Drawing a Blank #5

graphite & watercolour/30x20cm

Being the latest in the sequence of watercolour drawings processed from the subject-object matter of folded, creased & lightly crumpled blank sheets of standard A4 paper, represented on exact 1:1 scale (laboriously plotted), the image, with its all-over surface of non-hierarchical incidental visual detail, thus coinciding with the physical limits of the picture plane.
Once again, there’s that play, the employment of the device, of the flat representation of what was originally a flat plane subsequently transformed into something of a low-relief three-dimensional object, the drawing being a record of the fugitive action of natural light upon the undulations of its surface, of the subtle tonal gradations of the marks made upon the once uninflected sheet by the folding & crumpling process.

Becoming more deeply involved in this particular body of work, as it seems to be in the process of becoming, however slowly-evolving (taking into account specific seasonal factors, pertaining to the limited availability of natural daylight in which to work) & thus far production-light, certain art-historical correspondences emerge in which context(s) the drawings might be situated, even if only coincidentally &, not unusually, superficially.
In the interests of a certain integrity, at least of overriding personal aesthetics, all such artists & their work have featured previously, either specifically ‘in relation’ or otherwise as being of interest.

Other than an aforementioned similarity, at least, particularly, at the outset of the project, to some of Vija Celmins' wonderful drawings, of enveloped letters, photographs & images torn from magazines, & the historical tradition of the realistic representation of fabrics folded & draped, the first such example with which to consider something of an affinity is that of Kees Goudzwaard, & the artist’s paintings based on the subject-object matter of various paper & masking tape constructions of a variety of dimensions, all of which are represented, in oil on canvas, on a 1:1 scale, & include numerous subtly modulated grey & ‘white’ examples of.
Many of Goudwaard’s images, which maintain a compelling tension between trompe l’oeil realism & abstract design, also feature something of a grid structure, to whatever fairly rigorous or looser degree, by virtue of the use of the linear element of the strips of tape, another compositional device which links them in some manner to the drawings of creased & crumpled paper, the original objects upon which such are based are initially folded into such a formal pattern, of course.

The horizontal & vertical structure provide by the purposeful creases, & other accidental incidental diagonals & ‘facets’ of the crumple-inflected surfaces, might be considered as being not-too distant from aspects of archetypal Cubist composition, of course, a feature which generally haunts proceeding here, whilst the use of paper as subject-object matter also bears a relation to collage.

Obviously there’s something about any work utilizing the grid & surface modulations of whites & greys that might recall, generally & a number of particular examples of, the work of the familiar figure of Jasper Johns & also Robert Ryman’s ‘white paintings’ (although both are more usually associated with the palpable physicality & sensuousness of their surfaces, even Ryman's smooth ones) but, it occurred, ‘riffingly’, that there also might be something of a distant echo of Vilhelm Hammershoi, whose contemplative compositions are characterized by an habitual, exquisitely-realised muted tonality & overall ‘greyness’, & frequently include the cell-like details of domestic interior architectural features such as windows, doors, etc.

As ever, there’s such a richness to & wealth of art history that the occurrence of contextualizing correspondences are inevitable & unavoidable, but such are always welcome & more often than not informative & instructive.


Soundtrack:


She & Him 'Volume Two'
Laura Marling 'I Speak Because I Can'
Moon Wiring Club 'A Spare Tabby at the Cat's Wedding'
Sparklehorse 'It's a Wonderful Life'
Jesca Hoop 'Hunting My Dress'

And so the new Moon Wiring Club release - the CD but one aspect of the 'Tabby bundle' that constitutes its whole - arrived, ahead of expectations, to be discovered sheltering, by something of a spooky coincidence although not, perhaps, particularly unusually for something of a feline nature, underneath the car...


More will surely follow upon the subject of the richness of the sonic & visual wonders to experienced within this cornucopia of delights, suffice for now to report that the first hearing of the CD during a misty, damp & darkening autumn afternoon provided much of the anticipated entertainment & more developments besides...

Still Life...

graphite & putty eraser/20x30cm
original source: 'The Times' 2 17/09/08

The attraction of the particular newspaper photograph from which this drawing was processed resided mostly in its recalling the paintings of Vilhelm Hammershoi (as mentioned previously), those of quiet, still rooms with certain architectural features such as mouldings & windows that admit light but afford no view beyond, carrying an indefinable yet mysterious charge: the box, the only object in the space, plays such a role in this otherwise empty scenario, adding a narrative element to a still life, pregnant with possibility, affording opportunity to the imaginatively inclined, but to remain forever unresolved (this isn't cinema or theatre, after all). One might also be reminded of Magritte's ordinary domestic rooms made fantastic by oversized objects or the like.


Vilhelm Hammershoi 'Sunbeams'
oil on canvas/1900

Think of boxes in an art context & an obvious example occurs, courtesy of Mr Warhol, icons of banality, regularity & multiplicity yet possessing a distinct resonance that elevates them from their original context:


Andy Warhol 'Brillo Box'

To those of a Minimalist mind, boxes occur frequently, not least these mirrored ones of Robert Morris, making any space visually fascinating, constantly shifting & unfamiliar:


Robert Morris mirror boxes

and another example as might be experienced at Tate Modern such as Donald Judd's exquisite copper cube, its interior painted a bright red, a most seductive object.


Donald Judd untitled
copper, enamel and aluminium/1972

Also another, earlier box of Judd's, in situ, illustrating the ubiquity of such simple forms, 'specific objects', within the Minimalist aesthetic.


