Great Art in Ugly Rooms

I recently discovered this inexplicable, yet thoroughly entertaining tumblr site called 'Great Art in Ugly Rooms' - http://greatartinuglyrooms.tumblr.com. You can suggest an artist and a location and voila, the mocked-up picture (of the picture) will appear. I think this concept is absolutely fascinating, challenging the way we think about viewing environments, and considering whether the 'surroundings' that frame (haha, what a pun) a painting impact negatively or positively on our reception of it. Would the Mona Lisa be so revered and acclaimed if it hung in a Bristol squat? Would a 'Picasso' lose any of its charm when displayed in a port-a-loo. Here's a few examples of amazing art and installations transposed into 'ugly' environments. Are they the better for this transplantation? You decide.

Ps. Note the amazing photoshop skills!

Jeff Koons in a kitchen.

Henri Matisse in a men's toilet. 

Lucian Freud in an empty room.

George Bellows in a living room.

Normal Rockwell in a conference room.

Richard Prince in a hospital cubicle. 

Alberto Giacometti in a cabin.

(My all-time favourite photographer) Nan Goldin in a lovely green room. 

Edouard Manet by a jacuzzi. 

Mark Rothko in a pretty pink bedroom. 

Grant Wood in a mirrored room.

Our very own Banksy in a purple bedroom.

Vincent Van Gogh in a playbarn.

Lastly, my personal favourite, Damien Hirst's formaldehyde sheep in a child's nursery.

Also, check out the twin site, 'Great Video in Ugly Rooms' - http://greatvideoinuglyrooms.tumblr.com

JEM. 

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Ben Weiner: Paintings of paint.

I just discovered this New York based artist, Ben Weiner, who (paradoxically, and confusingly) paints paintings of paint. They are beautiful, intricate, colourful and complex, and actually look like oozing, wet paint! Take a look.

JEM.

Journals

Want to stay creative over the summer but not sure where to start?
After reading this article: rookiemag.com/2012/08/emmas-with-a-few-edits I've been inspired to start my own journal, and with the large amount of free time that comes with finishing exams I'm looking forward to being able to draw just for the fun of it again.

Some ideas to get you started:

• Scour charity shops for old books, postcards, magazine and maps. The books can be turned into interesting sketchbooks (paint over the print with white paint, leave to dry then draw as if it were a blank page), whilst magazine and maps can be used for collages.
• Try new materials and techniques - ink, calligraphy pens, mono printing, lino cuts etc...
• Draw: the view outside your window, a plant at different stages of its growth, something inspired by a book you've read...
• Write down: your dreams, favourite poems, overheard conversations...
• Use different papers and textures e.g: brown paper, tracing paper.
• Look at other people's sketchbooks on Pinterest.

Words of the week #10

This week's 'words of the week' takes the form of performance poetry. Some of you may have seen Harry Baker performing his poetry at last year's Bestival. His poetry is often funny - see, for example, his take on Ed Sheeran's 'The A Team' - and always lyrically sharp. Here's one of our favourites, 'Paper People':

The Night Sky: Thierry Cohen

Thierry Cohen's Darkened Cities photography project explores the problem of light pollution by photographing cityscapes before a beautiful background of starry night sky. The photographs offer a surreal and haunting look at what pollution and constant artificial lighting has done to our perception of the night sky, by juxtaposing man-made Earth with the vast space beyond us, which can only be photographed in places free from light pollution. These are the skies we don't see. 

See the rest of the photographs here http://thierrycohen.com/pages/work/starlights.html

Words of the week #9

This year sees the 50th anniversary of Sylvia Plath's 'The Bell Jar'. In celebration of this, we're sharing with you one of our favourite Plath poems, 'Morning Song'. 

Morning Song 

Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
Took its place among the elements.

Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival.  New statue.
In a drafty museum, your nakedness
Shadows our safety.  We stand round blankly as walls.

I'm no more your mother 
Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow
Effacement at the wind's hand.

All night your moth-breath
Flickers among the flat pink roses.  I wake to listen:
A far sea moves in my ear.

One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat's.  The window square

Whitens and swallows its dull stars.  And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.

25 drugs, 25 portraits.

When browsing the internet the other day, I came across a series of pictures completed by an artist under the influence of LSD:

Further investigation has told me (and I can't vouch for how accurate it is) that the drawings were the product of a test conducted in the late 1950's by the US government into the effects of LSD on the mind. The artist's subject was the medical assistant who had injected him with the drug. I found the drawings profoundly interesting, as they allow you to chart the changes of the mind and the drug's affect on the (unnamed) artist's creative capacity. After 20 mins the drawing is still relatively sedate and pedestrian, meanwhile at 2 hrs 45 mins the drawing seems almost cubist and surrealist 

Thinking about this experiment, I wondered if any other artist had (willingly) done a similar test. After doing some research, I discovered Bryan Lewis Saunders, an artist from Washington DC. Saunders is a prolific self-portrait artist: having completed one a day for the past 21 years (totalling over 8000 drawings!). He is also a frequent (and indiscriminate) drug user. Saunders is famous for having created 25 individual self-portraits after taking 25 different drugs. It is extremely interesting - and, more often than not, disturbing - to see the effects these mind-altering drugs have on his creative process. He regularly incorporates the name of the drug he has taken into the portrait, and the images largely reflect the nature/effect of the drug; for example the 'mushrooms' portrait features psychedelic colours, whilst the 'cocaine' portrait is erratic, with harsh pencil lines.

The portraits largely speak for themselves. I'll just include a few of them, but the full scale is overwhelming. Find it here: http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/man-draws-25-self-portraits-on-25-different-drugs.452682813/

[For comparison, here's a photo of Saunders looking 'normal'(ish)]

Absinthe

Cocaine

Bath Salts

Cough Syrup

Ambien

Crystal Meth

G13 (potent marijuana)

Loritab

Hash

Mushrooms 

PCP

Xanax

Valium

Sometimes, the drug heightens the artist's sensory perceptions, at other times, it dulls them. Clearly, this is a fascinating and perplexing oeuvre, which undoubtedly highlights the twenty-first century artists' ambition to persistently probe and challenge the boundaries of the 'conventional' art. Saunders finds and invents new, daring, extreme ways to depart from his own mind, in order to express himself in a fresh, original way.

NB: If this post interests you, take a look at my other post on Wain, who's schizophrenia altered his paintings. Are there similarities between Wain's and Saunders's work? http://heliconbristol.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/louis-wain-effects-of-schizophrenia-on.html

JEM.