Artist Influences

2017-2018

Studio Influences – Summer Term

Over this term I have looked at many different artist influences. I studied a wide variety of portrait artists that all aided me in my studio work. I also looked back upon the work of Marlene Dumas, Ron Mueck and Hockney. The artist below are new one that I have researched over the last few months. To see how my artist influences affect my art work please see Summer Assessment.

David Szauder:

What influences me:

• Szauder deliberately alters his photographs in order to create a glitch effect. He does this as his concerns are based on memory and the possible failure to reconstruct them
• The ambiguity of the images links into my running theme of anonymity
• He says “Our brains store away images to retrieve them later, like files stored away on a hard drive. But when we go back and try to re-access those memories, we may find them to be corrupted in some way”. This relates to me having a poor memory and wanting to link this into my artwork
• The subject matter is clearly portraiture

Alice Neel:

What influences me:

• These portraits depict  friends, family, lovers, poets, artists and strangers, much like my own art
• Expressionist use of line and colour, psychological acumen and emotional intensity
• Subject matter of portraiture
• Most of her portraits feature just one person, which is also a key focus in my work

Otto Dix:

What influences me:

• Eerie, creepy nature of the images that creates a feeling of the uncanny in his portraits
• Dix took inspiration from the old masters, which I have also done previously in my artwork. Dix took this to the next level, whilst using layering effects, using egg tempura and oils
• He painted what he called ‘Life Undiluted’, which was aiming to depict the social and political realities of the Weimar Republic. His portraits are realistic in the sense that they portray the human form. However the pieces are clearly distorted in quite an unflattering way, in some. With harsh depiction he aims to show a brutal reality

John Currin:

What influences me:

• Satirical figurative paintings that deal with provocative sexual and social themes
• Link to the renaissance, popular culture, magazines and contemporary fashion models
• Distorts or exaggerates the female body
• The characters are reflections of himself rather than inspired by real people
• The images are strange and make the viewer feel uneasy. This can be linked to the concept of the uncanny

George Condo:

What influences me:

• Abstract figurative subject matter – distortion is a key characteristic of his work
• He said that ‘The whole act of making art has nothing to do with the medium within which you work…You can paint, you can draw, write etc., but the act itself always remains the same’
• He talks about finding a face within an abstraction which creates this different form of language within his pieces
• Psychological cubism
• Although my work isn’t based on cubism, there is a certain abstraction and distortion involved in some of the works

Nicole Eisenman:

What influences me:

• Figurative oil paintings
• Experiments with the themes of sexuality, comedy and caricature. Although this particular themes might not be of concern to me, there is definitely themes of sexuality in my work as it does explore the human form
• Expressionist portraits that are based on her friends and herself
• Abstraction and distortion is evident in her art

Tai-Shan Schierenberg:

What influences me:

• Subject matter of distorted images
• Emotional charge in his work, depicted by different textures and densities
• He paints the image over time. This consists of seeing the subject matter in different times of the day, where there is different lighting or positions
• This time use relates to memory and how things pass, falter or change over time, much like people’s memory

Lorena Cosba:

What influences me:

• Dream like portraits of women
• Intense emotions and memories can be drawn former work as she looks at how things change over time, in terms of age, etc.
• Her work draws you in as they are extremely beautiful and capturing
• She works with digital images, which are then printed out and distorted or ripped. Although very different to Cosba’s work, I have also begun to work with photographs and distorting them

Sabatino Cersosimo:

What influences me:

• Psychological and relational complexity is seen in his images
• Man is the center of Cersosimo’s interests
• Expressionist oil paintings
• Time is a key part of his work due to the way he creates the artworks. He uses natural elements and oxidations over time in order to create his desired effect
• The pieces are extremely beautiful and the way he has left out some parts of the image create this gradient or fading effect that, for me, give the illusion of a memory

 

2017-2018

Studio Influences – Autumn Term

The influences I used in this term include all of the ones below and many cultural influences but also day to day experiences. To see how all of these affected my work please looks under Autumn Assessment.

Notting Hill Carnival:

What influences me:

• The character and vibrancy of the people
• Every person is lost in a crowd but if you pick out each and every one, they all tell a story

Pulp Fiction

What influences me:

• The character played by Uma Therman
• The intenseness of the character and the secrets you feel she holds. Extreme intrigue
• The other characters also all hold a key and significant part of the film and if i were to look further into the film I would definitely be intrigued by many of the others.

