Artists' Letters of Note

A letter from Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger to Andy Warhol. For their ninth album “Sticky Fingers” the Rolling Stones had asked Warhol to design the album cover.

A letter to Andy Warhol from the marketing manager for Campbell’s Soup who must have been extremely pleased with Warhol’s 32 silkscreened portraits of Campbell’s Soup Cans.

Below, a letter written by pop-art icon Keith Haring, in reply to a young aspiring artist and fan.  Haring, who is still held in high esteem on an international level, died of AIDS at the age of 31. He left behind numerous artworks, and the so called “Keith Haring Foundation”, established to assist people suffering from AIDS related diseases.

'Improving' Hitler and Goya

Iakovos  “Jake” and “Konstantinos” Dinos Chapman are two English visual artists, that go by the name of  “the Chapman Brothers”.

As a main subject for their work, the brothers mostly use subjects that are thought of as offensive, distasteful or vulgar.  Their art is oftentimes highly controversial and attention-grabbing.

Some examples:  In 2008 the Chapman Brothers held an exhibition entitled “If Hitler had been a hippy, how happy would we be”. For this exhibition the brothers acquired  a group of original watercolours that had been painted by Adolf Hitler himself. They then appropriated these works by painting bright psychedelic skies and smiley faces over them.



Watercolour painting by Adolf Hitler, appropiated by the Chapman Brothers.



But perhaps the most controversial work the brothers have ever made, is a series from 2003, entitled “Insult to Injury”. For this series the brothers purchased a complete set of Goya’s etchings, “The Disasters of War”, and added comical grotesque faces to them.



Goya's "The Disasters of War", appropiated  by the Chapman Brothers: "Insult to Injury", 2003



Although these works are held in high esteem by many, some see them  as pure vandalism. Another point of interest is the actual sale of these works: establishing prices can be quite problematic, since buyers actually buy two works of art at the same time: a Goya and a Chapman. Is it an improved Goya or a nearly vandalized  Goya?

Ghost...

British artist Rachel Whiteread is well known for her original sculptures with which she seeks to express the idea of space, room, void. She does this mainly by making casts of various objects.

In one of her first works, entitled “Shovel”,  she made a cast of her own back and attached a handle on top of it, so that it would resemble a shovel. 

One of her larger scale works, entitled “Ghost” is yet another cast: its mould was an entire living-room in a Victorian house: Whiteread had the walls of the living-room cast in units of plaster that were then mounted together so that the structure and volume of the original Victorian living-room becomes visible. Negative imprints, such as the open fireplace clarifies that we are in fact dealing with the INSIDE of a room.



Rachel Whiteread: Ghost, 1990, plaster, 270x318x365cm



Prince's Nurses

Richard Prince is an American painter and photographer, who began his career in 1977 by appropriating photographs:  meaning the artist pulls from the work of others, in a modified way, in order to create his own work.

The most well-known paintings by Prince, are his works from the so-called “Nurse Series”.  A series that is mainly inspired by the covers  of cheap pulp novels. Prince initially scanned the cover images, after which they were transferred onto a canvas and personalized by acrylic paint. The titles of the series include “Naughty nurse”, “Millionaire Nurse”, “Surfer Nurse”, after the titles of the book covers they were appropriated from.

Although heavily criticized at first, the Nurses are now priced in the millions.



Richard Prince: A nurse on horseback



Richard Prince: Tender Nurse



Reverse glass painting

Gil Heitor Cortesao is a Portugese artist, who uses the almost forgotten technique of ‘reverse glass paining’: his works are painted on plexiglass instead of a regular canvas, and then sealed by a layer of white paint. The painting therefore is enclosed between a glass plate and a layer of paint. Its execution is reversed: that what is done last on a canvas is done first on the glass. This type of execution also means that tiny detail cannot be added later.

Cortesao’s works often have modernist houses as their theme: he shows these in an undone way, covered by stains. For him they represent the downfall of the modernist utopia.

Gil Heitor Cortesao: Remote Viewer #2, 2008

Disney meets Oral Sex

In a work entitled “And The Beast”, Egyptian artist Ghada Amer shows us a juxtaposition of Disney’s Belle –from “the Beauty and the Beast”-  overlaid with subtly drawn erotic female figures. Amer took these female figures from porn magazines and presents them as another version of female stereotypes – in strong contrast with the virginal Disney princesses.

In combining pornographic images with female fairy-tale creatures, Ghada Amer asks us  how innocent these fairy-tale images are to begin with. The entire  canvas is dominated by  the thick black outline of a woman receiving oral sex.

Ghada Amer: And the Beast

A new type of sculpture!

Today we’d like to introduce you to a whole new type of sculpture, made by Brooklyn-based artist Nick van Woert.

Van Woert makes weird, awesome and unique sculptures, in which he combines marble busts with polyurethane plastic in adhesive form. The plastic is to be understood as “attacking” the busts. Van Woert himself refers to these sculptures as:  "a hijacking of the art historical past”.

Van Woert is currently partaking in exhibitions worldwide and is represented by the most renowned galleries.



Nick van Woert: Poor me

 




Nick van Woert: Eclipse (yellow)



Nick van Woert: Untitled



Getting drunk in high heels can be art!

Next time you plan on getting drunk, you better make sure someone’s filming you:

“Walking drunk in high shoes” is a video-installation by Iranian-German artist Anahita Razmi. In her video -which was inspired by a work by Tracey Emin- Razmi films herself while systematically getting drunk on a bottle of vodka.

The video, which last 47 minutes, shows Razmi walking around a room while emptying the bottle of vodka. The rhythm of her steps gets more and more uncontrolled as the bottle becomes emptier. She and the bottle both end on the floor, for obvious reasons.



