EE FREE FREE
04 | HOT & COOL ART
H.J. WARD Superman 1940 Lehman College, NYC. Pulpit in Empty Chapel Oil on canvas Bed under Window Oil on canvas
‘How potent are these as ‘This new work is terrific in images of enclosed the emptiness of psychic secrecies!’ space in today's society, and MEL GOODING of the fragility of the sacred. Special works.’ DONALD KUSPIT stephen newton
Represented in Northern England Represented in Southern England Abbey Walk Gallery Baker-Mamonova Galleries 8 Abbey Walk 45-53 Norman Road Grimsby St. Leonards-on-Sea www.newton-art.com Lincolnshire DN311NB East Sussex TN38 2QE >> IN THIS ISSUE COVER .%'/&)00+%00)6= IMAGE ,%713:)(
H.J. Ward Superman 1940 Lehman College, NYC.
;IPSSOJSV[EVHXSWIIMRK]SYEXSYVRI[ 3 The first ever painting of Superman is the work of Hugh TVIQMWIW1EWSRW=EVH0SRHSR7; Joseph Ward (1909-1945) who died tragically young at 35 from cancer. He spent a lot of his time creating the sensational covers for pulp crime magazines, usually young 'YVVIRXP]WLS[MRK0IW*ERXSQIW[MXL women suggestively half-dressed, as well as early comic CONJURING THE ELEMENTS STREET STYLE REDUX [SVOF]%FSYHME%JIH^M,YKLIW0ISRGI book heroes like The Lone Ranger and Green Hornet. His main Public Art Triumphs Pin-point Paul Jones employer was Trojan Publications, but around 1940, Ward 08| 10 | 6ETLEIP%KFSHNIPSY&ERHSQE4EE.SI was commissioned to paint the first ever full length portrait of Superman to coincide with a radio show. He was paid ,EQEHSY1EMKE $100. The painting hung in the chief’s office at DC comics until mysteriously disappearing in 1957 (see editorial).
HOT & COOL ART .%'/&)00+%00)6= 8)0)4,32) 1%7327=%6( EDITOR BUREAU CHIEFS 032(327;=&9 Michaela Freeman Lyle Owerko ;;;.%'/&)00+%00)6='31 [email protected] NEW YORK Anne Chabrol PUBLISHER Karl Skogland PARIS STATE LINE 0ISRGI6ETLEIP%KFSHNIPSY:SHSY (IXEMP [email protected] David Tidball The Wonder of DC Comics BERLIN | '4VMRXJVSQ2IKEXMZI 14 EDITORIAL DIRECTOR William Wright Mike von Joel SYDNEY [email protected] Elizabeth Crompton MELBOURNE DESIGN DIRECTOR Tor Soreide DISTRIBUTION POPPY SEBIRE [email protected] & SUBSCRIPTIONS Julie Milne AD EXECUTIVES Julie Milne [email protected] James Manning PUBLISHED BY CORRESPONDENTS State Media Ltd. Clare Henry LONDON Jeremy Hunt [email protected] Ian McKay HE OY OF EING PRINTED BY T J B FOURTH ESTATE William Varley Garnett Dickinson Free public art goes global Books for the Enquiring Mind Clifford Thurlow Rotherham S63 5DL 13 | 20 |
STATE MAGAZINE is available through selected galleries, libraries, art schools, museums and other art venues across the UK. This issue of STATE has an accent on popular graphics, graffiti and art from (and on) the streets. Totally free, STATE is about new manoeuvres in painting and the THE IMAGE of DC Comics’ Superman is one of the simply took the painting home in 1957 and later it was visual arts – combined with f22, great Pop Art icons of all time, now recognisable across donated to Lehman College by his heirs. The brilliant a supplement on developments in the world. The first ever Superman painting hung in the graphic heritage of DC Comics has now been celebrated the fusion of art & photography. executive office of National Periodicals (later DC with typical brio by Taschen, in a magnificent, Comics) in New York. There is an archive photograph comprehensive, 720-page monograph. dated 1941, showing Harry Donenfeld and his team It is not a review magazine – EDITORIAL sitting in front of Hugh Ward’s picture. However, when The influence of comics on Street Art and Graffiti artists it is about PEOPLE worth serious Donenfeld retired in 1957, the painting mysteriously is pretty well documented. Street Art in the UK has consideration; PLACES that Michaela Freeman disappeared. It was finally tracked down by a writer and matured and former art guerrillas now collaborate with are hot and happening; and comic aficionado, David Saunders, to a wall in the the gallery system. In London, Paul Jones and the Elms PROJECTS developing in the Leonard Lief Library of Lehman College, situated in the Lesters Painting Rooms were in the vanguard of the international art world. Bronx. Staff and students obviously knew who it was, but move to present Graffiti and Street Art as work of merit had no idea of the historical importance and provenance and worthy of serious consideration. Meanwhile, out To apply to stock STATE Magazine, please mail of the almost life-size canvas. Saunders detective work on in Northampton, a public art project captured the Julie Milne: [email protected] the ‘lost’ painting revealed that Donenfeld, someone who imagination of the whole county. It’s all here in issue !" # $$%$$%$$&'()$* ++& ,*,& # ‘hobnobbed with the likes of Meyer Lansky, Frank four of STATE magazine – enjoy! Costello and Frank Sinatra’ according to his daughter, www.state-media.com
www.state-media.com STATE 04 | 5 ...... AN ART ‘Painting is easy when you don't know LINKS ‘Art is the only way to run away NEWS how, but very difficult when you do.’ EDITIONS without leaving home.’ RESTATE MONITOR { EDGAR DEGAS } TECHNOLOGY { TWYLA THARP } ...... QUOTEUNQUOTE
'Modern art [he wrote] should be Popular (designed for a mass audience), Transient (short-term solution), Expendable (easily forgotten), Low-cost, Mass-produced, Young (aimed at youth), Witty, 1 The White Cube's new space. Photo: Ben Westoby Sexy, Gimmicky, Glamorous, Heading South Big Business.' 3 WHITE CUBE’S opening of its third London venue, on Bermondsey Street, confirms RICHARD HAMILTON: the rise of the South London art scene. This 1970’s, 5440m2 ex-warehouse, allows more Most used obituary quote ambitious projects in its reincarnation as a gallery designed by Casper Mueller Kneer Architects. It also houses an auditorium, a bookshop and warehouse. www.whitecube.com
1 Matisse reimagined © Maxence Parache Tooth Fairy
...... 3 ARTIST GINA CZARNECKI and stem 1 21st Century Matisse The Hepworth Wakefield. Photo © Iwan Baan cell biologist Professor Sara Rankin’s Maxence Parache’s version of Henri Matisse’s painting of five dancers, Dance II, was ......