I Love Dick

What influences me:

• Again the character profiles are all very intriguing. Especially since in each episode it looks at someone different and how all their stories tie together
• Facial profiles. All the characters faces tell a story to the audience
• The artist involvement in the film and the many different types of art battling against each other in it

Yayoi Kusama

What influences me:

• The obsession portrayed in her art. Kusama is mentally unstable and this definitely is portrayed in her art. In this way her art becomes a map for her mind
• This theory interests me and the visual representation left over is extremely striking

Cj Hendry

What influences me:

• Cj used pen and pencil in order to create these lifelike images of all sizes. She tend to the pieces in series. This also links into obsession
• Her form of work is aesthetically beautiful but also has strong theoretical reasoning behind it. One being taking the expensive and destroying it

Ron Mueck

What influences me:

• The relationship his art has with his audience
• The imposing nature of his pieces and obviously the subject matter he has chose links in to portraiture to some extent
• The bold and brutal defiance of his work means they are not necessarily aesthetically pleasing, however still  very striking

 

2016-2017

Studio Influences – Summer Term

Over the Summer term my techniques varied based on previous influences but also on new artists. I came across these new ones from current affairs, a trip to Berlin and the Tate Modern. To see how they influenced my works please go to Summer Assessment.

Andrew H. Walker’s Celebrity Diptychs:

What influences me:

• Celebrities public and private personas are revealed to the public. We get an intimate insight into the person behind the persona.
• Bare background therefore focus on the portrait.
• The mark of tape separating the two parts of their character heightens separation and isolation.
• Sinister beauty to the photographs that really force the viewer to stop and think.
• Simplistic nature of the pieces.

Lorna Simpson:

What influences me:

• Separation of people. Emphasis on the isolation of the figures.
• Focuses on the discrimination that exists in mainstream society. Therefore, the conceptual idea is important to the pieces.
• Her work uses harsh black and white or minimal colour, in which there is very little detail.
• Lack of background therefore focus on the figures.
• Large scale of the works, use of text, memory and the names she gives her pieces.

Eran Shakine’s A Muslim, a Christian and a Jew:

What influences me:

• Colour scheme of harsh black against the ivory white creates a large impact for the viewer, where isolation is presented.
• Anonymity of the figures facially and visually. The pieces become more about the concept, rather than who the certain people are.
• Although the figures are labelled as a Muslim, a Christian and a Jew that isn’t what the pieces are about. It is clear that the piece is about the little catch line on each piece.
• “We all want to be happy” is what these pieces aim to show and this is the feeling of solace I aim to portray in my works too.

As well as these artists I also drew again, like in the last term, from the works of Ellen De Meijer, Caravaggio, Christian Schad and Rene Magritte amongst the others. However, these were the particular ones I concentrated on due to the representation of the figures, which had things in common with my drawings and the way I wanted to represent my people.

 

Summer Project influences

Kerry James Marshall:

For my summer project I chose the influence of Kerry James Marshall. I examined the depiction of his people and the colours he utilises. In reference to my piece I completed on him, I particularly examined the colours in his piece below:

Some more Images by Kerry James Marshall are below:

 

Studio Influences – Autumn Term

My influences have been collected over many years from a large spectrum of places. Some I had studied in the past, some I have viewed in gallery visits and others have been trips abroad. All of theses figurative artist spoke to me in some manner of form, whether this is to do with style or the conceptual reason behind each artist practice. To see how they influenced my works please go to Autumn Assessment.

Ellen De Meijer:

What influences me:

• Her series Digital Divide she paints ‘ceremony portraits’ of what she regards as the derailed and distorted human qualities that embody modern mankind
• Surrealistic portraits
• Ruthless portraits that seem to lack emotion and empathy in the figures and are especially facially burdened
• Contrast between child and adult
• Use of colours and stylistic qualities of the paintings

Chantal Joffe:

What influences me:

• combination of insight and integrity, as well as psychological and emotional force
• Almost always depicting women or girls, sometimes in groups but recently in iconic portraits
• distortions of scale and form can often make a subject seem more real.

