Term 1 Assessment - Synopsis of the project - Narratives on Culture, Class & Taste.

Project 2 - Narratives of Taste, Class & Culture

Following the introduction, (which, perhaps through serendipity, I took my wife to see it a few weeks before the announcement of the second project), - with study of Grayson Perry’s homage to William Hogarth, (1697-1764) and his series A Rakes Progress (1733) with Perry’s resulting works “The Vanity of Small Differences”), I was excited to see that this project would provide such a rich source of material. It is also interesting that Hogarth was himself a cartoonist, and his own works are a reflection of the narrative of culture in the middle classes during the 18th century, so my own assertion, that art in itself is a reflection of culture at any period in time holds true.

My initial thoughts were to try to structure the production of work to maximise the ‘Research through Practice’ approach. I acknowledge that tactile epistemology is a central concept to the current teaching of contemporary art, and my intent was to shape this approach to make the whole experience work for me in what may be a uniquely personal sense, but nevertheless compliant with the core outcomes of the module and the wider degree.

After assimilating information in the brief and noting that Perry has used a great number of old masters for both inspiration and in particular, his homage to Hogarth, I chose in some ways to emulate the learning methods of the old fine art academies of Europe, pre- the Coldstream Reports (1960), where students progressed through studying and copying Old Masters' works. I feel that because my love of the classics and post Renaissance art needs to be satisfied, then this can form part of my learning experience. I have very little experience drawing portraiture and none in painting it. By attempting to start to copy such works I hope to gain a grounded foundation of technical skill that can continue to be built upon.
I created simple a plan of approach and used a Gantt Chart to help organise the appropriate stages and intended tasks of gathering research material. By creating a plan early, I was able to play around with ideas y production of some concept pieces as a result. These first drawings enabled me to reflect and reinterpret the Gestalt, project brief and my own aspirations. 

I considered Johannes Vermeer, 1632 - 1675) as an initial master for research. He too provided a commentary on 17th century middle class Dutch society. One of his most famous paintings, Girl with a Pearl Earring, (1665) struck me as a very "high class" painting. My treatment of it, by adding a symbol of present day culture, was to replace the earring with a "spacer" style; - a very fashionable adornment of today's youth. The title also hints at the current vogue of over-exaggeration "Girl with the Mother of Pearl Earing"...

(Anyone wishing to look further at Vermeer's work can find a good source at Artsy.com below;)
Artsy’s Johannes Vermeer page

This was my first serious attempt at portraiture, and the act of copying Vermeer certainly helped. me My image is a little chubbier, pastier and with a bit of a sneer, in keeping with the current feeling of masked aggressiveness in our contemporary English society. In an ironic twist therefore, my deconstruction of the culturally high class and tasteful painting has become a 'lower' class symbolism of contemporary culture, and hints at a image of 'bad' taste, if perhaps viewed by an upper class spectator. I’m quite pleased with the result, however it lacks the grace (although this is a happy accident, which I intend to keep), but more importantly, lacks the tonality of the original.

I also explored other Vermeer paintings through my own sketches. One of which shown here is a sketch of ‘Girl with a Letter by an Open Window’, Johannes Vermeer (1657). I tried much harder to wrestle with the problem of tonality in this sketch, and used freely available Google Picasa application software to artificially add warmth to my pencil sketch.
(It is worth noting here that I am a keen supported of open source software and one of my main summer projects was to gain an understanding of a particularly good 3D open source application, ‘Blender’ (www.blender.org). I think it’s 3D modelling capabilities through a methodology of sculptural techniques is an extremely useful tool for me to create conceptual pieces from in future, prior to 3D physical work commencing).

I then selected Hans Holbein’s (The younger), (c1497 - 1543), painting “The Ambassadors", (1533), as I feel it is one of the most famous landmark paintings to represent Class, Culture and Taste. Hobien’s original has the subjects staring at the viewer in a dominating gaze as symbolic of that era. Merzoeff, (2009), p63-67.

I chose to transpose the original subjects with the current celebrity icons of Angelina Jolie and David Beckham, (both also being official "cultural ambassadors" to the United Nations).



Initially I explored using a new location, perhaps at a Polo meeting, but then I decided to use Holbeins’ original background, but with the trappings of contemporary life now on a coffee table, rather than the two tier shelves that Holbein had. That’s a satirical hint that whilst Holbiens’ De Dinteville and De Selve were highly educated in science, art, music & mathematics, I feel some modern day celebrities "lack something on the top shelf", hence its omission. However, I have chosen profiles of the subjects with a ‘gaze’ away from the viewer, alluding to a ‘contempt through our superiority’ behaviour that seems prevalent amongst some in this current era.

Once engaged in this concept piece, it dawned on me an almost timeless allegory of Class, Culture and Taste, that being the drapery depicted in each of the Great Master's paintings studied thus far, (including a return to study Hogarth’s ‘Marriage a la Mode’ (1743), but which still hold the same symbolic power today.

I chose to create the final pieces on canvas, as I believe this in itself, hints at a cultural message. I have never used this medium before and I found the affect is very different to my attempts of using acrylics on paper, thus far. I particularly wished to develop tonality again in this series.



In time I will progress to using oils on canvas, but I want to improve my accuracy in mark making before committing to this further medium.

References;
Dexter, E.  (2005),  Vitamin D: New Perspectives in Drawing, London, Phiadon Press.

Hogarth, W. (1733)   A Rakes Progress - The Soane Museum, London

http://www.soane.org/collections_legacy/the_soane_hogarths/rakes_progress/

Hogarth, W, (1743)  Marriage a la Mode - The National Gallery, London.

                                    http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/william-hogarth-marriage-a-la-mode-1-the-marriage-settlement

Holbien, H. (1533), The Ambassadors, The National Portrait Gallery, London. Retrieved from Nationalgallery.org 25/03/2014

                                    http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/hans-holbein-the-younger-the-ambassadors

Mirzoeff, N. (2009), An Introduction to Visual Culture (2nd Edition), New York, Routledge.
Petherbridge, D, (2011), The Primacy of Drawing, New York, Yale University Press.

Vermeer, J. (1665), Girl with a Pearl Earing, (Mauritshuis, The Hague, Netherlands). Retrieved from Vermeer-Foundation.org, 26/11/2014
                                    http://www.vermeer-foundation.org/Girl-with-a-Pearl-Earring-c.-1665.html

Vermeer, J. (1657), Girl reading a letter by an open window, Retrieved from Janvermeer.org, 7/12/2014

http://www.janvermeer.org/girl-reading-a-letter-at-an-open-window.jsp

Vitamin D2: New perspectives in drawing (2013). London: Phaidon Press.

Software;

Picasa, free photographic management & editing suite from Google Inc. (http://picasa.google.com/)

Blender. 3d Modelling and rendering Computer Aided Design & Graphic Art application, Blender Foundation (a not for profit open source organisation) - http://www.blender.org/