...... collaborative project, The Palaces, wants one of nine works by classic artists recreated during the London Design Week at to raise awareness of the usually discarded Best Architectural Achievement Intel Remastered event in September. milk teeth as an underestimated source of The Best Architectural Achievement award at The British Design Awards 2011 went to the 3 IT USED WEB CAMS, mirrors, image- stem cells. They are asking children to newly opened art venue, The Hepworth Wakefield. mapping software and projections, allowing send in their milk teeth in exchange for visitors entering the space to multiply their an IOU token to put under their pillow 3 THE CONSTRUCTION of this largest Art Collection, contemporary artists’ movements and star in a unique version of the instead. The teeth will be used to gradually gallery in Yorkshire began in 2003 and exhibitions as well as rarely seen works by famous fauvist work. cover a 2m-tall resin sculpture shaped like was completed this year, at a cost of Barbara Hepworth. a coral castle as it tours around the UK, Alternative Funding £35 million. It brings together Wakefield’s www.hepworthwakefield.org www.maxenceparache.com launching at the Bluecoat Gallery in INDIEGOGO is a free (commission only) www.tentlondon.co.uk December. online tool to match funders and ideas...... palaces.org.uk The calls are organised into various media and causes (such as Community, 'I was told that in the 1970’s Education, Environment) to make it easy when a letter arrived with a for potential sponsors to find an ideal HOT&COLD pledge to fund. Currently in the arts foreign stamp, it would be section: a book about performer Ron chucked in the bin unopened. 3 Athey; a gallery store by artist/curator The mentality was 3 REDISCOVERED MARKET 3 Kristen Lovelock; and Chelsea College of British-centric.' JOHN BERGER PICASSO Art & Design MA students – all are looking PILAR ORDOVAS Comment With Clout for funding. www.indiegogo.com PORTRAITS Recollects the good old days to Overpriced & unsold at Christie’s Bel Trew in the Evening Standard. 3 CULTURE NYC, 1st November. POP-UP EVERYTHING 3 EGO The New Business Opportunity MARIO TESTINO Asked to nominate a favourite Tributes Pulse DVD 3 GALLERY Taschen title chose his own Released Flip Ultra HD Kate Moss picture book ...... 3 DANISH PERCUSSIONIST Simon 3 AN INCREDIBLY easy-to-use video TURNER Medici’s Lever Game 3 CULTURE Christensen’s collaboration with American camera. Just point & shoot (2 hours DEVELOPED by John Kreidler, Medici’s Lever, MARGATE ...... independent filmmaker Bill Morrison memory), plug into a laptop with the ...... Defying Its Critics a simulated culture environment, mimics POP-UP on Tributes-Pulse celebrates works by integral USB connector (no cables needed), 1 3 Kings, 2011 ©Remi/Rough the relationship between society, economics EVERYTHING four composers – Charles Ives, Conlon edit the footage with included software, 3 NEW CRITICS and culture. Enter the amount of money you 'Not only the most brilliant Unlicensed Rip-offs Nancarrow, Steve Reich and Trent Reznor. and upload to YouTube in no time. museum director of our time, Remi/Rough on iPad want to spend on a project (in millions), It focuses on the unifying trace of their MUSEUM but a man, you feel, who could South London graffiti artist Remi/Rough’s iPad app makes 41 of his paintings and outside 3 CYCLOPS select various characteristics depending music, ‘the rhythmic recurrence of Despite Flip being bought out recently CLEANERS on how you want to spend it, run the vibration’. For the accompanying footage, and production stopped, the cameras are save the Nation.' works from the last three years instantly accessible and zoomable. Decided £690,000 Kippenberger PHONE CAMERAS simulation and you will be able to see the Morrison chose to use decomposing nitrate still available while stocks last and WALDEMAR JANUSZCZAK 3 Additionally, in a 4-minutes long video, he to graffiti ‘kings’ Dondi, Jean-Michel Basquiat on loan to Dortmund was stained 3 predicted value and engagement data. films from a decommissioned stock of the support continues until the end of 2013. and Rammellzee. IN GALLERIES on Neil MacGregor in the discusses his most recent collaboration with and erased the patina. forio.com/broadcast/netsim/netsims/ Library of Congress. www.theflip.com itunes.apple.com Ad Nauseam Sunday Times' Style magazine. System on 3 Kings, a wall painting dedicated Medici/medici-home/index.html amazon.co.uk
6 | STATE 04 www.state-media.com www.state-media.com STATE 04 | 7 A STATE SPONSORED
preoccupations were primarily with draconian financial cutbacks. Callister deliberately selected locations with a well established footfall to maximise visibility and public awareness – the canals themselves are a heavily used and popular resource in the county.
The numerous church spires, clearly visible across the Northants landscape, provided Steve Messam with an icon from which he developed Seven Spires, four-meter high cones which floated on the Grand Union Canal within sight of All Saints Church, Braunston. At night these illuminate and glow, using LED and solar technology. Seven Spires was preceded by a companion piece on Barnwell Country Park Lake, 84 Spires, 1 Steve Messam 2011 Seven Spires which comprised eighty four, two-foot high versions of the floating ‘spires’. Eighty-four being the number of church spires extant in the county. In Messam’s ‘Nothing county-wide Nene Nine, nine of the larger spire forms were floated has been done like over a mile-long stretch of the Oxford Canal and then transferred a month later to the River Nene this before’ outside Oundle.
GRAHAM CALLISTER FLOW climaxed with Charles Monkhouse’s eerie light work on a former Edwardian reservoir, the creating of which controversially drowned an old mill and which again caused upset when it was decommissioned in 1979. In the event, it was saved as the centre piece of Sywell County Park and Monkhouse retraces the subsurface of the old valley contours with floating LEDs, an emotional work which comes into its own at nightfall.
Graham Callister notes that ‘nothing county-wide has been done like this before’ and is pleased to see that photography has played an integral part of the popular response – with public uploads to the 1 Steve Messam 2011 Nene Nine 1 Steve Messam 2011 84 Spires NCC site and to Flickr continuing apace. Like the ‘interventions’ of Christo, a photographic record of the structures and events is all that remains of the Jo Fairfax and Charles Monkhouse, have been a works in-situ. As such, the photographic documentation local triumph. can be truly said to be an integral part of the total ONJURING THE LEMENTS experience and is now a legitimate component of all C E FLOW launched with the Darren Banks’ Back Water land art and site-specific, environmental sculpture. exhibition at the Fishmarket Gallery. Then three artists: When public art events avoid cliché, the usual suspects and engage probably why an outstanding Northants land art project Simon Woolham, Jo Roberts and David Littler, travelled went virtually unreported nationally (one small image the Grand Union Canal and River Nene for two weeks, with the audience, they can be a triumph. TEXT MIKE VON JOEL | IMAGES FLOW PROJECT, NCC. in the Telegraph). FLOW, delivered between April and responding to the experience of movement, time and LINKS November this year, was a stimulating collaboration place. www.flow-northamptonshire.com between seven artists, the County Council (NCC), British From the beginning, the use of the waterways and www.flickr.com (search FLOW Northamptonshire) OU WILL be forgiven for not knowing Waterways and Anglian Water. Despite being landlocked, myriad of water towers (pumping stations) in the county much about the 2012 Cultural Olympiad. Northants is rich in waterways and is also noted for its as a stimulus for the FLOW project was fortuitous, if not NOTES Neither does anyone else apparently, abundance of church spires – both features which were uncanny. As Callister notes: ‘when we first went inside a Steve Messam Nene Nine 18 - 29 August. outside of that rarified world known as utilised by the artists to create site-specific, light-based pumping tower, there