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Christopher Wool

Christopher Wool is an enigmatic abstract painter whose formal experimentation and satirical subversion has left him commercially successful and acclaimed by some critics, whilst condemned as banal or superficial by others. His public persona is reserved and he carefully monitors the boundary between his personal and private life.

His work is grounded in an investigation of abstract painting through a post modern repurposing of signs and symbols. Familiar images, including stark black and white patterns, shapes and particularly words are repeated, manipulate and erased.

“Run dog, run dog, run” - 1990

The painting is a large white aluminium plated painted with black letters that once decoded, read “run dog run dog run”. The harsh capital letters were stenciled on, following a standardised grid-like spacing system. The composition only allows meaning to be divined on closer attention.

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Jasper Johns

Jasper Johns is an American painter, sculpture, and print-maker whose work is associated with abstract expressionism, neo-dada and pop art. He is also known for his depictions for the American flag and other U.S. related topics 

“According to what” - 1964

Johns created this expansive, painting by joining several canvases together and attaching various found objects tot the painted surface: chair, a cast of legs, another stretched canvas with a hinge, metal letters, and a coat hanger. He included techniques that appeared in earlier works like “brush-making”, the stenciled names of colours, the hinged lid that can be open and closed, and the cast body parts. He also expanded his visual repertoire by including elements of silkscreened newspaper pages reporting about the Kremlin in the centre of the painting. 

Like with many of John’s other canvases, the various elements combine into layers of possible meanings.

Johns let the process of painting the number sequence dictate the structure of the painting. This allowed him to concentrate on the qualities of the paint itself, exploring colour and thickness. The result is a highly abstract structure, but one firmly rooted into the real world.

My personal thoughts and feelings on this specific canvas he created, it’s as if hes experimenting with various techniques and materials and combing it to create a large piece, giving each brushstroke, letter and or object a meaning on why he chose that object or technique.

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Barbara Kruger

Kruger designed this print for the 1989 reproductive rights protest, the March for Women's Lives, in Washington, D.C. Utilizing her signature red, black, and white palette, the woman's face is split along a vertical axis, showing the photographic positive and negative sides, suggesting a highly simplified inner struggle of good versus evil. The political and social implications of the work are self evident, but Kruger emphasizes the directness of her sentiment by having her subject stare straight ahead through the print, frankly addressing the viewer through both her gaze and the words emblazoned across her face. The message unequivocally addresses the issue of the continued feminist struggle, connecting the physical body of female viewers to the contemporary conditions that necessitate the feminist protest.

How this personally makes me think and feel, its as if the female figure staring at me is screaming these words to me through her eyes, making me feel sympathy for her. The use of bold writing is strong because of the simplicity of it and how clear it stands out, and how the images that Kruger uses fits the words she chooses too.

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Equality

These two Lino prints one representing an ordinary women looking directly at you, only being able to see part of her face and the second one is also of a women but she represents as a Muslim women also being able to see part of her face.

I chose to do people because my theme is Social Equality and being able to mostly see the persons eyes there aren’t much people can discriminate on, for example people can discriminate on Weight, Gender, Race and Religion.

By putting these onto pieces of fabric each I would like to sew into them and connecting each one to each other to explain and show that everyone is the same no matter their race, no matter their gender, now matter their age, no matter their weight and no matter their religion.

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Kathe Kollwitz

“Memorial for Karl Liebknecht” 1920 

In 1919, Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebknecht, co-founders of the Marxist anit-war Spartacus League, were summarily executed for their connection to the January 1919 Spartacus uprising. Kollwitz, who was aligned with the politics of Marxist circles, visited the Liebknecht home on the morning of the funeral; she offered her personal condolences and, at the request of the family, made drawings of the slain leader, She initially began her image of Liebknecht as a lithograph but later completed it as her first woodcut print.

Kollwitz’s homage to Liebknecht is as much a tribute to the man as it is a statement about the immortality of his ideas and actions. The subject of the woodcut Liebknecht’s memorial where the artist depicts him lying state with mourners coming to pay their respects. The composition is arranged as a  interplay between rigid horizontality and tilting arcs. At the bottom centre of the woodcut, Liebknecht’s body is rendered as a stiff, stone horizontal slab, which parallels the horizontal edge of the paper.

