The Herbert Art Gallery: Caught in the Crossfire – Artwork Analysis #2

Analysis:

Another controversial piece, with multiple graphical elements and imagery, that is strong in conveying its message, and may also appear extreme to some viewers. The US flag appears destroyed and shredded to pieces but is surrounded by a dark area, in which the edges are burned. The idea of American patriotism (war on Iraq) is causing the nation itself to burn away alongside a war torn patriotic  nation. The symbolism within this piece is strong, and visually portrays Iraq being ‘burned off the map’. Thus, the transparent solider manning his machine gun, represents the general infantry of the British and American army. The bold sans-serif typeface is created with a white solid fill, contrasting with the transparent black backdrop which covers on third of the design. The transparent dark background coupled with a bold solid white fill typeface cause the message to be further visually engulfing the viewer. The typeface size and weight also reinforces the message of ‘STOP’, the war within Iraq. The multitude of graphical elements interlink with each other and under the context of war and causes this piece to hold a strong political value, but also a metaphoric message is conveyed. The state of the American flag may cause people to initially perceive the image as insulting and a direct attack on the American nation and people, however, what the artist is trying to convey to many viewers, is the affect in which war has on not only the opposing nation, but all nations that partake within the action. War destroys and damages both nations that are involved within it, hence the artist fortifies his anti-war message with the bold ‘STOP’. The visual hierarchy has been organised to draw the viewer’s attention to the burnt american flag and the dark void that surrounds the flag, followed by the map of Iraq itself. The final area of interest in which the artist wants viewers to see is the typeface area, with the soldier and his machine gunner. When this visual hierarchy is followed, the political message and anti-war sentiment will have been strongly communicated to the intended audience. Overall, this piece is effective, with the use of mixed mediums such as photomontage that is reinforced with bold typography, it is strong in conveying its political message and taps into the emotional senses of the viewer.

The Herbert Art Gallery: Caught in the Crossfire – Artwork Analysis #1

Analysis:

This is a very powerful photomontage piece, as it takes two nations’ flags and tears up the sole patriotic monument into shredded pieces. This piece is trying to signify the affect war has upon a nation, and that true patriotism is lost when a nation results to war. This iconic message is further emphasised by the attack helicopter, in which its blades are the cause for the destruction of both American and British flags (representing the patriotism of the nations or even the people). Within design composition elements,  the piece is strong, as all graphical elements and imagery are centralised within the piece. The use of minimal amounts of black paint, creates a distortion effect and also contributes to the destructive appearance of the flags appearing shredded up by the blade of the attack helicopter.  The use of a solid white background within the photomontage, although a minimal choice of colour tone, is effective with the main elements within the piece, also the slight use of paint is emphasised with the white background and applies a textured feel, almost creating a grunge style effect on the overall design. To conclude, it is a effective art piece, as it consists of a moral and political message, in which fits with the context of anti-war. Although extreme within its purpose, this controversial approach is what causes this piece to be affected and also makes the viewer question war time situations, providing a different perspective.

The Herbert Art Gallery: Caught in the Crossfire Exhibition – First Look

The Caught in The Crossfire Exihibition is a collaboration exhibition from the group Kennard-Phillips. Much of their works is heavily left-wing, and holds much anti-sentiment. Much of the work is controversial, and can be deemed unfit for certain audiences, however it portray a political viewpoint that is from a very extreme perspective. The main aim of the exhibition is to portray the sense of patriotism that borders on nationalism. Besides portraying the crude atrocities of war, the exhibition also portrays people ‘caught in the crossfire’, the impac of war on civilian populations native to certain war zones. The exhibition consisted of various art forms, ranging from Graphic Design, to Street Art and Fine Art. The multitude and variety of artistic practices that were resent allowed various perspectives to be visually apparent based on the context of war.

The design of this pamphlet is effective and is immediately suited to its desired context. The chosen typeface applies an almost ‘destructive’ feel, in which bits have been chipped or blown off. The use of a solid white fill for the typeface was also an effective choice due to the contrast with the dark blue background. Many of the names have also been decreased in opacity to create a varying sense of differentiation in typeface colour tone, as using continuous solid white fill throughout the entire list of names, would result in a very ineffective design that would appear repetitive. By simply altering the opacity on some words, a sense of pattern and variation is achieved and works in cohesion with the composition and colour scheme.