on the rusty old pipes was stamped Jo Fairfax 180 Degrees 23 September - 2 October. Charles Monkhouse Sywell Echo 21 - 28 October. ‘arts administration’. Yet it is shaping up sculptural installations. These works captured the the word flow, with an arrow, and the triangle is the old 1 Jo Fairfax 2011 Aerial view of 180 to be an event with as much, if not more, public impact imagination of the local population far and away alchemical symbol for water’. Y The London 2012 Cultural Olympiad is the largest cultural as the Festival of Britain in 1951. And perhaps that is the beyond expectations. The triangle, in the form of Jo Fairfax’ stunning three celebration in the history of the modern Olympic and Paralympic clue: public, a word to make the higher echelons of the cornered laser link between water towers at Rothwell, as Bonfire Night. It comes as no surprise that this is the Movements. Spread over four years, the culmination will be the art world shudder. But if a recent visual arts project None of this would have been possible had it not been Desborough and Corby, has been the acknowledged one popular installation that it is hoped can be retained on London 2012 Festival, a chance to celebrate through dance, music, in Northamptonshire is anything to go by, a wider 1 Jo Fairfax 2011 180 Degrees for the enlightened appointment of Graham Callister as highlight of the FLOW programme. Entitled 180 Degrees, some sort of permanent basis. theatre, the visual arts, film and digital innovation. engagement with an extended audience can bring Culture Policy & Planning Manager for NCC. Taking up the three solid lines of light have been visible for miles London 2012 Festival: 21 June to 9 September 2012. nothing but positive results. ‘These works captured the post two years ago in a move from Brighton (a culture around and even from the air. People of all ages have FLOW is only one project in a unique initiative in the imagination of the local clash if ever there was one) Callister steered the FLOW driven from afar to witness the two five-mile laser beams, Northants called Igniting Ambition, part of the Cultural Principal funders of the Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Northamptonshire is a county in the East Midlands, project forward virtually single handedly with a meager linked by a third some two miles long. Silent, solid beams Olympiad umbrella. During the eighteen months Festival are Arts Council England, Legacy Trust UK and the a place you whizz through after driving north from population far and away (by today’s standards) budget of £150,000. The results, of liquid glowing light, hovering in space; at once surreal, gestation period, Callister commissioned the artists, Olympic Lottery Distributor. BP and BT are Premier Partners. The London for an hour on the M1. This anonymity with the co-operation of artists: Steve Messam, Darren spooky, strangely comforting – with a flavour of sci-fi arranged publicity, negotiated with the water authorities British Council will support the international development projects (unlike trendy Gloucestershire or the Cotswolds) is beyond expectations.’ Banks, Simon Woolham, Jo Roberts, David Littler, unworldliness. And at the same time, feeling as English and no doubt battled with council colleagues whose and Panasonic are the presenting partner of Film Nation: Shorts.
8 | STATE 04 www.state-media.com www.state-media.com STATE 04 | 9 P STATE OF ART
7 Paul Jones 2011 Photographed at Elms Lesters by Michael Birt
THE STYLE THAT CAME IN FROM THE COLD Art from the street is big business in the UK today, but Paul Jones was on the case 15 years ago…
TEXT MIKE VON JOEL | IMAGES COURTESY FIONA MACKINNON | PORTRAIT MICHAEL BIRT
HERE ARE MANY reasons In London, at least one gallery offered a credible why ‘street art’ has captured the alternative to street artists who wanted preserve some of imagination of a contemporary their work from destruction – and do it with integrity. audience. One of them is likely to The Elms Lesters Painting Rooms on the Soho/Covent be the originality and inherent Garden borders is one of London’s best kept secrets and it dynamic of artwork that is made for was here that Paul Jones spearheaded the collaboration its own sake – outside the safety of between a gallery space and painters coming from the the gallery space – with a lifespan street genre. Jones likes the ‘bubble writing’ of graff artists, that may be measured only in days. It raises interesting, he equates the importance of this letter-form to the Art intellectual arguments about the reason and purpose of Nouveau script which dominated the Belle Epoch. He is making art in the 21st century – art that does not dissolve also one of the first UK dealers to champion the desire of into mere decoration. street artists to make and show more permanent works – as early as 1997 he gave a solo exhibition to Central The fact of the matter is that all art is controlled in exactly St. Martin’s graduate, Andrew McAttee (entitled Suck it the same way that visual material on the streets is con- and See) whose reputation has since grown internationally. trolled. Outside space is ‘sold’ for money and those that buy it also buy the right to bombard the public sensibility ‘Graffiti as an art form had collapsed in the early 1980’s. with whatever imagery and propaganda they choose. I went to New York and met with artists like José Parlá Art itself is constrained by the confluence of the gallery/ and arranged for them to come to England. These guys museum/auction system, although the ‘collector’ might were working on doors and boards and had moved the well delude him/herself into believing they have some genre forward, away from lettering. The English were influence in the equation – they don’t. Collectors who pretty scathing about what the Americans were doing appear to have power in the market are soon discovered to but soon adopted the ideas. I remember Banksy coming in 1 also have a dealer, gallery or museum string to their bow. Dimensional Paintings 2011: Adam Neate Kneeling and Screaming to look. I’m clear in my own mind that I started it – the Acrylic, perspex, metal and aerosol on board 100 x 131 x 26 cm other people all tied it to fashion, like Agnes B, but I The hijacking of public space by the graffiti and street presented it as pure art in a gallery situation.’ artists began in the 1960’s in a small way, by the 'Jones is a collector by name-tagging of trains in New York by ‘Taki 183’. Elms Lesters is an interesting space. Paul Jones saw the It soon evolved into large-scale, colourful and highly nature and the exhibitions semi-derelict building and by 1984 the lease was in graphic sprayed signatures. No matter how decorative and reflect his own highly his possession. He and his longterm partner, Fiona ingenious this ‘bubble writing’ became, it had obvious McKinnon, painstakingly restored the atmospheric rooms limitations when compared to artists who were eschewing idiosyncratic tastes' before opening up as a gallery in 1988. Located in (or refused by) the gallery system and who chose to place { } Flitcroft Street, wedged in the narrow passage adjacent their work out on the street as a piece of free public art. young and affluent, new collector base otherwise totally to the historic St. Giles, Elms Lesters has been used for This latter activity encompassed a broad range of styles, ignorant of art historical precepts. art since 1904, when it was constructed as a studio for some more accessible than others. The classic, cliché case hand-painting the huge theatre backdrops. In the poet of Banksy, whose stencil pieces were easily redirected onto The relationship between street artists and galleries is a Rupert Brooke’s archive there is correspondence extant gallery walls and into silkscreen multiples, is only one highly controversial subject and hotly debated (usually (dating from June, 1908) where a Mr W.E. Lester of example of the gallery system desperate to find a way by those who have not secured a gallery deal). It does Elms-Lester Brothers writes about painting the scenery of cashing in on a contemporary genre intelligible to a not necessarily have to represent a ‘sell-out’ situation. for Brooke’s production of Comus1.