Christian Schad:

What influences me:

• Developed a realistic, smooth style much like the clarity in Raphael’s paintings
• “An artistic perception so sharp that it seems to cut beneath the skin”
• Creepy, eerie atmosphere to the paintings

Rene Magritte:

What influences me:

Witty and thought-provoking images that are somewhat unpredicable

• Ordinary objects in unusual context are displayed
• Smooth stylistic qualities
• Conceptual nature of the pieces are really intriguing

Caravaggio:

What influences me:

• Chiaroscuro and main subject matter of portraiture
• Intellectual thinking behind each piece
• How his tumultuous life reflects in his pieces and yet there is such mastery and maticulous thought process clearly shown in it

Richard Hamilton:

What influences me:

• His use of collaging influences me as he concentrates on involving film stills and other components which I like to do occasionally in my work
• Musical and media references in the work

Edward Hopper:

What influences me:

• Depiction of space and painting style
• “The whole answer is there on the canvas”. This quote speaks to me as I look for the answers in my paintings
• Lack of idealisation and a sense of mourning or thought provocation in his pieces

David Hockney:

What influences me:

• Painted people who were close to him. This relates to me as I enjoy painting people from picture I have taken of them and then altering these with the paint.
• The spaces he uses to display the people in them interests me
• Colour palette and style of painting

Nan Goldin:

What influences me:

• Intimate portraits of people who are showing a part of their lives. This gives the viewer an insight into their character and therefore personalises the art
• Close up portraits where the figure if the main focus point of the images

Cindy Sherman:

What influences me:

• The different personas she takes on in her pieces
• The use of herself in her own artwork. This personalises her art but in a self deprecating, point making way that brings further meaning to certain pieces
• Intimate portraiture that parody stereotypes of women

Yutaka Takanashi:

What influences me:

• Photographs fashion, urban design, and city life
• Pictures people in a certain light that I find intriguing. He manages to convey their character but also a story surrounding them

Marlene Dumas:

What influences me:

• Close up, personality filled portraits of people
• She was a student of painting and psychology and this is shown by her clear depiction of the inner psyche of her chosen subject matter
• Her choice of colour is a prominent indicator of character in each of the paintings

 

Winter Art Project Influences:

Artist influences:

Pipilotti Rist:

I couldn’t agree with you more

Sip My Ocean

Andy Warhol:

Kiss

In each of these videos there is an element of a carousel effect where the same thing is happening over and over again with mundane objects. I was particularly inspired by Pipilotti Rist’s I couldn’t agree with you more as she circles around a supermarket in a manner that dismembers and confuses the surroundings for the viewer slightly. This is similar for Sip my Ocean and Warhol’s Kiss. These influences initiated my thought process of what I might complete.

Another thing that influenced me was that one Ecem’s page under a tab called ‘Week 6’ she talks about another artist she helped out with a filming project by Jasper Stinchcombe:

Ecem says ‘The film is just Jasper moving very slowly to indicate that the character he’s created finds it difficult to function in the modern world with people rushing and life going past really quickly.’ I liked the use of pace and setting in this short film. Moreover the soundtrack added to the simplicity of the piece by shining a slightly comical light on it.

Jeff Wall:

Ecem Sinay talks about how Jeff Wall re-creates paintings and captures beautiful moments. This influenced my final piece and I also wanted to recapture a moment in a different light.

All these influences for Ecem Sinay affected the influences I added to my final piece. From hers I took the hints at the mundane, consumerism, people moving at different paces in the world, using the video as a source of light (as shown in her own designs) and use of soundtrack.

2015-2016

Impossible Sculpture artist influences

For the wax:

I began but looking at the world of Petah Coyne. These pieces really inspired me to visualise how wax might be manipulated and displayed by the use of hanging. The intricacy of the wax captivated me by the material.

I also looked at Urs Fisher’s work. Her wax piece really made me think about the malleability of wax and how useful this would be in melting and reshaping my sculpture.She also uses translucent wire in some of her piece which was definitely valid for inspiration for the hanging of my piece.

For the glass:

I moved on to study the glass art of Robert Smithson. This inspired me about how to display the glass in my sculpture. I thought that the way he piled the glass together was extremely effective and impacted the viewer.

Film Project artist influences

Below are scenes that were used in our film from the horror film ‘The Shining’, directed by Stanley Kubrick. We wanted to create this similar eerie effect in ours. However, we used these scenes in black and white, with one clip very briefly turned red for a split second.

We also looked at classic old black and white hour films such as ‘Frankenstein’ (first image below) directed by James Whale and also ‘The Girl Who Knew Too Much’ (second image below) directed by Mario Bava.

Text based artwork artist influences

I based my painting on the pieces below. I looked at the visual muscles from the first three pieces and the conceptual ideas and painting technique from the last three images.

The Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da VinciThe Creation of Adam by MichelangeloDavid by MichelangeloThe Creation of The Birds by Remedios VaroHuman Condition by MagritteThe Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali