearly inspired the work of Cindy Sherman, among others. Otani distinguishes his art works from his performances saying, “I am naked, like a sculpture; there is no movement. It is not a document, it is a pose.”

Inspired by Karen Wright, The Independent ow.ly/iuSoH Image source lanouvellevague ow.ly/iuR4H

David Choe the 36 year old American painter, muralist, graffiti artist and graphic novelist of Korean descent, having achieved success with his “dirty style” figure paintings comprising raw, frenetic works which combine themes of desire, degradation, and exaltation; has been the subject of an article on The Daily Beast by Lizzie Crocker titled ‘Facebook Artist David Choe Launches New Gig With Porn Star Asa Akira’. Crocker states “A year after David Choe became the most surprising multimillionaire to emerge from Facebook’s IPO, the bad-boy graffiti artist is making the publicity rounds with a new pornographic podcast featuring porn star Asa Akira. …Tits, ass, and goblins. Bare-chested chicks straddling hellhounds. Perverse imagery has long permeated graffiti artist David Choe’s work, including the infamous murals he spray-painted at Facebook’s first headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. The company’s then president, Sean Parker, allegedly told Choe to “go crazy and draw as many giant ‘cocks’” on the walls as he wanted. Choe was paid for the job in Facebook stock, which was valued at $200 million when the social media behemoth went public last February. …A year later, Choe is opening up about his new gig with porn star Asa Akira: DVDASA … The first two episodes of DVDASA feature comedian Yoshi Obayashi as a special guest, though Choe hopes to lure actors, rap artists, and other “legitimate people” into the podcast studio… He claims he created the podcast as a forum to voice personal transgressions and divulge bizarre fetishes and fantasies. “When you talk about everything openly, it’s hell on your personal relationships,” he says. “It’s weird, because it feels good and yet it’s also really self-destructive. But [Asa and I] have already figured out that we’re self-destructive people anyway, so it’s like, fuck it.”

Inspired by Lizzie Crocker, The Daily Beast ow.ly/hYBSx Image source Facebook ow.ly/hYBS8

Anthony Lister the 33 year old Australian painter and Installation artist, notable within the Lowbrow art movement, whose work is influences from a number of areas and genres, including street art, expressionism, pop art, and contemporary youth culture, has been featured by Nicholas Forrest in an Blouin Artinfo article titled ‘Aussie Street Art Star Anthony Lister’s Grimacing Graffiti Faces Go Global’. Forrest states “…Lister has been taking the urban art world by storm over the past few years with his painterly interpretations of grunge imagery. In well-reviewed exhibitions both at home and abroad, and frequent appearances in leading street-art publications, in 2011 he was also named one of the 50 most collectable artists by Australian Art Collector magazine… So what’s made him so successful transitioning his work from outdoors to indoors? One reason might be the confluence of subversive street aesthetic with high-art draughtsmanship in his work, making his images seem equally relevant and accessible in an up-market gallery as they do on the gritty walls of alleys. Lister is also proficient across a wide variety of mediums, as at home working with pens, stickers and aerosol as he is au-fait with different surfaces. And the subjects of his mainly figurative compositions are just as varied as his materials: sci-fi superheroes, clown-like characters, and licentious ladies appear as often as images of quite ordinary looking people. But the shared characteristics of his work, a signature blend of irony and decadence, are what make them stand out from the crowd; fed from his single-minded work approach. “The first rule of painting is to take everyone else out of the equation. I am the viewer, so I don’t underestimate my viewers,” he explains. “I can’t paint for anyone else.” Later, “it’s all about having the courage to say this is finished… It’s like being a soldier because I have to be hard as fuck to fall in love with these things and let them go.”

Inspired by Nicholas Forrest, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/hnLUY Image source Steve Gray ow.ly/hnMfX

Sterling Wells the 28 year old American artist painter and sculptor has been featured by Allison Meier in an article published on Blouin Artinfo titled ‘Artist Sterling Wells Creates Post-Natural Landscape Paintings’. Meier states “When looking at a painting, you lose yourself in an imagined world,” artist Sterling Wells told ARTINFO. Yet his work takes this idea a bit further than most artists, basing his detailed watercolor landscapes on miniature fabricated environments that he builds within his studio.  “The falseness connects them to painting, in that I’m inventing an artificial world within a frame, and to entertainment,” he elaborated. “Like watching a movie, going to a theme park, or looking at the dioramas at a natural history museum, I also want my art to be temporarily immersive and transporting.” …He loved working outside where he could become “attuned to the colors of the world, the way the light changes over the course of a day.” However, he became frustrated by the limitations of painting. “I initially wanted to make my own natural environments in order to control the light, and because I wanted to paint a purely natural landscape, but none was easily available,” he explained. “Painting from observation seemed too passive — I wanted to engage directly with the environment, and actively create new realities.” …he builds sculptural environments that he uses as models for his paintings, and also art on their own. He continues to work outside, painting en plein air in the middle of creeks or in the rain with a tarp over his head. Only now he also paints in a studio cluttered with rocks, paint, and warped car parts, where he tends to a small greenhouse and the often post-apocalyptic feeling of nature overtaking abandonment…”