10 | STATE 01 www.state-media.com www.state-media.com STATE 04 | 11 A STATE OF ART
7 JR Women Are Heroes 2008 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
In Taschen’s confident survey, Trespass, the authors offer a cogent, even-handed profile of the differing aspects and motivations of the leading protagonists, retaining a sense of humour that mirrors that of the work being produced. Irony abounds in the free, public art arena. The rapidly becoming infamous Banksy cannot hide his mirth when one carefully stencilled statement in Timbuktu, Mali (a Zebra missing half its stripes whilst a washer woman hangs a line of black strips out to dry) falls flat on its face: Zebras don’t exist in that part of Africa 1 and thus the ‘joke’ was unintelligible to A New Understanding 2009 the locals! Adam Neate Grey Self Portrait Acrylic, aerosol, perspex, metal on canvas 136 x 136 cm Trespass is a timely reminder of the genius 7 Salon Show 2008 that is out there, and its slow acceptance Phil Frost Installation shot by the authorities who once waged war on the ‘illegal’ postings. French artist JR, described as a ‘photograffeur’, fly-posts ‘I started with artists’ prints actually. I had all of them: Spray Can Movement, with New York based artist Stash; ‘Adam was the first painter to break through from the large black-and-white photographic images Caulfield, Hodgkin, Paolozzi, Richard Hamilton, Peter and Icy Grape No. 1924 3 with works by Stash, Futura, streets. He really took off,’ Jones recollects. ‘Graffiti is in public locations, stating that the street Blake. I had No.1 of the famous Hamilton image of Jagger Delta, Snug, Stet and Salter. One year later, Elms Lesters finished now. Those early key figures are established and is ‘the largest art gallery in the world’. and Robert Fraser – I couldn’t sell it at £2,000! The time staged Last Exit to Brooklyn4, a group show by heroes of have careers – and gallery deals – and sell at auction to His hauntingly beautiful and high impact was wrong. I sold the whole lot to Tommy Roberts – the New York Counter Culture: Stash, Phil Frost, Ron collectors. It will still exist – like skateboarding – but the monumental images in the Women are Modern British painting was the fashion then. Now, of English, Mark Dean Veca and WK Interact, which vanguard has passed on by. Pop Art means the 1960’s – Heroes project have gained JR international course, prints by the Street Artists are very big – Banksy attracted a record number of international visitors. and likewise, the first decade of 2000 is synonymous with recognition and applause, so much so that kicked it off with his stencil prints. In fact, he created a graffiti and Street Art.’ he won the TED prize for 2011 – awarded speculative market almost single-handed.’ annually to an exceptional individual who 'Pop Art means the 1960’s – Adam Neate’s early signature was painting on recycled then receives $100,000. Across the other Jones is a collector by nature and the exhibitions reflect and likewise, the first decade cardboard, with works left for free on the streets for side of the world in São Paulo, Brazil, his own highly idiosyncratic tastes. He is an authority anyone to pick up. In one memorable event (14th the identical twin brothers, Os Gêmeos on Tribal Art and there are obvious parallels which of 2000 is synonymous with November, 2008) Neate and the gallery distributed 1000 (Portuguese for The Twins – actually correspond to his interest in Street Art, redolent as it is graffiti and Street Art' silkscreened prints across all 32 boroughs of London. Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo) started with symbols, colour coding and sense of territorial { } Estimated value of £1 million, it provoked a hue and cry painting graffiti in 1987. Their natural identity. The gallery was quick to respond to art made by as the public en masse searched for the free artworks left genius as draughtsmen has helped define the kids of the IT age, a generation with new tools for in doorways and against walls. It attracted extensive the free art of Brazil and their highly expression, new ways of communication and a manifesto Jones is sanguine about the difficulties of dealing with coverage in the press – not unrelated to the fact that distinctive style is now recognised the world which found real support in the community. a culture that is by nature transient and loyal only to Neate’s Suicide Bomber painting had fetched £78,500 at over, influenced by both traditional hip itself and unused to the disciplines of a gallery-based Sotheby’s the previous December. Now Jones has put the hop and the Brazilian pixação movement. The first actual multi-media presentation was of the programme. But an early relationship with Adam Neate resources of Elms Lesters behind Neate and they more or In 2008, they contributed a giant drawing life and work of the irascible American writer, Charles has developed into a close involvement between the gallery less exclusively represent his output. Neate himself has on the side of Tate Modern for the Street Bukowski2, but it was in 2004 that two milestone and this innovative young artist (b. 1977, Colchester). developed his early ideas and methods with cardboard and Art exhibition. exhibitions recognised Elms Lesters as a cutting edge In August 2007, his solo show at Elms Lesters, Paintings, collage into a highly sophisticated and distinctive style, space devoted to artists from the street: Iconography of the Pots & Prints, sold out within hours of opening. manipulating canvas and Perspex into complex 3D As the title says, these works are un- paintings of exciting originality. Jones is totally committed commissioned, there is no ‘sale’ and often to this artist of undeniable talent. no personal recognition for the artist. But the sense of freedom that supports the art ‘I’m now working with Adam worldwide. It’s like a presented in public spaces stimulates an wildfire. He is like the Beatles – he’s got that something, authenticity clearly lacking in much gallery where the plumber from Southend likes it – and the art of the last three decades. In her closing collector from Kensington likes it. Even in a mixed show essay, Anne Pasternak is correct when she of great names, 95% of visitors will pick out Adam as their claims: ‘I detest the term public art’. Her favourite. The new work is complex, Perspex and wire on suggestion that Interventionist art – as board, slashed canvas – multi-dimensional – but in our THE JOY OF BEING coined by curator Nato Thompson – view it is painting. Painting for the 21st century...’ more accurately describes the multifaceted The avant-garde is alive and well and on a street corner near you. collective that provoke, amuse, refresh and LINKS stimulate the cityscape for urban dwellers, www.elmslesters.co.uk is very welcome. As is this book, the usual Elms Lesters Painting Rooms HE MORONIC SCRAWLS public spaces across the inhabited planet, effortless combination of hip design, 1-3-5 Flitcroft Street of some delinquent out for a encompasses painters, photographers, detailed research, informed commentary London WC2H 8DH bit of impotent revenge on sculptors and graphic designers. The calibre and stunning imagery – now, more than society at large still colours the of output ranges from mild interventions ever, the Taschen trademark. NOTES Tgeneral perception of an art form loosely to monumental works of absolute genius – 1) 10- 11 July, 1908. Comus, by Milton. Directed and termed graffiti. It could not be further all sharing a clearly discernible humanist stage-managed by Rupert Brooke at the New Theatre in Cambridge. removed from a genre that – far from losing flavour and integrity, and perhaps humility, 2) The show’s title Icy Grape No. 1924 would be instantly its immediacy and power to thrill – has for many leading exponents remain TRESPASS. A HISTORY OF UNCOMMISSIONED recognisable by graffiti aficionados as the name of the rarest of never been more inventive, monumental, anonymous. Another quality shared by URBAN ART the discontinued, vintage American KRYLON spray paint cans. droll and, frequently, political. And it’s free, these urban artists is a rabid distaste for C.McCormick, M. & S. and it’s literally everywhere. the visual pollution of all public space Schiller, E. Seno (editor) 3) Henry Charles Bukowski (16 August 1920 - 9 March 1994) TASCHEN German-born Los Angeles realist poet and novelist. by corporate interests, whose financial Hb. 320 pp. £ 27.99 1 Pirate Utopias 2007 Futura & Jose Parla 1 Nick Walker Mona Lisa 2007 The extensive, international tribe of artists power enables them to dominate the ISBN 978-3-8365-0964-0 Futura painting at the Elms Lesters in preparation for the two-man show. Born in New York in 1955, Futura is one of the most famous graffiti 4) Last Exit to Brooklyn, named after the banned and controversial London, England making works that are offered freely in urban environment. artists in the world, exhibiting with Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York with his contemporaries Keith Haring and Jean Michel Basquiat. novel by Hubert Selby Jnr (1964)
12 | STATE 04 www.state-media.com www.state-media.com STATE 04 | 13 P STATELINE
7 Irv Novick Batman No. 205 1968 Cover art EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY KAA-POW! 75 years of comic book heroes captured and contained at last!