Anahita Razmi: video Still from "Walking drunk in high shoes"



Anahita Razmi: video still from "Walking drunk in high shoes"

 

SARA RAHBAR: violence and healing

Sarah Rahbar is an installation artist, sculptor and photographer, currently represented by renowned galleries worldwide. At a young age, during the Islamic Revolution,  she and her family were forced to leave her homeland of Iran. In her work she explores issues of displacement and belonging which stem  from her own experiences during and after the Revolution.

In her own words:  “I work to work out the turbulence that exist within me, I am healing myself and at the same time communicating an immense pain. It’s about falling, standing and attempting to survive it all. In the end we are all in exile…”



Sarah Rahbar: Love arrived and how red, number 7.

Rahbar is mainly known for her photographic series entitled “Love arrived and how red”. A series that was made as a reaction against the psychiatric impact that the events in the Middle East have had on its inhabitants.

One possible reading of this work,  is the title’s reference to the horrific expectations that traditional societies have of virgin brides.

Sara Rahbar: Flag Series

Initially Rahbar became known for her “Flag Series” (2008-present). Here, she reworked flags  into collages, that express the conflicting roles that flags play as symbols of nationalistic violence.

Islamic Last Supper

In “Last Supper – Gaza”, artist Vivek Vilasini concentrates on social structures in the Indian society. His photograph shows women wearing a chador, depicting the last supper. Vilasini has turned apostles into prophets of islam. The bread, used to symbolize the body of Christ, is now accompanied by pomegranates: the fruit that symbolizes fertility, but that is also associated with death because of its intense red color (the grenade-bomb was named after this fruit).



Vivek Vilasini: Last Supper - Gaza, 2008.



Chairs. A lot of chairs...

Colombian artist Doris Salcedo is mostly known for making works that function as “political  and mental archaeology”. Her work, which has become increasingly installation based, is often inspired by specific historical events.

 For her installation for the Istanbul Biennale in 2003 she placed 1600 chairs in the empty space between two buildings. She did this to commemorate anonymous victims (in  Colombia and elsewhere) and in order to evoke something like  a mass grave.

With her work “Noviembre 6 y 7” she commemorates the violent seizing of the supreme court in Bogota, by lowering wooden chairs against the façade of the building for 53 hours straight.

Doris Salcedo: installation at Istanbul Biennale 2003.

Doris Salcedo: installation 'Noviembre 6 y 7'

The Toaster

English photographer Mac Adams is especially known for his "mystery environments": photographs in which he creates imaginary, narrative situations that often seem to point towards a criminal act. Take a look, for example, at his work "The Toaster":  in the first picture you can see a shiny toaster and mixer that mirror a woman. In the second picture you can see the same woman lying dead on the floor. The toast is burned.



Mac Adams, The Toaster



Hyperrealist sculpture



Ron Mueck is an Australian hyperrealist sculptor who started his career as a puppeteer for children’s television programmes and later transitioned to fine art. In his sculptures, Mueck reproduces every little detail of the human body.

The key change, however, is the change of size (most sculptures are oversized while others are on a much smaller scale).  The artist has been hailed by some critics as ‘the greatest thing to happen in sculpture’, while others merely view him as a model maker.

Ron Mueck: Head of a baby (2003)



Ron Mueck: In bed (2005)



Ron Mueck: Boy




 Mueck’s most well-known sculpture is a work titled “Dead Dad”:  a hyperrealist sculpture of the corpse of his father. Mueck works with various materials such as fiberglass resin, latex and silicone. 

Ron Mueck: Dead Dad







Bones of Kallat

We’d like to introduce you to Indian Mumbai based artist Jitish Kallat: Kallat –whose  work includes various media such as photography, video, painting and sculpture - often uses bones (don’t worry they’re fiberglass, nobody was dug up) in his works. His piece “Public Notice 2” recalls the historic speech delivered by Mahatma Gandhi  on the eve of the renowned Salt March. In this speech, the Mahatma called  for complete civil disobedience, but also for  non-violence and peace. The work, which exists out of 4500 bone shaped letters, stands in haunting contrast to the call for peace.

Jitish Kallat "Public Notice 2"

Kallat is also known for his collection of ‘bone cars’: various cars and trucks all made out of fiberglass bone.  Like “Public Notice 2” these cars are simply haunting.  Anyone who’s familiar with Indian traffic can understand these works

Jitish Kallat: Auto-rickshaw

Jitish Kallat: bone car

Royal Blood

“Royal Blood” is a controversial photographic series made by the dutch Amsterdam-based photographer Erwin Olaf.  Olaf, whose images usually show an edgy lust for provocation has worked for Diesel Clothing, Microsoft, Heineken, has had numerous exhibitions worldwide and can often be found back in magazines such as the New York Times Magazine.

The “Royal Blood” series consists out of 8 photographs of famous people that we remember especially because of the brutal way in which their life ended.

The depiction of Lady Di, was received with unbelievable controversy in the USA, UK and Australia.  The photograph shows a Diana look-a-like with an innocent look in her eyes and a Mercedes star – the car in which she was involved in a fatal collision in Paris- in her upper arm, with blood flowing out.

Other pictures of this series include Julius Caesar, Marie Antoinette, Sissi, Jackie Onassis, Tsarina Alexandra



Jackie Kennedy Onassis, with her husband's blood splattered over her face and clothing



Julius Caesar

photo sources: http://www.erwinolaf.com/

Side-walk psychiatry

In New York, public installation artist and urban planner Candy Chang is helping the locals by offering them a bit of sidewalk-psychiatry. With her project, she wants to encourage self-evaluation by posing critical questions.

source: http://www.candychang.com/