The Herbert Art Gallery: Peter Kennard

Peter Kennard

Peter Kennard was born in London, England on February 17th, 1949. He is also a London based photomontage artist and senior lecturer within Photography at the Royal College of Art. Many of his works are controversial and strongly left wing orientated. During the Vietnam war, to express his views in his involvement in the anti-Vietnam War movement, he abandoned painting and pursued photomontage to better express his political views. Kennard is well known for images he had created campaigning against Nuclear Disarmament within the 1970s to the 1980s. Many left-wing organisations he had worked with disappeared and hence resulted in him using exhibitions to portray his work. Kennard has worked within the public collections of several major London museums and The Arts Council of England. His work has earned a place in Tate Britian’s permanent collection shown for display. Initially, Kennard was trained as a painter within the Slade School of Fine Art, within London. However, he joined the Royal College of Art where he is a senior lecturer in Photography.

Much of Peter Kennard’s work is controversial, and applies a strong anti-war sentiment. His political views always strongly reflected on the selected images which he creates, as well as the photomontages he forms. His political views in cohesion with his anti-war sentiment, provide much of his work with a label as ‘leftist’ or ‘strongly left-wing’. However over the years, many of the leftist organisations and publication companies he had worked with began to shut down or disappear, thus narrowing his output options for his work. However, by using exhibitions, he is able to portray the atrocities of war, and also create controversy with certain political figures, which cause many exhibition visitors to question certain political motives. Through the use of the internet and also self publications, he is able to further spread his political views coupled with the various photomontages he produces to reinforce his anti-war sentiment.

The Herbert Art Gallery: Brief History

The Herbert Art Gallery is a museum, art gallery and learning centre for creative arts. It is located within Coventry, England. The museum was intially named after Sir Alfred Herbert who was an renown industrialist and philanthropist from Coventry. His gifts enabled the museum to be opened within 1960. The museum building began in 1939, but the Second World War erupted causing a halt in construction. The Herbert eventually opened in 1960. Within 2008, the museum reopened after a large £20 million refurbishment.

After the city’s destruction during the Coventry Blitz, caused the construction to be suspended on the museum and the basemont was only completed. Donald Gibson, who was a city architect, acquired a radical building place for Coventry’s city centre and this became a War Time propaganda for the post war reconstruction of Britain. Further plans were drawn together in 1952, when the foundation stone was laid by Alfred Herbert, who donated a further £100,000 towards the project. After Herbert’s death in May 1957, the museum and gallery which bore his named was opened  on the 9th of March, 1960 by his wife Lady Herbert.

IKON & BMAG: Simon Schama – Thomas Phillips’ Lord Byron

Analysis:

Thomas Phillips, focused on strong details of the human form. Colour composition and colour palette, appear to be isolated, focusing on darker tones to obtain a realistic perception of Lord Byron. The portrait which was created in 1814, focuses on Byron as he was a renown traveler, romantic and also a poet. The mediums used within this painting, appear to be oil paints set upon a canvas, providing the piece with a strong and detailed finish. Much of the surrounding background emphasises Lord Byron, due to a selected colour palette of slightly warmer colours, which contrasts with greyish dark background of the sky and the green, orange and yellowish tones of the landscape. The strong detail of the painting convey Byron as an iconic figure.

Simon Schama has intentionally selected this painting to gather a collection of art pieces that follow a similar context, the theme of travel. as Lord Byron was a renown figure of traveling, poetry and romanticism. The style of Phillips appear ultra realistic, but in combination with Byron being created in significant detail, the landscape and sky backgrounds also create a scene of romanticism within the piece itself, and establish Byron possibly travelling while he was painted, during the creation of this piece.

IKON & BMAG: Cornelia Parker – Andy Warhol’s Queen Elizabeth II

Analysis:

Andy Warhol’s commercial Pop Art style is vividly seen within this piece of Queen Elizabeth II. Primary block colours surround the image, further emphasising the image itself. Much of Warhol’s pieces use colours such as bright yellow, pink, indigo and the selected colour palette is repeated through much of his works. The actual image itself has been set at a greyish tone, which strongly contrasts with the solid blue fill background. This further causes the image to become vivid due to the colour composition storngly contrasting with the very few graphical elements within the piece. The most detailed graphical element is the image of the Queen herself, and it further is emphasised with the royal blue background and the two surrounding blocks of red and pink, which apply central focus and alignment to the Queen’s face.

Cornelia Parker, has used Warhol’s piece to align much of these political figures in resemblance to the colour tones within their self portraits. She has intelligently selected Warhol’s piece as the Queen, who is of Royal descent, has been portrayed in a very solid block primary coloured piece, in which the background consists of a royal blue backdrop. Much Parker’s pieces include the playful association of the colour to a political party, or a significant political figure.