TEXT MIKE VON JOEL | IMAGES COURTESY TASCHEN
ODAY, it is difficult to or eras: Proto-comic books and the recollect that comic books Platinum (or Stone) Age, -1938; Golden were once regarded as Age, 1938-1956; Silver Age, 1956-1970; a reading matter only Bronze Age, 1970-1984; and Modern Age, for juveniles and the 1998-2010. Levitz introduces his own Teducationally challenged. Or seditious, ‘Dark Age’ for DC covering 1984-1998. if you were to believe psychiatrist Fredric These are examined in detail with fold-out, Wertham, whose rabid and vitriolic illustrated four-page ‘timeline’ spreads, writings in 1954 prompted the American allowing the reader to get an overview of Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile DC in context. A thumbnail biographical Delinquency to investigate comic books. sketch of the key (human) characters in the However, in the last 25 years comics DC story appears at the end, an invaluable have been rehabilitated as incisive social resource in itself. And the whole content is comment, as psychological insights into exhaustively indexed and cross referenced. the society that created them, and as The production quality is outstanding, the graphic design of sparkling originality. And XL format enables original covers to be it is true – they are all of these things and reproduced full size – and the authentic more. On 22nd February 2010, a copy of text is unbeatable. At £135 this giant of a Action Comics No. 1 (June 1938) which book is not cheap, but if your world first introduced Superman to the world, involves art, graphic design, social history sold at auction to an anonymous buyer or just a love of comics, then this is a book for $1,000,000.00. you simply cannot afford not to acquire. 75 Years of DC Comics: The Art of Modern 1 The ancestry of the ‘comic strip’ can be Jim Lee All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder No. 6 2007 Original artwork Mythmaking is a work of art in itself and speculated on endlessly, according to one’s Taschen’s platform of in-depth, single definition of the comic strip formulae. Two firms ‘The characters portrayed executive with subject surveys, has reached a zenith with Were the 25,000 years-old drawings in dominated the 38 years’ service, this scintillating edition. It comes as no the Lascaux Caves a form of picture story – American comic in DC Comics are among the climbing to role surprise that 75 Years of DC Comics is the or really a magical incantation? Could the (and thus world) best known fictional of President and 2011 Winner of the Eisner Comic hieroglyph and picture combination in market: Marvel characters in the world...’ Publisher; writer Industry Award for Best Comics-Related Ancient Egypt be regarded as an early Comics (1939) of over 300 stories Book of the Year! PAUL LEVITZ comic format? And what of 18th century and DC Comics { }including Legion satirical prints, complete with speech (derived from of Super-Heroes; bubbles, which made ‘stars’ of Rowlandson Detective Comics) founded in 1934. These editor of The Comic Reader; but above all – and Gilray? publishing giants, now part of Disney and a dedicated fan. This is a work of love, and Time Warner respectively, could trace their Levitz’ breadth of knowledge and attention In fact, the creation of comic books, origins back to the evolution in newspaper to minute detail is truly astounding. And despite a marvellous, indigenous genre printing in the 1890’s and the ‘funny’ then, the illustrations – more than 2,000 – created in England, and latterly France and sections, printed in bright, primary colour encompassing preparatory drawings, front Japan, has been dominated by America. blocks edged with a black line. But, with covers, collectibles, movie links, page The vast commercial market place that the world-famous Superman character spreads, rare examples of vintage titles; the United States commands, and their (rescued from a reject box by Vin Sullivan, complete with archive photographs of the national obsession with the super-powered created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, and great graphic artists that created these works. and anti-hero, has created such a presence used as the cover feature in Action Comics It is always a surprise, when viewed from in the comic arena that they seem to now No.1, June 1938) DC comics might be today’s perspective, to see these famous comic define the comic idiom of the 20th said to just have the edge. Although literary creators at work – crisp white shirts, Brookes century. So much so that it is easy to forget scholars tend to point out The Scarlet Brothers suits, tie, neat hair-cuts – a far cry that Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman Pimpernel (1901) was actually a progenitor from Robert Crumb and the Vietnam War 1 and the gang are actually the creations of of the hero masquerading as hapless fop. generation artists who introduced a modern Children reading comics in a tenement courtyard, New York. 1943 mere men. But let’s face it – the English comic revolution to America. But DC do have to pinch themselves to remember DC Comics has now had the Taschen also moved with the changing mood. By Sherlock Holmes never really lived outside treatment and the result is itself a the time Power Girl arrived in the new the pages of fiction. In the age before phenomenon. An extra large format millennium, sultry‘n’sexy was the image 75 YEARS OF DC COMICS: television, YouTube and the iPhone, the (29 x 39.5cm) 720-page monolith, this rather than moral and wholesome. THE ART OF MODERN impact of that ‘otherworld’ of comic is absolutely the definitive book on DC MYTHMAKING Paul Levitz heroes on susceptible minds is hard to Comics, its history and its profile today. Levitz has – more or less – adopted the TASCHEN comprehend today, but the genre rapidly The author, Paul Levitz, is perfectly placed convention of dividing the development of Hardcover 720 pages, £ 135 became a publishing phenomenon. to command this accolade: a DC Comics US comics into universally accepted periods, ISBN 978-3-8365-1981-6
www.state-media.comwww.state-media.comSTATESTATE 04 03| 15| 15 www.state-media.com STATE 03 | 15 P STATE OF ART
ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLDSMITHS Not every artist leaving the fashionable degree course eschews
the fine art of tradition. TEXT FELICIA HALL
ATE DENTON's mainly by Carl Plackman and Thubron. I had put up some determined great-grand- Michael Kenny among others, all very sculptures I was working on and they mother took the first active in the art world at the time. I said they would like to see a cat made steam hammer to remember one of them looking at a out of cat shit – and I remember Sheffield, dammed a thinking they were full of it! From Kriver and set up in business while that point they and I realised I was living on her own with 12 children. not going to change. We came to When Kate was removed from an understanding, because I was so her senior school maths class for passionate about what I was doing. disruptive behaviour, an intuitive I think they could only respect teacher taught her car maintenance the drive. and the inner workings of domestic 1 WW Gallery transformed for Liane Lang exhibition House Guests, 6-22 October 2011 appliances. These nature/nurture After Goldsmiths you married influences may explain why a again, had a baby, lived in a squat… determined Kate, a natural sculptor We lived in a squat in SE London, with years of training followed by it was quite famous at the time; my a 30-year career, has always worked to studio was in another registered squat, really understand the construction and a great Victorian building next to HACKNEY’S ART BEAT mechanics of the world around her. Lewisham hospital with about 6 other ‘I started drawing when I was 4 or artists, all friends, great support. The spirit of independence is one constant in the flux of British Art 5 years old’, says Kate Denton, ‘and Chris left when Ella was about 4 TEXT & PHOTOS MICHAELA FREEMAN then did little else. All presents were 1 Kate Denton in her Lavenham studio months old. I was alone for 6 years, paints, paper, craft stuff. I absolutely had a great time and managed to raise loved a hot wire machine that cut Ella on my earnings. Teaching was HE PLAN for WW Gallery was hatched as What WW Gallery look for and promote is a sense of polystyrene. That was the start of ‘I try to bring great. I could have done it full time an escape for Debra Wilson and Chiara ‘What also connects their humour in art, black humour maybe. Humour is often loving three-dimensional art. I sold to each piece a but always left 3 days a week for Williams when they taught together at a artists is a sense of nostalgia regarded as a trace of base art, similarly to kitsch, but these my first painting at 12, a watercolour personal work. One day I delivered Hackney school (Debra as a technician, gallerists insist that on the contrary, it can often be more and ink. I still have one from my sense of its inner a sculpture directly to a client – the with skills that come very handy now). and a notion of beauty – successful in engaging the viewer and getting the message teens that was returned to me in the character and only time I had done so instead of TBut it took further two years of preparation and a gallery ‘guilty pleasures’’ across, than a serious, over conceptual work. What also person's will – so sweet.’ movement.’ delivering to the gallery – and a year management course to finally open to public. { } connects their artists is a sense of nostalgia and a notion of { } later married him. That was 22 years beauty – ‘guilty pleasures’, they admit. After leaving school Denton worked ago. He is my rock. h In 2008, commercial Biennales. Their debut Biennale’s Collateral show, in a as a model, which she hated. Marriage creation of mine in the life sculpture MICRO.DOT rents were still very residential property, had to shut down few days early Running a gallery has put a strain on their own work as seemed a good idea but a few months room, saying, ‘But why do you want You bring humour to your work, • Name: WW Gallery high, so they converted because they had refused to pay the public licence fee artists, but Chiara points out that she’s found curating later, art college even better. She went to make this... you can probably model certainly to Gina... • Address: 30 Queensdown Rd, part of Chiara’s (£25,000) taking the risk of a much smaller fine and the surprisingly creative too: ‘be it a solo or group show, you’re late to Goldsmiths, for foundation, better than I can, but isn't there more We moved in 2010. Our house London E5 8NN Victorian terraced exhibition’s closure. Despite this, The British Council adding something new to it’. Money-wise it hasn’t been a three-year degree course and a to say than a demonstration of skill?’ has beautiful gardens and extensive • Web: wilsonwilliamsgallery.com maisonette home has supported them again in 2011 and they presented easy as they’re not relying on funding, but they do sell two-year postgraduate in casting and – a good point, and all artists do have outbuildings, where I have my • Opened: 2008 instead, despite its Afternoon Tea: Works on Paper, a two-week exhibition works from every show and have now decided to open a foundry work, later working in a to move beyond skill and to develop studio. Gina is a life-sized sculpture • Directors: Debra Wilson position next to of 70 contemporary artists, as an outpost of The British new place in Clerkenwell before the end of the year. The commercial foundry at Poplar, one something inside. of a mature female orangutang and Chiara Williams Hackney Downs – Pavilion (designed in 1887 as a tea room). Traditional Hackney venue will be reduced to the outside 6m2 front of the first women in the UK to do Still, I felt the basics were important which I did at the Durrell • Artists: Jarik Jongman, Eva Lis, decidedly off the afternoon tea with Debra’s homemade cupcakes was served garden space, ran as individually commissioned Patio Projects. so. She divorced in her second year and the college professors were Conservation Trust, in 2008. She is Sadie Hennessy, Enzo Marra, beaten track and every day between 3-6pm to an unexpected popularity. at Goldsmiths. moving away from this towards cast in bronze and hangs in mid-air, Ayuko Sugiura, Boa Swindler, considered by some A pilot patio commission took place this summer. Eva Lis Chiara Williams, Debra Wilson the thought being greater than the suspended from three bamboos that Londoners to be as far completed her mud ‘snowman’, based on the novel To Kill Goldsmiths is known today for act, the conceptual sort of thing. have been cast and strengthened with away as ‘abroad’. But a Mockingbird, just in time for London riots to pass though provocative and unconventional Certainly any relevance to life work sprung steel. I am – basically – the advantage is that when people do arrive, they are likely the quiet Hackney road as the police attempted to disperse ideas. Did you experience this? was lost almost overnight. I felt like a figurative artist. I try to bring more to be genuinely interested in the exhibition, rather than the violent crowds. Fortunately, the fragile work survived I was there during very hedonistic a dinosaur by the time I left, but than mere representation to the work. performing a quick ‘in and out’, as if on the Vyner Street unlike the nearby cars and shops, becoming a local symbol days, although Goldsmiths was run I knew in my heart I was in the I try to bring to each piece a sense of gallery round. Some of the private view parties have gone of ‘still standing’. as a strong multiple style art college right field. its inner character and movement. on until 4am! Of course, this also puts pressure on them to under Peter Cresswell. There was a lot www.katedenton.com stage exhibitions that are original and challenging, to Artists can apply to take part in Patio Projects until 30 of structure in the classes, life drawing You felt like a dinosaur? ensure people do return. November. The bursaries for the commissions will be raised each day, but I do remember feeling I had a tutorial with, I think, Michael Felicia Hall is a curator and gallerist partly through WW’s Christmas exhibition, modelled on 1 Ella Bronze Study that change was coming. I was taught Craig Martin and Harold [Harry] based in Southern Spain and Boston, USA. WW currently represents eight artists, including the last year’s successful charity fundraiser Austerity BOGOF directors themselves, but have shown many more at their (buy one get one free). WW also run surgeries with gallery and also in Venice during the 53rd and 54th 1 Chiara Williams and Debra Wilson outside the WW Gallery one-to-one advice to artists and budding collectors.
16 | STATE 04 www.state-media.com www.state-media.com STATE 04 | 17 P STATE OF MIND
1 The fine dining experience always includes THE FINE ART OF FOOD a focus on visual presentation. days in the Algarve for a spectacular Tribute to Claudia There is a big difference between eating in a restaurant and showcase of kitchen gymnastics. Here, ‘It’s good food and not fine International Gourmet Festival having the ‘fine dining’ experience that is the chic way to Michelin stars are as common as Beluga 15 – 23 January 2012 caviar canapés and guests flood in from words that keeps me alive’. Vila Joya Praia da Gale enjoy the performance of a distinguished chef. It is as different all over Europe and the USA to participate 8201-917 Albufeira in a unique opportunity to eat at the { MOLIERE Les Femmes Savantes (1672) } Algarve - Portugal as a watercolour exhibition in the village hall is to a world’s best kitchens – yet all in a single T: +351 289 591 795 location. www.vilajoya.com Rembrandt retrospective at the Rijksmuseum. For 2012, a host of world-ranked, 21 rooms, and a spa with a massage room This gourmet festival is a tribute to the Michelin three star hotshots will descend where the beds are set on a glass floor founder of the exclusive Vila Joya spa on Albufeira – Alain Passard, (L'Arpège, above a water feature, guests are introduced T MIGHT BE the Dutch über chef, Pierre Gagnaire, and his on-site resort in Albufeira, home to the only France); Hans Valimaki (Chez Dominique, to five-star luxury and a sophisticated level master chef, Marco Westmaas, team who conjure a magical orchestration of Michelin two star restaurant in the whole Finland); Joachim Wissler (Andome, of personal service, overseen by the patron, and the culinary adventures at his flavours and textures supported by stylish of Portugal. Claudia Jung tragically died