I figured it was time for a general art thread.


This past weekend I went to another John Waters Exhibit. It was very small, but more varied than the last one I went to. I just love John Waters in every way. No matter what he does, it's pure genius. I can't really describe it and the picture on the site do it no justice.

All my favorites are here though. The "Loser Gift Basket" is great and "Playdate" was horribly disturbing. Yes, that's Michael Jackson. The other one was more disturbing, it was Manson. Creepy.

As it's a general art thread I'd like to put a good word in for Andy Goldsworthy. The man is brilliant, I love what he does. I would say he is in fact my favourite artist.

kenneth patchen is god. and denis bradette rocks also.

Ashley Wood, Kozy and Dan, Simon Evans are all really really Good

I like!

I thought for sure we had one of these already, buried somewhere... Either way, good to bring the topic up.

There was a 'masterpieces' thread, but not a general art one to the best of my recollection.

Yesterday I went to see a William Wegman retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum. It was really good, of course. He's one of my favorite artists.

I have lost touch with what he's done lately but he's done some really great paintings that I totally love. He takes lots of different postcards & then makes a painting around them. They are totally fab. I can't find good images of them right now.

I also really enjoyed see his early pencil & pen and ink drawings. Very clever.

Jay Ryan is my favorite poster artist. Have a look at www.thebirdmachine.com for a sampling.

David Shrigley - he's good.

Saturday's Guardian panel proved to be the joke of the weekend...
You have failed to entertain the child. You must be a paedophile.

I preferred the letter printed 4 pages later.

"Can someone please explain what David Shrigley is all about?"

Ah, I didn't see that. Had some poor fool lost the ability to appreciate humour?

Nurgh

I didn't write the letter.

Nurgh.

You are kidding, Zoe...right? You've edited the hate from your post and now I don't know what to believe.

Twisting my words, I know of you and your notorious mind games.



I don't hate David Shrigley... but I do hate Banksy.

Ah, his fault. It's hard to tell since your edits don't show up.

See, I knew you weren't to be trusted. Wrong.

HR Giger.

Alison Jackson

Ron Mueck

Click on the In Pictures link.

^ They're quite creepy.

Olafur Eliasson and Banksy.

Heh, I saw one of his sculptures a few years back. Creepy and fascinating.

The pictures of them are weird enough. It must be something to see them in person.

*bump*

I bought a piece of pop art from an artist friend of mine:



(It's the phone painting- the little cartoon head is just a sketch I did at work.)

Mark Lombardi

Interesting "art" is actually diagrams of money flow in the world today. Very interesting.

Brighton Photo Biennial.

Olaf Breuning

This website keep a smile on my face for the afternoon.

Unmissible: 20 Works of Art to See Before You Die

Artist Isabel Samaras

"The Triumph of Eros: Art and Seduction in 18th Century France."

Audience participation can give an old work a whole new lease of life.

That's much better than pissing in Duchamp's urinal!

This picture should do your head in. It's not a GIF. Print it and see. It will still be moving.

Crazy ass moving art

Headache now . . .

JFK Assassination Painting

I hate the 'Is it art?' argument, but this is gross.

Vile. Plain and simple.

Did anyone see the in the news about the artist Mark McGowan who ate a swan as a protest against archaic rights belonging to the queen or upper classness or something? It's apparently illegal to eat a Mute swan as they are protected by the queen. However, it's also illegal under the 1981 wildlife protection act to eat any swan. So well done mate.

We saw William Hogarth at Tate Britain last night.

Having studied Hogarth for a short time during my degree, I was very interested in seeing his etchings and paintings up close, and wasn't disappointed.

What stood out most was his progressive thinking. Hogarth was like Chris Morris, Catherine Tate and Rory Bremner rolled into one person; satirising his culture, making appealing caricatures of societies' stereotypes, and lambasting political figures during his prolific career.

But he was not afraid to cover darker topics. His series Before & After showed two pairs of two images before and after intercourse has taken place between a young man and woman; the first showing a frivolous seduction and consequent post-coital glow, the second a predatory advance and what appears to be the after effects of rape.

Hogarth was also one of the first practitioners to understand the importance of artists' rights - his etchings were illegally copied and sold on markets - and he introduced the idea of laws controlling copyright.

And he was also not ashamed in distributing and copying his work for public consumption, in a time when bespoke commissions of Historical paintings were considered the highest artform. This adds to his appeal as a very modern artist, and a very accessible one for today's audiences, raised on Little Britain and the tabloid press.

It's an absolutely wonderful exhibition, brilliantly curated and utterly fascinating.

Like Adam it tied with things I had particularly enjoyed at university; the artist and I share a great admiration for restoration comedy and contemporary satire (like 'Gulliver's Travels'). The late 17th and 18th centuries are my favourite period of artistic endevours and the biting satire of the best of their creative output remains timeless.

The only problem I had was that I had a little under an hour to look round, which wasn't nearly enough time to fully appreciate such a wonderfully witty and beautiful collection.

That could almost be taken literally.

Reminds me of when I went to see an Aubrey Beardsley exhibition at the V&A back in 1998. I was doing a construction course at college at the time but snuck a day off to go to the exhibition as I did a little bit about Beardsley at school. The next day I was on the bus to college when one of my course mates came on. He asked where I'd been the day before and I told him all about it, but he seemed a bit perplexed by it. Eventually he piped, 'So...what, was you there watching him doing drawings?'

I felt like Stephen Fry in the film Wilde, talking to the miners, when I said, 'No he's dead.'


Wife Of Rolex

And don't forget to mention it had a pug in a wig, a monkey in a dress and a man vomming in his bedpan.

Pug in a wig, pug in a wiiiig.

Another Hogarth lover here and am v.jelus that i am unable to see the exhibition.

I especially like the street scenes - they way the various folk mingle in the street. As with some of the more jolly and blustery novels of that era, you can almost smell the pies and the horse poo. I live anything from the mid-18th century really. Even the poo.

I also like his character portraits of family and servants. They are just full of genuine affection. "The Shrimp Girl" (not a girl made of shrimp) is one of my favourites - a portrait of a girl who sold shrimps and has a lovely bright expression. And the one of Captain Coram of the Foundling Hospital captures his dignity and kindness admirably.

Sefi x

Imagine the smell.

Cool. I most enjoyed seeing his etchings, and especially an original copper plate!

In general, I prefer the drawings and etchings of artists to oils because more of the artists' natural draughtsmanship can be seen in them, but Hogarth's paitings did have a little more to them; either with their unlikely subjects, or the humour and satire in them.

Fishy.



Now that is cool.



Agreed. Although he does suffer from the 'soft focus' painting style of the era, it is minimal and only in some pictures. Looking at draftman versions along with oils of the same subject shows how very skilled his was. My favourite etching is the one of high court judges - i forget the name. It still is pretty funny and also, relevant. I imagine many look similar today.

I remember Ian Hislop did a great documentary about Hogarth and role as a pioneer satirist - he felt a great kinship with the artist and it was discussed well in his programme. He also mentions his only memorial is a roundabout .

Sefi x

This has the makings of such a lovely dinner party.