IKON & BMAG: John Flaxman – Clay Modeling

John Flaxman’s Clay Modeling

Much of Flaxman’s clay models represent his line drawings. They gather strong inspiration and resemblance to the classical literature to which he gathers his inspiration from. Unlike his line drawings, the clay models provide a three dimensional medium in which cause his style of drawings to become lifelike, with a material that contains a significant amount of tonal colour and texture. The surface texture is very rough, and the shading qualities that are vivid in his line drawings are brought to life with the uneven clay surface texture. The affect of light also causes the darker details to become more vivid hence emphasising the minimal details of the human form. Much of his clay work resembles his line drawing works, and appears to have a biblical context in which many clay models seem to visually hold a story or message. When compared to much of his line drawing pieces, many of the clay models have a strong relationship in context and many are also the exact same as some of his line drawing pieces.

As a personal favourite, this clay model of a weeping women appears to also come from a classical literary context. The style of art for human form interlinks itself with the dated appearance of biblical artwork for human form. This clay piece holds a strong value of texture gathered of time of decay. However this decay does not effect the quality of the piece but further emphasises the details of the piece as well as the context of classic literary art. The details of the woman’s dress are also very effective, as small wrinkles of her robe have been sculpted to precision. The three dimensional appearance of this clay piece however, unlike its line drawing piece sister, is brought to vivid attention more effectively, as multiple perspectives can be established depending on where the viewer stands. This can also effect lighting and how the piece is generally perceived in its detail as well as its structural texture.

IKON & BMAG: John Flaxman – Continuous Line Drawings

John Flaxman

Who Was He?

John Flaxman was born in York on July 6th, 1755. He was a British sculptor and draughtsman. A leading figure in British and European Neoclassicism, his early career began as a clay modeler for Josiah Wedgwood’s pottery. Flaxman spent many years within Rome, where he began to develop and produce his initial book illustrations and also becoming a adept maker of funerary monuments. His mother had passed when he was nine years old, causing his father to re-marry. Very little schooling and education was provided at his expense, striving him to be self educated. Drawing and modeling became a hobby for Flaxman, while he took time studying classical literature inputting effort to understand the literary style.

Continuous Line Drawing Pieces:

Each of these pieces consists of strong detail, although minimal mediums were used. Each piece was also created through the use of continuous line drawings as Flaxman was able to perceive where each detail belonged and the tip of his medium never left the page. His inspiration from classical literature can be seen, as it morphed into a visual medium. Each piece appears to have a deep story or meaning within itself, and there appears to be a strong visual link with biblical art. Some subtle mixed mediums can be visually seen within the background areas of certain pieces. This medium appears to be a watercolour paint, which creates a multitude of shifting shades from various grey tones, white and black. Including such tones within the background of these highly detailed drawings creates a sense of atmosphere within the image, a possible ‘scene’ which if a simple white background was used, possibly will not have a similar impact on causing the drawing to stand out.

Among the various line drawing pieces, this detailed drawing attracted personal attention, mainly due to its high detail and use of minimal mixed mediums. The use of continuous lines to create certain ares of the human bodies, such as shaded areas must have proven to be difficult, but also contributes to the minimal style of the drawing. Very little shading was used within each figure, but background tones can be seen in a multitude of gray tones, which further cause the drawing to appear far more detailed, impacting the emphasis on the human figures that were drawn.

IKON & BMAG: Easter Egg Designs

Before progressing towards the actual museum exhibitions, a vast array of Easter Egg designs were encountered. These eggs had a variation of artistic mediums and approaches upon their surfaces, and a specific artist or graphic designer with their style of approach to an egg design had created each egg. Thus, providing a unique touch with a mixture of Fine Art perspectives and Graphic Design perspectives on the surfaces of each egg.

The vast selection of Easter egg designs, portrayed multiple possibilities of approaching to design my own egg style. Various art forms existed upon each egg, and various Fine Art principles based on major art movements can also been upon the design surfaces of each egg. One egg design which evidently seen, has several black paint splatters upon its surface, which strongly reflects Jackson Pollack’s Abstract Expressionism, by dripping paint upon the surface of the egg, but also consisted of another Fine Art technique known as scraffito, in which a palette knife is used to scratch patterns within a fresh batch of wet paint.

The egg design which attracted my own personal attention, was the egg design which reflected strongly upon Abstract Expressionism techniques:

Initially, the egg appears as if there is a random pattern of paint across the surface of the egg, where brush strokes were strongly used in certain areas and lightly used in other areas. Non consistent purpose or pattern is visible, yet the detail and texture upon the egg surface appears vivid. There is also no direct image of a object or scenery like on the surfaces of many of the other eggs, yet the lines created by possible scraffito techniques apply textured feel to the painting. A strong abstract technique can be see with only the choice of one single colour, black to strongly contrast with a solid white underlying background. This emphasises the scribbled palette knife markings and drip markings of painting furthermore, allowing even slight texture details to be vividly seen.