Germany); Normand Laprise Gebhard Schachermayer. timber-clad, beach-front restaurant and exemplary service. in 1997, but her legacy guides the (Restaurant Toque, Canada) – amongst on the North Sea near The Hague At this level, the creation and presentation philosophy of this stunning spa on the other luminaries, will go head to head to The January programme – a sharp NOTES Marco Westmaas (it has to be totally dismantled each of food is a visual feast that has its Algarve’s sunny southern coast. Since 2007, impress a very discerning international contrast to the dull winter weather across HOTEL ELZENDUIN November and rebuilt in the Spring to avoid recognised stars and super-stars and whose the ‘Tribute to Claudia’ event has grown in audience. Resident Vila Joya chef, Dieter northern Europe – makes this gourmet Strandweg 18 Icertain destruction by the elements). An signature dishes are ‘collected’ by gourmets stature, carefully tended by her daughter, Koschina, traditionally hosts his own festival a strong competitor to the usual 2684 VT. Ter Heijde aan Zee outpost of Westmaas’ nearby hotel and across Europe. And as with any of the Joy Jung, General Manager Gebhard evening with a gang of famous friends Caribbean get away enjoyed by the haute The Netherlands restaurant, the Elzenduin Beach has creative arts, at the top there is no shortage Scachermayer and marketing director, (like Jonnie Boer of the three star Oud chic of Euroland. T: +31 (0)174-214200 clients travelling 50 kilometers to honour of temperament, volatility and outlandish Justin Ultee. Each night, one celebrity Sluis, Holland) and this is one of the most Here food is elevated to a fine art and the www.elzenduin.com a sought-after booking during in the calm egotism. chef and his team take over the kitchen sought-after tickets of the whole nine-day presentation on the plate takes on the Summer months. to create a showcase menu for the event. Staged against the backdrop of intensity of a work of art itself, abstract, SKETCH Or perhaps the high theatre delight of the It comes as some surprise, therefore, to subscribing diners. It’s a culinary the award-winning Vila Joya’s Moorish organic and sculptural. There are winter 9 Conduit Street fine dining experience at Sketch in London, learn that leading chefs now have their own pilgrimage that has developed year upon architecture and entrancing location breaks and winter breaks, but a ticket to London W1S 2XG where the ornate Lecture Room & Library equivalent of the Frieze art fair, where year to become a major feature in the overlooking the spectacular Atlantic coast, the Tribute to Claudia festival is something T: +44 (0) 20 7659 4500 1 Modern presentation takes on the essence of an abstract composition hosts guests for three star Michelin French the crème de la crème congregate for nine gastronomic calendar. it is an irresistible combination. With just else altogether. www.sketch.uk.com
18 | STATE 03 www.state-media.com www.state-media.com STATE 04 | 19 BOOKS YOU JUST HAVE TO READ FOURTHESTATE Edited by MIKE VON JOEL
WILL THE PROJECTED IMAGE PLEASE STAND UP
In 1930, The Hannover Museum director Alexander Dorner commissioned Hungarian artist, László Moholy-Nagy, to create a ‘Room of Our Time’ as the final piece of his progressive and pioneering museum rehang. Unfortunately, due to Hitler coming into power in 1933, this first ever multimedia installation fusing contemporary technology with art was never fully realised. TEXT MICHAELA FREEMAN
ÁSZLÓ MOHOLY-NAGY’s Space, studies integration and vision started a trend in art the role of projected images in 1 Mark Wallinger Ecco Homo 1999 that matured in the 1960’s museums and exhibitions. The final Trafalgar Square, London L and 1970’s with galleries part, Screen, includes a contribution and museums increasingly including about the feminist connections projections. But it wasn’t until between Gillian Wearing, Salla recently that the ‘projected image’, Tykka and Pipilotti Rist, as well as promoted in Screen/Space, has as an essay about interactive been studied as a specific art projections. category. The key moment was when Chrissie Iles used the term in As you’d expect from Manchester her 2007 exhibition Into the Light: University Press, this is an academic The Projected Image in American Art format publication, with a focus on 1 Mark Wallinger State Britain 2007 Installation Tate Britain, London 1 Mark Wallinger The White Horse 2009 1 The Tao of Water: Homage to Joseph Beuys (1969-2010) ©Susan Hiller Photo: Tate Photography/Sam Drake at the Whitney Museum. Works words rather than visuals. The using film or slide projector(1) would illustrations are black & white and Mark Wallinger rightly won the 2007 Turner have been traditionally called disappointingly dull. But it might be Prize for the installation. PARACONCEPTUAL COLLECTING ‘installation art’ or, at the other end as well because the best way to HORSES FOR COURSES of the spectrum, be considered as read this is with an iPad, firing the This is the first comprehensive survey on the Edited by Ann Gallagher, this book was published to accompany Susan ‘art cinema’ which just so happens titles of any unfamiliar works into A Visit to Wallinger World work of Mark Wallinger and Martin Herbert is Hiller’s major solo exhibition at Tate earlier this year. A thorough study to be shown in a gallery. YouTube where a surprising a safe pair of hands. From Wallinger’s early number of [originally analogue] HE CHIGWELL-BORN artist Mark Wallinger was one of those many YBAs who had State Britain, installed at Tate Britain in career in the 1980’s to the infamous White of this remarkable American artist has been long overdue. TEXT MICHAELA FREEMAN The use of these categories isn’t works analysed in this book are Wallinger (b. 1959) might well be somehow ‘lucked’ into celebrity without a body January 2007, which reinforced, once and Horse project at Ebbs Fleet (or Angel of the entirely incorrect, but it‘s certainly available to watch in full length. described – to use that quaint of work to merit it. However, the one bit of luck for all, Wallinger’s importance in British Art. South) launched in 2009 to a great fanfare – USAN HILLER was born in Florida have Jude in the title. In 2007, she’d interesting to be invited to view Recommended reading for any post-war expression – as one of Wallinger did have was to catch the eye of the A meticulous reproduction of the late peace currently it is £10 million over budget and not in 1940. Originally trained as delved into audio archives, emerging projected works as a separate artist and curator working in this the ‘awkward squad’. This is an perceptive dealer, campaigner Brian Haw’s completed – Herbert presents an even handed an anthropologist, it was a slide with The Last Silent Movie. The piece is discipline. It allows the field – you will never see a gallery essentially British characteristic Anthony Reynolds, ‘Herbert presents an protest display outside the appreciation of Mark Wallinger’s art and Slecture on African art in 1965 anything but silent – a dark screen with development and history of this video installation in the same way. Twhich denotes, amongst other things, a refusal who has championed Houses of Parliament, philosophy. A first class text published to the that would change her direction: a soundtrack edited from sound bites in genre to stand out and be discussed to follow predetermined routes through life, but his work since even handed appreciation Wallinger employed 15 people usual exemplary standards of Thames & ‘I felt art was, above all, irrational, extinct or nearly extinct languages. properly. One characteristic of NOTES to forge a path of one’s own, however perilous the 1980’s. for 6 months and spent Hudson. A timely review of the YBA phenomenon mysterious, numinous’. She went on to Again, both meticulously presented ‘projected images’ is that they are 1. This includes both new and old of Mark Wallinger’s art technology: Tacita Dean, for example, this might become. £90,000 to recreate it. The accessed through one of its leading talents. live and paint in Cornwall, Paris and sets, and where Hiller’s anthropologist generally produced by artists with a stays faithful to presenting her video In 1999, Wallinger’s and philosophy’ original, made from donated Morocco, before