Inspired by Allison Meier, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/gXFTE Image source Facebook ow.ly/gXFSH

Celia Paul the 53 year old British Indian painter who she was taught by Lucian Freud, becoming his muse and having his child named Frank Paul, who is also an artist.  In an interview with Matilda Battersby for The Independent Paul speaks about the effect their relationship had on her own work. Battersby states “Lucian Freud said it was “like walking into a honey pot” when he first saw Celia Paul’s paintings. What Paul, who met Freud as her tutor at the Slade in 1978, didn’t realise then, but laughs wryly at now, is that the sweet thing he was taken with was her 18-year-old self, as much as her artwork. “I really didn’t know anything about his womanising,” Paul says. “I didn’t realise how predatory he was.” She later discovered that he’d taken the job as visiting tutor at the famous London art school because his relationship at the time was going wrong and “he wanted to find a new girlfriend”. The teenage Paul was caught in Freud’s spell; and a potent one it proved. …”I was really quite disturbed by his predatoriness. It felt quite complicated, because obviously I was compelled by his art, which I admired so much.” But the 55-year-old Freud, whose mesmerising qualities had at that point already earned him 13 acknowledged children, won Paul over. It took several months for them to become lovers, and two years for Freud to paint Paul. But she would become a significant muse for him in the early 1980s.”

Inspired by Matilda Battersby ow.ly/fmFrE image source Cassone ow.ly/fmFk0

Luc Tuymans the 54 year old Belgian contemporary artist considered one of the most influential painters working today with his signature figurative paintings has been profiled by Adrian Hamilton for The Independent in an article titled ‘Luc Tuymans: Slick, superficial and only for the super-rich’. Hamilton states “Are the painting “series” so fashionable with contemporary artists now becoming a means less of exploring the boundaries of their art than just producing repetitive works that can be sold as distinct items? The question is prompted by the showing of recent works by the Belgian artist, Luc Tuymans, at David Zwirner’s new Mayfair gallery. …At his best he paints works of shifting focus that unnerve the eye and genuinely challenge the viewer. His Zwirner show, it has to be said, is not his best. …The interest of the galleries (and we’re talking here about a million pounds or more per painting) is to play along with this by presenting every few years a new show of their artists’ ‘recent works’. It is in the interest of the painter, whatever his or her creativity at the time, to supply the market with a steady flow of new offerings. “Series” become the easy way for them to do it. In the hands of the Twomblys and the Richters, they provide a way of pushing the boundaries of their art, testing their limits. In the hands of lesser artists they can be simply a means of productivity. I felt this with Damien Hirst’s Spot Paintings and Gilbert & George’s London Pictures, to name two recent examples. I feel it with Tuymans now.”

Inspired by Adrian Hamilton ow.ly/eUd92 image source Marcwathieu ow.ly/eUcOC

Kerry James Marshall the 56 year old American artist painter known for his large-scale paintings, sculptures, and objects that take African-American life and history as their subject matter. His work often deals with the effects of the Civil Rights movement on domestic life, in addition to working with elements of popular culture. Marshall developed a signature style during his early years involving the use of extremely dark, essentially black figures. These images represent his perspective of African Americans with separate and distinct inner and outer appearances, while at the same time confronting racial stereotypes within contemporary American society. Marshall has been profiled by Rachel Wolff in an article on Artinfo, where he states “€œIf you look historically at the way painting has moved from representation to abstraction, the implications of that, in some ways, erased what people can identify as political and social content in a work, one of the quickest ways you can erase what they saw as limitations of ethnicity and race was to do abstract work, and by doing so, you would find your way into the mainstream of the art world. I am trying to demonstrate that there is a great deal of potential left in the black aesthetic and within the specificity of the Black Nationalist position as represented by the colors red, black, and green. That you can transcend what is perceived to be the limitation of a race-conscious kind of work. It is a limitation only if you accept someone else’s foreclosure from the outside. If you go into it yourself, you can exercise a good deal. And you are limited only by your own ability to imagine possibilities.”€

Inspired by Artinfo ow.ly/cltzw image source Ulrich Musum of Art ow.ly/cltss

Own artistic style in line with ‘pintura matèrica’ (February 14th)