Though he is nominally the subject of the print, Liebknecht’s body occupies merely the lowest fifth of the image; the Woodcut’s energy and primary subject are in the mourners are workers of varying ages, with a woman and child prominently in the foreground. Kollwitz organised the crows along an arc, each figures head and torso slightly bowed towards Liebknechtin respect. Liebknecht’s horizontal form is eternally inert. In contrast, Liebknecht’s mourning followers are dynamically rendered, both through curved orientation of their bodies and through their faces’ individually , each person differently reacting to their leader’s death. The woman and child literalise the future generations who benefit from Liebknecht’s ideology, and the man in the foreground, his head bowed and his over emphasised hand prominently resting on Liebknecht’s chest illustrate the work and the physicality of engagement necessary to continue Liebknecht’s ideology fight.

What I personally think and feel when looking at this specific piece is that it tells a strong story not only with through the imagery shes chosen but the expression on each persons face and their position, also the use of contrast in the faces, exaggerating their expression and feelings to the Liebknecht’s death.

“Misery” 1897

Kollwitz's aesthetic response to Gerhart Hauptmann's play about the 1844 German weavers' rebellion resulted in the series The Weavers' Rebellion, an intimate reflection of the artist's valuation of and affection for the working classes. Biographer Martha Kearns notes that the series is unique for its depiction of working class people "initiat[ing], execut[ing], and suffer[ing] the fate of their own uprising" and for its presentation of women as active participants in a violent confrontation. Critically, departing from Hauptmann's play, Kollwitz began her series with Misery, a scene showing the death of a child from the deprivations of poverty, which situated her illustration of the weavers' rebellion as a direct reaction to a life cut short by low wages and inhumane living conditions.

Hopelessness and grief drive Misery’s narrative. The print's focal point is the deceased child's bedside, with his mother, beset with sorrow, kneeling beside him, her head in her hands with despair. The child is small, almost skeletal, and bathed in an angelic, bright white light which lightens the dark, wretched room and illuminates the mother's arms. With this choice, Kollwitz illustrates the child's status as an innocent victim, a casualty in the oppressive workers' conditions which prevented survival. The unnaturally grim darkness of the interior, where the bright sunlight stops at the window and only the glow from the child creates any brightness, reveals a large loom and the child's father holding a sibling. The father's eyes are downcast, but the sibling looks directly at the loom, signifying the cause of the family's misery.

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Lino Printing

Lino cutting is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of Lino is used for the relief surface. A design is cut into the Lino surface with a sharp knife, V-shaped chisel or gouge, with the raised (uncarved) areas representing a reversal (mirror image) of the parts to show printed.

Taking into consideration that the theme that I chose is Social Equality the design the I created is of a broken heart slowly being fixed with bandages, to represent that no matter who you are, whether you’re a different race, religion, gender, everybody has the same heart just some more damaged than others.

When printing these I chose to not print it onto blank paper because having the colours from spear screen prints come through the small lines give it a more bolder feel to it, making it not as plain and giving it some colour to it.

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Robert Rauschenberg

Rauschenberg’s hybrids embraced found materials and objects from everyday life. Images and ephemera from mass media and popular culture, like comic strips, signage and magazine clippings along with diagrammatic elements were juxtaposed against life disparate detritus that project out from the picture creating new relationships which challenged the viewers mind to find alternative connections.

While looking at these two specifically, it links to my work because I purely use black and white and these two Rauschenberg did also was purely black and white. 

What I personally think and feel when looking at Rauschenberg’s artwork is that its very abstract due to collages of pictures together, and the aggressive, quick brush strokes of black and white layered over the collage, making it so he uses expression in his work to give it that random, abstract feel to it.

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Robert Rauschenberg inspired artwork

This was a workshop inspired by the artist Robert Rauschenberg, having a monochromatic style that I portrayed, using collage and expressive mark-making in the A6, 10x pieces of work. 

I chose to use expressive mark-making because looking at Rauschenberg’s work he uses layered mark-making that seems to be quick and careless so I decided to use this method and work with what I ended up with. I strictly kept it black and white because I feel Rauschenberg’s strongest work is the black and white ones only, giving it a clean and bold look to his work. 

