The Ambassadors... A class, culture and taste bonanza!

Having thought about the tutorial on Tuesday, I recall that during our tutorial, we also discussed some points around the concept of taste and beauty, and the old favourite, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder", and it seems to me that this is often quoted in relation to contemporary art. 

Fred Wilson discusses the concept of beauty, "it can hide meaning", however he goes on to point out that there is meaning in beauty but there is also meaning in ugliness. The manipulation of this can be used to create art. For example a piece of work called "the whipping post" uses Queen Anne chairs to juxtaposed the position of high-class antiques, with something that is much more base. Beauty is complex. We are constantly looking for a sense of order, and how objects relate to each other. These translations, looking at society can be both adopted and adapted into your own work.

Cindy Sherman, created a series of magazine style photographs not dissimilar to those magazine, and used to portrait of herself superimposed over other fashion models, suggesting that she was attending supposed fashion parties, that have been retouched into the background. This work does not seem to be far away from the kind of work that I am thinking about doing at the moment with Angelina Jolie and David Beckham.

Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543), 

Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve

The Ambassadors (1533), Oil on Oak base.
© Copyright The National Gallery, London 2014

I think I discussed last week the possibility of using a base image of Hans Holbein the Younger's rendition of the ambassadors, and replacing the cleric (Georges de Selve, Bishop and friend of Jean de Dinteville), and the rich European diplomat (The French Ambassador to England as of 1533, Jean de Dinteville), with both Angelina Jolie and David Beckham, both of whom are United Nations Cultural Ambassadors, to contemporise a very classical image, but also includes the emblem of mortality in the form of the skull as per the original painting.  I have started to look at the work of Hans Holbein the younger, and the ambassadors in a little more detail. Some of the devices on the original painting are emblems of time measurement, and inference to education, mathematics, religion, but also of science through the use of celestial globes, and other paraphernalia (on the lower shelf concerned with music, harmony, and 'some discord' - see the broken string on the lute), which attempts to link the extremely high status and wealth of these two individuals, to an almost untouchable concept of the master class of the time, - being separated from the common man.

If I was to use the images in a contemporary environment, (which seems to idolise or worship the celebrity culture, which I feel Angelina and David fit with perfectly), the accoutrements and paraphernalia of today's neuvo- riche might be very different, but ostensibly still small expressions of status, such as pocket sized objects of the latest technology and gizmos, together with other examples of expressions of self importance and 'worth'.

And finally, before I forget, I need to also take a look at the work of Larry Rivers, and some of his paintings, which include support cigar box with paintings of the old Masters facsimile onto the top. I think that through a combination of collections of similar art pieces, I am beginning to see a series of paintings that could emerge from my idea of juxtaposing old Masters work with new images of current day symbolism of status and wealth, which ties in nicely as a narrative to taste, culture and class.  I should be able to have some fun with this.