Antoni Tàpies i Puig the 88 year old Catalonian Spanish painter sculptor and art theorist has died. Tàpies the best known Catalan artist emerging in the post Second World war period, had studied law before devoting his life to painting, initially influenced by Paul Klee and Joan Miró, he was instrumental in helping establish a Spanish movement connected to the Surrealist and Dadaist movements  known as ‘Dau al Set’. Tàpies established his own artistic style in line with ‘pintura matèrica’ where a mixed media of non-traditional artistic materials are included into the painted work, such as clay, waste-paper, rags, string and marble dust. Tàpies represented Spain at the Venice Biennale in 1993, and in 2003 he was awarded Spain’s foremost honour for artists, the Velazquez Prize. Tàpies painted approximately 8,000 pieces over his career, prompting Spain’s King Carlos in 2010 to award him the title of Marqués de Tàpies.

Inspired by Helen Stoilas http://ow.ly/8ZnnR image source canalhub http://ow.ly/8Znhv

Tests conducted if any urine damage (January 11th)

Carmen Tisch a 36 year old US woman has been arrested for damaging a canvas painting by the now deceased abstract expressionist painter Clyfford Still born in North Dakota 1904. Tisch is accused of pulling down her pants, sliding her buttocks against the painting surface and attempting to urinate onto the works. Tisch allegedly while intoxicated punched and scratched the painting valued at $US30mil. A spokeswoman for the Denver District Attorney’s Office, stated the oil-on-canvas called 1957-J no.2, was on display at the recently opened Clyfford Still museum in Denver. Tisch has been charged with felony criminal mischief and is held on a $US20k bond pending a formal hearing. “It doesn’t appear she urinated on the painting or that the urine damaged it, so she’s not being charged with that,” stated the spokesperson, although tests are to be conducted to determine if any urine damage has occurred.

Inspired by Artinfo http://ow.ly/8lKDN image source Bossip http://ow.ly/8lKC5

Looks as if it were born in a minute (January 2nd)

Helen Frankenthaler the 83 year old US abstract expressionist painter renowned for her contribution to postwar US painting has died. Frankenthaler was championed by the influential art and literary critic Clement Greenberg, who included her in his 1964 curated Post-Painterly Abstract exhibition. The exhibition introduced her to the New York art scene and abstract expressionism, in which she was to play a pivotal role. Frankenthaler stated “A really good picture looks as if it’s happened at once. It’s an immediate image. For my own work … very often it takes ten of those over-labored efforts to produce one really beautiful wrist motion that is synchronized with your head and heart, and you have it, and therefore it looks as if it were born in a minute.” Frankenthaler has not been a fan of all critics, some seeing it as thin in substance, uncontrolled and too rich in colour.

Inspired by Grace Glueck http://ow.ly/8eVr0 image source  http://ow.ly/8eVyZ Pablo Martinez Monsivais

This nuclear power plant is so fantastic (November 27th)

Anselm Kiefer the 66 year old German painter and sculptor has declared in a German magazine ‘Der Spiegel’ that he wishes to purchase the Mülheim-Kärlich, a disused nuclear power plant in western Germany. Kiefer has written to the head of the utility RWE seeking permission to acquire the plant or at least the cooling towers, located along the Rhine River 10 kilometers from Koblenz. Kiefer stated in the interview, “This nuclear power station is so fantastic, wonderful. It is my Pantheon.” Although Kiefer indicated he was not yet exactly sure what he would create with the plant, he has ruled out “I would definitely not paint cows and clouds on the outside.” Kiefer although living and working in France for the past two decades, is renowned for addressing controversial issues and taboo subjects from Germany’s recent history, including themes from Nazi rule.

Inspired by Artinfo http://ow.ly/7rN1h image source apollosgirl http://ow.ly/7rNh0

A visual reflection on his travels in Asia series (October 13th)

Robert Allen Zimmerman the 70 year old US musician and painter known as Bob Dylan, is now reported to have copyright license to the images he has used in the creation of his paintings. Questions have arisen about whether the paintings are based on the singer’s “own experiences and observations, or on photographs that are widely available and were not taken by Mr. Dylan”. Dylan’s gallery Gagosian states that “While the composition of some of Bob Dylan’s paintings are based on a variety of sources, including archival, historic images, the paintings’ vibrancy and freshness come from the colors and textures found in everyday scenes he observed during his travels”. However the Gagosian web site promotion states the paintings are “a visual reflection on his travels in Japan, China, Vietnam, and Korea”.