Rauschenberg uses collage in his artwork also but I chose not to use collage in mine because I preferred drawing my own pictures linking to the quotes and words I chose for that specific piece, this idea came from the the poet Rupi Kaur, she creates her own poems and occasionally draws a quick sketch of what that specific page represents, that’s what I wanted to portray in my work.

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Eugene Richards - Photographer

Eugene Richards is an American documentary photographer. Richards published photographs are mostly intended as a means of raising social awareness, have been characterised as “highly personal” and are both exhibited and published in a series of books. The first book was ‘Few Comforts or Surprises’ (1973), a depiction of rural poverty in Arkansas; but it was his second book, the self-published ‘Dorchester Days’ (1978), a “homecoming” to Dorchester, Massachusetts, where Richards had grown up, that won attention. it is “an angry, bitter book”, both political and personal.

- Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue - 

Cocaine true, cocaine blue is an in-depth and intimate look at the embattled lives of addicts, drug dealers, sex workers and police in three inner-city communities.

“Search for gun” North Philadelphia, PA. 1990 “Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue”.

I chose this specific title that Eugene Richard created because I feel that this specific topic is very sensitive and most viewers would refuse to confront or completely ignore on what else is happening not just in the 1970s - 1990s but this also happens to this day. Since he photographs sensitive situations he brings awareness on what its like to be a drug dealer, addict, sex worker, and police only in three inner-city communities, this can happen anywhere, not just those three communities. 

I believe if Eugene’s work was to be in colour, I don’t think it would have more of an affect because it being black and white makes the people who are being photographed have more of an expressive emotion, and making some quite haunting to look at.

“Mariella” East New York, NY. 1992 “Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue”.

What I personally think and feel while looking at his work is that he wants to bring awareness to those who ignore and refuse to see what is actually happening behind closed doors and some of his pictures to educate people, mainly teenagers since they are easily convinced and some may be followers of a much larger group. 

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Rupi Kaur - Poet

Rupi Kaur is a poet, illustrator, and author. Kaur rose to fame on Instagram and Tumblr through sharing her short visual poetry.

- Milk and Honey -

Kaur’s first book, an anthology titled ‘Milk and Honey’, was self published on Createspace on 4th November 2014. Her inspiration for the book’s name came from a past poem which included a line about women surviving terrible times. She describes the change in the women as, “smooth as milk and as thick as honey”. A collection of observations, prose, and hand-drawn illustrations, the book is divided into four chapters, and each chapter depicts a theme. Milk and Honey is a collection of prose and poetry that explores themes of silence, abuse, womanhood, family, connection and personal power. Kaur divided the work into four sections--hurting, loving, breaking, and the healing--that mirrors the poets growth. 

What I personally think and feel about Rupi Kaur’s poems is that I believe art work doesn’t have to be with illustrations or photographs but words for me is a form of artwork and expressing something you feel strongly about through poetical words or lyrics is just as effective as an illustration, painting, or photograph. So I believe that with your own personal illustrations have your own words integrated into those illustrations to give it more of a personal meaning to them and it makes it more unique to you and the viewer, also it would give more of an understanding what the viewer is looking at.

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Focusing on my audience

The kind of message I would like to portray with my artwork is ‘Equality’ or ‘Social Equality’ and bring awareness to those who still discriminate by someones identity, Race, and religion, or don’t have much of an understanding. These are the main three I will be looking into and researching for my theme.

My main audience I would like to show my artwork off to is the older generation but also the younger generation too, to make it aware to the older generation on whats happening within the world today and also to educate the younger generation (Teens), I would also like to do this for myself as discrimination is an ongoing issue to this day, and I’ve personally experienced discrimination because I am a female.

By researching the Asian region (Asia) I want to bring awareness on why people from certain countries in Asia come to seek refuge, or who live in exile. For example Iran, which is a very religious country, discriminate mainly on women and your sexual orientation, Also while living in a country such as Iran you are faced living with censorship, harassment, arrest, torture and execution, making a lot of women wanting to live in exile or seek refuge. People in Europe and America mainly discriminate Muslims who has seeked refuge in their country for being terrorists just by their religion, when in reality not every Muslim is a terrorist. By making this aware I would like to break that stereotype of Muslims.