Donald Judd @ Leo Castelli Gallery, New York 1966

On the subject, & referencing such a body of work as Chuck Close's apparently photorealist 'heads' & its conceptual underpinning, this very project, this year's work, has generally followed pretty strict Minimalist guidelines: working exclusively from daily newspaper photographic origins, on an A4 scale (admittedly this mostly for ease of scanning), in monochrome graphite (save for a few deviations into additional splashes of watercolour), & a general concentration on the subject of process rather than any image content other than that related to & referencing art & its history.

Soundtrack:


Teardrop Explodes 'Wilder'
Tori Amos 'Under the Pink' & 'Boys For Pele'
Portishead 2
Mogwai 'Come On Die Young'

'Everyday' Concerns...

Today the opposite of tomato is the aesthetic of Vilhelm Hammershoi

Recently invested in a too-good-a-bargain-to-miss Japanese tea set (£6 down from £20) that, once home, I came to realise & calculate was actually the seventh tea pot to take up residence (one for every day of the week - perhaps a subconscious dream come true!): although not a collector in the assiduous sense, such objects are very difficult to resist if they should accord to 'the aesthetic', as was the case with this particular example, of a colour & design not previously owned...


graphite & watercolour, on watercolour paper/30x20cm

As very possibly stated during previous posts referencing the work of Robert Ryman & Jasper Johns, I'm particularly partial to the aesthetic of 'the white painting', with this subject - & beautiful object - thus providing suitable material for exploration when set upon & before white horizontal & vertical planes: the & act & ongoing process of looking is all with such an endeavour, attempting the transcription of what one sees - being surprised & challenged by 'lost' edges, where the tones of figure & ground merge, & reflections upon & by the glazed surface of the teapot - rather than what (one thinks) one knows.

Coincidentally, another recent acquistion has been the catalogue of the exhibition of work by Vilhelm Hammershoi currently showing at the Royal Academy in London.


I was introduced, with great fascination, to the work of this artist - active over the cusp of the 19th & 20th centuries - almost 10 years ago, when a previous publication to extensively feature reproductions of his paintings came to my attention whilst working in the arts campus library of the institution (then Cheltenham & Gloucester College of HE) from which I'd recently graduated in Fine Art.
Instantly, I was captivated by Hammershoi's aesthetic: his quiet, still paintings of interiors either empty or otherwise peopled (without being at all 'inhabited') by a single female figure, often faceless, viewed from the rear, & the small, recurring selection of furniture & objects contained, mute, therein, the spaces admitting light from large, tall windows but - giving them an insular, somewhat hermetic quality - rarely offering a glimpse beyond, at least to the world outside their confines - utterly compelling.

I was then reminded, some years later, of the artist courtesy of a BBC TV programme made by Michael Palin, himself an admirer of Hammershoi, seeking to locate more of his paintings & also to uncover the mystery of the man which so atmospherically pervades his oeuvre. A related search for books on the artist revealed little in the way of obtainable items - said book being by now out of print, obviously very rare & thus prohibitively expensive - much to my disappointment, interest being awakened by reacquaintance with the work of such a singular aesthetic.

This programme then made a pleasantly surprising reappearance recently (in fact on the evening of the Euro 2008 football Final, the first half of which I thus had to forego), after which, struck once again by the essential-to-one's-own aesthetic of Hammershoi's work, the book search resumed - without, of course, any real hope of 'affordable' success.
However, delightfully, the repeat broadcast transpired to have been made, obviously although without the statement of such, in relation to the occurence of the then-upcoming exhibition at the RA, itself accompanied by a lavish catalogue: oh, joy unconfined & a hardback copy straight in the Amazon shopping basket thank you very much.

The catalogue indeed is a most handsome volume, a worthy & essential (but aren't they all?) addition to the library: a selection of intriguing, informative essays accompany the illustrations, which themselves are in the process of being pored-over avidly, for inspiration, clues & all-round fascination. Strange how Hammershoi's paintings, including a few fine portraits, landscapes & architectural subjects, have such a timeless quality: their stillness & quietude - often unsettling, always compelling - obviously contributes to this, as does their aesthetic of a predominantly grey palette, beautifully modulated in its tonal range, which, as it frequently lends the paintings' appearance a certain chalky, misty, dusty quality, recalls both Gwen John & Morandi & the similarly still, quiet, interior-domestic, hermetic worlds of their paintings.
Also adding to this sense of Hammershoi's work transcending time (if not space & certain confines of) are the influences discernible, adapted to the artist's own unique sensibility, which largely eschews contemporaneous developments in modern painting in favour of a harking back to a certain classicism of earlier Danish & Dutch art (especially the familiar genre interiors of the latter & artists such as Vermeer & de Hooch) in particular. Any modernity they might display - subtly - is perhaps the Kierkegaardian existential sense of enigmatic unease one comes to feel upon prolonged study of their suggested but unresolved 'narratives' of person, things & very specific place.

One such recurring object to be found within Hammershoi's painterly lexicon is a white & blue-patterned punchbowl, the direct reference for the above watercolour around which this post is composed, the challenge being to suggest the object's form through the necessarily subtle range of available tones as perceived.



Another painting features a white Royal Copenhagen coffee pot, with a blue pattern, its top half placed before a white ground, the subtleties of its form a challenge to communicate, a subject I've found, in the process of oil painting, in the past, to be a compelling, irresistible one.


Vilhelm Hammershoi detail of Interior, Strandgade 30, 1899
oil on canvas/61x54.3cm

In a further instance, Hammershoi places more white porcelain ware against, this time, a horizontal white plane, again subtly conjuring the solid forms & their glazed surfaces from the flat tablecloth.


Fine inspiration indeed.

Listening to:

Test Match Special Eng v SA, 3rd Test (3rd day)

(Test match cricket being, of course, a game played in white kit!)