finally settling down background perhaps comes through. background and training in fine art, works exclusively on 16mm (rather costly Wallinger’s star has risen and fallen repeatedly Ecco Homo was the paintings, banners and toys, in London. But she denies aiming for some sort of rather than coming from filmmaking for the galleries that wish to exhibit her). in the critical arena. A student at Chelsea first work to occupy the empty plinth in had been confiscated by the police under the scientific taxonomy: ‘When I started circles. They are also presented in School of Art and later Goldsmiths, he went on Trafalgar Square, a life-sized statue of a Christ Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. Initially, Hiller experimented with making art, it occurred to me that I the environment of a gallery which, to be included in the Young British Artists II figure placed at the very front edge of the The whole sociology and political ramifications MARK recycling her own paintings – cutting could work with rational structures, but by default, offers significantly a show at the Saatchi Gallery in 1993 and in the massive plinth. This proved a popular work and of the Haw story chimed with Wallinger’s Martin Herbert them up into squares for a book, be mischievous and at the same time more engaging and reflecting Thames & Hudson £38 seminal Royal Academy Sensation exhibition in was later shown at the 2001 Venice Biennale almost religious interpretation of one man’s HB 288pp 456 Illus. 446col. unravelling them into threads, and serious. I don’t analyse the objects in opportunity, as opposed to the 1997. Not a few casual observers thought that when Wallinger represented Britain. But it was lone stand against the might of the system. ISBN-13: 978-0500093566 burning them to ash stored and displayed any academic way.’ passive ‘black box’ of a cinema, in glass jars. She admits being inspired 1 Magic Lantern, 1987 Installation entered with a promise of an by Joseph Beuys, his collecting and © Susan Hiller The visual part of the book has been escapist cinematic illusion. The best text on any artist is the words they use of everyday objects, and also the Photo: Tate Photography/Sam Drake prepared with a lot of care and allows THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE generate themselves. Now Martin Gayford, well relationship between the popular and the readers to gain a real insight into the Screen/Space: The Projected Image in regarded British critic, has teamed up with unique. Additionally, her work includes ‘I felt art was, artist’s creative process. Several Contemporary Art follows on from a Tall Tales & Short Stories with David Hockney Hockney’s old friends, Thames & Hudson, to less obvious aspects of our culture above all, irrational, double pages are dedicated to each conference of the same title at the publish A Bigger Message, a book of verbatim (dreams, automated writing and accounts of Hiller’s key works from 1970-2010, University of Edinburgh in April Screen/Space - The Projected OT A FEW art-niks thought that David on the use of optics in art and one of the conversations with the artist, interspersed with of encounters with UFO) – ‘paraconceptual’ mysterious, numinous’ with valuable additional material, such 2007. The first part of the book Image in Contemporary Art Hockney, he of the urbane Northern most important books on painting published a little contextualising. The result is every bit as (conceptual + paranormal) art, as she SUSAN HILLER as photos and catalogue texts from the concentrates on Histories including Ed. Tamara Trodd drawl and boyish California style, had in the last 100 years. Hockney removed himself incisive as Van Gogh’s Letters, coincidentally an calls it. original installations, documentation the analysis of Michael Snow works 240pp Manchester University Press Nlost the plot when, in the 1990’s, he to Bridlington, on the north Yorkshire coast, evergreen favourite of Hockney himself. David and transcripts. Another profound artist's monograph and László Moholy-Nagy; second, ISBN-13: 978-0719084638 started exhibiting so-so watercolours of his and started painting vibrant, large scale Hockney stands astride a remarkable evolutionary Hiller started collecting various items early on in her career, from Tate Publishing, going far beyond an exhibition dachshunds, Stanley and Boodgie. Over senti- landscapes. In parallel, he developed his period in art history. His training, at the end of often without any specific plan. Some of them would later catalogue format. mental, thin and generally one-dimensional, they love-hate relationship with photography, the 1950’s, was in a particular tradition of art turn up in her epic works – like the intently organised seemed to reflect a man in mourning, who had expanding his early experiments with the appreciation, to be almost immediately erased postcards of the ‘rough sea’, Dedicated to the Unknown artists achieved life’s glittering prizes and, as deafness Polaroid Land camera by the use of digital by the emergence of Pop Art, itself rapidly (1972-76), and The Tao of Water: Homage to Joseph Beuys began to isolate him socially, had all but retired imaging. The results were every bit as exciting superseded by Conceptual Art. By the 1980’s, (1969-2010) – a cabinet full of bottles containing water from BY POST to sun and cigars in the Los Angeles hills. and provocative as those first multi-faceted everything was up for grabs and ‘art’ encom- holy wells. From the Freud Museum (1991-6) is a set of boxes Polaroid composites. Recent television passed performance, video, the human body filled with objects connected as if by some free association, Get your copy of STATE/f22 But then! The old Hockney genius seemed to broadcasts – Hockney was always a master itself and general craziness. But Hockney has visual or contextual. She usually keeps collecting and adding miraculously reinstate itself. In 2001, he of this medium – have revealed him to be, at remained standing and, perhaps most important to her works but was forbidden to do so with this piece when SUSAN HILLER mailed to your home A BIGGER MESSAGE Martin Gayford Ed. Ann Gallagher published Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the 74, as shiny and bright as ever and still an of all, he has remained relevant. Gayford has the Tate acquired it. Thames & Hudson £18.95 Tate Publishing 2011 HB 248pp 161 Illus. 154 col. Lost Techniques of the Old Masters (Thames & original thinker about both painting and done a first class job in his Boswellian role, and the More recently, she’s created The J.S. Project (2002-5) – a PB 192pp 200 Col Ill DETAILS: ISBN-13: 978-0500238875 Hudson) a sparkling, brilliantly analysed treatise photography. Great Man does not disappoint. Recommended. film, a book and over 300 photos of streets in Germany that ISBN 13: 978-1-85437-888-0 www.state-media.com/by-post
20 | STATE 04 www.state-media.com www.state-media.com STATE 04 | 21 20th CENTURY RUSSIAN ART A N I NTIMATE WORLD OF I MPRESSIONIST PAINTING BELGRAVIA GALLERY 45 Albemarle Street. London W1S 4JL An Exhibition of Important Russian Paintings TEL: 020 7495 1010 FAX: 0207 629 1247 www.belgraviagallery.com [email protected] 28TH NOVEMBER - 9TH DECEMBER OPEN MONDAY - FRIDAY 10-6PM SATURDAY BY APPT.
MOUNTS BAY CONTEMPORARY 24 October to 30 November : Art and Craft for Winter 1st to 24th December : Crafts For Christmas ICE FLOW AN EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS BY
Corner of Cornwall Terrace and Western Promenade, Penzance, Cornwall. RUSSELL BAKER Email : [email protected] Tel: 01736 448012
www.mountsbaycontemporary.com Baker Mamonova Galleries 43-53 NORMAN ROAD. ST.LEONARDS-ON-SEA EAST SUSSEX TN38 0EQ NEXT ISSUE 19th November - 19th December 2011 ALSO AT 05 East Hill Gallery 49 EAST HILL. LONDON SW18 2QE JANUARY10th 19th January - 19th February 2012
For 2012 Publishing Schedule Go To Tel: 07745 803166 www.state-media.com/2012 email: [email protected] www.easthillgallery.com MICHAMICHAELEL WWOLF OLF
25 NovemberNov r 2011 - 7 JaJanuaryy 2012
TrTransparansparent City #73, 2007 Chromogenicomogenic print 122 x 178 cm
RCHIARCHITECTURE OF DENSITY OKYTOKYO COMPRESSION TRA RENT CIANSPTRA CITY
LONDON | NEW YORK www.flowersgalleries.com 82 KINGSLAKINGSLAND ROADD LONDON E2 8DP +44 (0)20 720 7777