Inspired by Ann Binlot http://ht.ly/6HMk8 image source Alberto Cabello http://ow.ly/6KMJB

Experimented in the use of elephant dung (October 2nd)

Chris Ofili the 42 year old UK painter renowned for his works referencing his Nigerian heritage and use of elephant dung, has had his first experimental piece located with two others in a vault of a gallery in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. The piece was created in 1992 when Ofili traveled to Zimbabwe as a young 23 year old council funded artist to participate in an artists’ workshop, where he experimented in the use of elephant dung that has gone on to become his signature media. The Art Newspaper investigation uncovered these significant paintings from the now defunct workshop, in a branch vault of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. The paintings are in need of urgent conservation works due to the materials used and the young Ofili’s (now a Turner Prize winner of international fame) lack of experience at the time.

Inspired by Martin Bailey http://ow.ly/6y6if image source African Success http://ow.ly/6y6Gq

Was it has to be transformed for a purpose (September 28th)

Richard Prince the 61 year old US painter and photographer, renown for appropriation of photographs and their ‘re-photographing’, continues to contest his right to use material alleged to be in violation of copyright laws. French photographer Patrick Cariou filed suit against Prince’s work ‘Canal Zone’ for copyright infringement and financial harm that had been caused, due to his own show being cancelled as a result of Prince’s exhibition of the material. A US District Court ruled Prince’s use of the material was not fair use, however Prince has won the right to appeal to the Federal Court to contest the decision. Prince is famous for his series the Cowboys, a group of rephotographs created from 1980 to 1992 from Marlboro cigarette advertisements, the Marlboro Man represents an idealized figure of American masculinity.

Inspired by Kate Deimling http://ht.ly/6wEfP image source  Drpaluga http://ow.ly/6y44s

Politically outspoken in his artistic practice (September 26th)

Richard William Hamilton the 89 year old UK painter and collage artist had been preparing for a major museum retrospective at the time of his recent death. The retrospective was scheduled to travel to four cities in both the US and Europe over the coming two years. Hamilton was renowned as the father of ‘Pop Art’ with the beginnings going back to 1956 with his collage titled ‘Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing?’, he is also credited with the first coining the phrase “pop art” itself. In a statement from his gallery representative stated that Hamilton was a “pioneering artist of unparalleled skill, invention and lasting authority. His influence on subsequent generations of artists continues to be immeasurable.” Hamilton was also often politically outspoken in his artistic practice.

Inspired by Helen Stoilas http://ow.ly/6xv04 image source artprofessor http://ow.ly/6xuZ4

Accused of violating the moral code of Angka (September 19th)

Vann Nath the 65 year old Cambodian painter, artist, human rights activist and recipient of the prestigious Lillian Hellman/Hammett Award for his outspoken advocacy for justice to victims of the crimes of the Khmer Rouge has died. Nath had survived along with six others from the Toul Sleng prison where over a period of three years over 15,000 people were executed. The prison was a former school used to torture the prisoners before being taken out to the ‘Killing Fields’ where the prisoners were killed with a savage blow to the back of the neck. Nath had managed to survive due to his portraiture skills in painting the Khmer Rouge leaders including the infamous Pol Pot. Nath a former Buddhist monk was awarded the Lillian Hellman/Hammett Award for recognition of his courage in the face of political persecution.

Inspired by Aljazeera http://ow.ly/6tZCk image source http://ow.ly/6u016

Does, paints and says what he wants (September 13th)

David Hockney the 74 year old UK painter and considered one of the most influential UK artists of the twentieth century has been profiled in an article by Jonathon Jones, describing him as an ‘enfant terrible’ who “does what he wants, and paints what he wants, and says what he wants, and the results are impressive”. Hockney considered an important contributor to the 1960’s Pop art movement, is argued by Jones to continue influencing modern popular culture in three unique ways. “As a painter, he has an exhibition of new, super-sized Yorkshire landscapes opening … As a fan of new technology when it serves his creative purposes [a noted exponent of iPad art]. And as a provocative thinker, he has a book of interviews about his ideas on art …”

Inspired by Jonathon Jones http://ow.ly/6lvwh image source Poul Webb http://ow.ly/6lvUi

Norman Cornish the 91 year old UK artist who worked 33 years from the age of 14 in four coal mines before developing a career as a painter, has a retrospective exhibition at the Northumbria University Gallery of his early drawings through to his latest 2011 work. Learning to paint at art classes ran by a cultural settlement, Cornish is quoted as saying “I didn’t have a lot of time, but I had to paint… it’s an itch that you have to scratch”, becoming a full time painter at the age of 47 after suffering back pains. Renowned for his depiction of otherwise ordinary day to day imagery of life within his narrow confines, often reminiscing times gone by without motor vehicles, people wearing hats and scarves, and interaction on the streets.

Inspired by Ian Youngs http://ow.ly/65gWW image source Journallive http://ow.ly/65h6K