By portraying race discrimination in my artwork, I want to make it aware to people that not every person of colour is a gang member or somebody whose gonna hurt somebody else, not everyone is the same, its who wants to fit in or gets shown sensitive subjects at a young age and that can ultimately be anyone minus their race.

These out of the three (religion and race) are the two I would mainly like to base my artwork on, throwing in elements of identity into my artwork.

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Continuous line drawing

Continuous line drawing inspired by the artist Martin Wilner.

This is a continuous line drawing using carbon paper and getting images from people in newspapers to create a collage of people together. creating a mass continuous line drawings (half A2 size paper). I used purely fine liners and a white posca pen to get the small black and white writing.

I chose to do it like this because instead of the stippling like Martin Wilner dose because I wanted to give it a sense of my style to it and keep the contrast strong between black and white. Having the background completely full with writing from news articles, newspaper or explaining what a certain word means, for example the left side of the drawings is about Covid-19 since its a topic that has completely taken over 2020 and was in one of the newspapers I was looking at and the other side of the drawing is about equality or social equality and discrimination linking to my main theme. 

Comparing my work to Martin Wilner I added his style where he connects every person in his work with lines almost as if it was like an umbilical cord, adding my own style to the work, instead of stippling to contour the faces I online used small lines close together in certain parts of the face to create depth and shadow. How Martin Wilner fills the background he only blocks it out where as I completely filled it with writing.

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Martin Wilner

Martin Wilner - ‘Making History’ 2009

While looking at this specific piece of work that Wilner did he has extremely high contrast between the black and the white and also by looking closely at the detail its seems like he uses fine liners to stipple in the intricate details within the faces.

Martin Wilner creates meticulously crafted, cartoon-like drawings and prints, many of which exist as part of larger series. Taking as his inspiration anything from a visit to Poland with his Holocaust-survivor parents to daily news headlines or random encounters on the subway, Wilner creates works that are at once highly accessible and deeply personal. Nearly always depicted in black and white, and often using small text and elaborate patterns to create texture, Wilner's works combine a formal aesthetic with the populist appeal of comic books. Many of Wilner’s long-term drawing projects also take inspiration from his background as a practicing psychiatrist, integrating various psychological symbols and dream interpretation into his visual compositions.

What his work makes me think and feel is that 

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Natural Forms

Natural forms design drawings 

[Image description] While drawings these “Natural Forms” designs, I drew them from images from a camera of my personal photos from 2015, by drawing these I purely used fine liners to do simple lines, intricate details and depth to some by using just lines that are close to one another.

As i wasn’t in the lesson to observe the demo, so I went by using my style which is using fine liners which I believe complement my style of drawing for observational drawings the most.

Considering that I wasn’t in on Friday to view the demonstration, I believe I did rather well on showing the details of the leaf through metal wiring. The wiring that I made to portray a leaf reminds me of a skeleton and the leafs skin to be the outer shell. The shadows that I’ve slightly shown through my pictures reminds me of a cage of some sorts or even barbed wire as if this was keeping something trapped.

How I personally felt while creating this was that for me I don’t feel like it complemented my style, but for doing this for the first time, I’ve experimented a new way of creating and developing my personal artwork into sculpting.

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Egon schiele inspired artwork - continuous line drawing.

[Image description] By creating artwork inspired by the artist Egon Schiele how we tried to make is look like his style and how we did that was we got old magazines of people (preferably a full body) and we used carbon paper to do a continueous line of the basic shapes of the figure from the magazine, and adding specific details also but not excessive details in the figures. For the first piece i used watercolour to get a soft feel inspired by a few of Egon Schiele’s self-portraits, also with the other two with the bright blue and orange was inspired by two different pieces of Egon Schiele’s work, which was know to be unusual in those times because he gives one of his characters bright blue hair and that was unheard of in those times and to have bright orange clothing also.

Comparing my work to Egon Shiele I find that his work is more bold and full of colour - unnatural colour in those times - also comparing the fact that Egon Shiele did illustration of people in the flesh, posing, whereas with my work I drew figures from magazines with carbon paper, giving my drawings a thicker bolder line, also with my work I mainly used one colour to completely fill certain areas - block colouring - to give it a more brighter look to it.