ARTIST TALK MAGAZINE
October 2019 www.artisttalkmagazine.com
DISCOVER MORE Instagram: @elizabethlanafinearts
FEATURED ARTISTS ELKE JUNGBLUTH
4-9 THE PAINTED HALL
THE OLD ROYAL NAVAL COLLEGE
10-17 THOR RAFNSSON
18-23 NÉ BARROS
24-29 THE TIMES SQUARE EDITION
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M IL NE Milne Publishing is proud to present Artist Talk Magazine issue 10.
College. After a two year conservation project, The Painted Hall reopened March 2019.
Once again, I am pleased to showcase more incredible artists from around the globe.
Issue 10 is dedicated to the memory and work of Anne Karin Selvik Kristensen, who sadly passed away recently. Anne’s family and Artist Talk have chosen to print this issue in her memory.
All of the artists featured within this issue have given interesting, indepth and honest accounts about themselves, their work, views and ideas. In addition to the amazing images of the work they produce, which I know you the reader will enjoy and be inspired by. We have lots of incredible talent within this issue, with a wide range of subject matter for you to explore and enjoy. This issue’s cover is The Painted Hall at The Old Royal Naval
Thanks for reading. Grant Milne, Founder of Artist Talk Magazine
artisttalkmagazine ArtistTalkMag artisttalkmagazine
FRANCIS AKPATA
36-41 LUCIAN FREUD
42-47 JESSICA M. HANCOCK
48-53 MAURICIO VEGA
54-59 MATTHEW TAYLOR
60-65 ANNE KARIN SELVIK KRISTENSEN
66-71 DISCOVER MORE www.artisttalkmagazine.com
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ELKE JUNGBLUTH
Elke Jungbluth paints ever since she could hold a brush… as a child, as a teenager and also after studying mathematics and architecture, which have influenced her first works. She followed her heart and decided to pursue the path of an artist, instead of that of an architect. She has remained faithful to her decision of doing so.
The energy, with which she portrays patterns, form and lines artistically, ensure a unique and repeatedly fresh ambiance. Through the combination of colour, independent shapes and dynamic curves, she lends her works a characteristic tone.
Through painting, she wants to experience new luck and new delight. Thus, she is consistently forced into her atelier in Cologne Altstadt-Nord.
Through the traces of her personal artistic handwriting, her artworks demonstrate motion. Thereby, the artists’s character and vivacity are expressed.
river, but its flow - everything is constantly in motion.
Elke Jungbluth’s experimental experiences, following the shift of style from architectural themes and structure, to the present abstraction through colour and intuitive shapes, have accompanied the influence of time. She wants to excite the beholder’s curiosity, awaken the pleasure felt through the feeling of nature, yearning for levity. RED HOUSE IN THE MIDDLE
In her first works, she was fascinated by the manifestation of mathematical shapes and forms and architectural structures. Her works, however, slowly developed from Realism to the abstract.
Art responds to time, in which it is created and reacts to challenges.
It may, however, also offer a conscious distraction from one’s surroundings. For Elke Jungbluth, the time to express joy and delight through painting had matured. Through her works, she consciously sets a counterpoint, a kind of liberation from the trauma of catastrophes, war, hunger and suffering. Her art seems playful, conveys a sense of joy, lends an optimism to life and directly expresses the beauty of colour and shapes. Her works intend to serve the development of the soul and emanate optimism. They do not ask questions. Her colourful artworks portray the answer and the paths toward that, which is worthwhile living for- delightful moments conveying an unacquainted positive aura. Effortlessly, colour and shape combinations are spread over the canvas and set in a, from my point of view, distinctive balance and harmony.
SPANISH VILLAGE BY THE SEA
Today, she does not simply portray the being, but to be, not the flower, but its flourishing nature, not the
THE FRAUD
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SCREAMS IN ME
Her works remind the beholder of one of the first abstract Aquarelles from Kandinsky from 1910, which was seen as the cradle of abstract painting for a prolonged period of time. Elke Jungbluth’s pieces are, however, more densely filled, enabling a sensation of depth, guided by a sense of sentimentality. Following the theme of abstract expressionism and mirroring shapes, the artist leaves the choice of style open. Her pieces are the result of artistic spontaneity. The process of painting is the subject. The tension between colour and movement, abstraction, space and area can be clearly felt. Her works captivate the beholder to the extent of prohibiting his sight to rest. We move between lines and paths and rails, as well as figures, plants and buildings. She transforms cities and landscapes into rhythmical structures. Thereby, fantastical, dreamlike landscapes arise. Crowded, overlapping and consequent, colours demonstrating and portraying their limitless paths - exceeding the edge of the canvas - merge. The vivacious, feisty impetus, explosiveness and the reflection of the expressionistic style,
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using powerful and lively colours, make her artwork particularly distinguishable. In my opinion, the evolution into abstractedness, portrays a resolute step Elke Jungbluth has made. Her paintings have a characteristic rhythm. We are unable to detect a hierarchy in her works - everything seems equal. Emotion, inspiration and construction blend into each other through form-moulding, explosive painting techniques into admirable merriment. In her studio, Elke Jungbluth creates mood and motion by unintentional means of music playing in the background, lending
the art of painting a rhythm, tone and beat. This is then accompanied by colour, shape and form, pattern and composition to give birth to a new abstract piece. Elke Jungbluth seizes painting as an unbound system by pursuing her ideas and inspiration coherently. Limits are vanquished, while she allows colours to run freely and idly, enabling their independence to bloom. Her works reach into space. They search for contact with their surroundings and move between the abstract and composition (figuration).
CREATION
Her last works show a radical reduction in form. From my point of view, they live from dynamics and colour. As well in nature as in painting, colour takes the role of a powerful medium, that can convey aesthetic emotions. The artist has developed a unique and unmistakeable talent for this purpose. With her pronounced sense for and knowledge of colour, she creates paintings for an optimistic future. She downright drives her colours to an always brighter radiancy. “It is delightful to live by giving and obtaining the joy of the beholder.”, is what orange, yellow, blue and green on her canvas mean to say. The unconventionally inspired explosions of colour in her most recent pieces take up multiple phases to form. An essential element is colour itself, that Elke Jungbluth uses, to even out with a scraper, stroke with a brush, or to simply let it drip and flow on the canvas; guided by the central motif and theme, walking into intersecting paths. Remember how the artist Willem de Kooning once said: “Painting is that voiceless chapter, of which we may talk about endlessly.”
OH HAPPY DAY
February 2019 Dr. Edelbert Dold DISCOVER MORE www.ekses.de
THE SUMMER
CANDY PARK
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THE PAINTED HALL
THE OLD ROYAL NAVAL COLLEGE VESTIBULE DOME © NIKHILESH HAVAL
England has ever produced but, as I am sure he would have been the first to admit, he was not on a par with Michelangelo. Why was the Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College commissioned? It was commissioned to showcase the cultural and artistic brilliance of a nation, emerging from a period of instability and to provide a ceremonial centre piece for this grand new charitable project - the Royal Hospital for Seamen. Who was Sir James Thornhill? Thornhill was an emerging artist, born in Dorset in 1675. He was an apprentice to Thomas Highmore (appointed Sergeant Painter to William III in 1703) of the Painter Stainers Company and began his career undertaking private commissions for prominent (predominantly Whig) landowners. In 1707 he won the Greenwich commission which he finally completed in 1726. In 1715 he was also awarded the commission to decorate the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral in 1715. He was knighted in 1720 and died in 1734. What was the techniques Sir James Thornhill used? VIEW FROM THE VESTIBULE © NIKHILESH HAVAL
Please can you introduce yourself to our readers? My name is William Palin, the Conservation Director at the Greenwich Foundation. I am responsible for the conservation, care and maintenance of the buildings and grounds in the demise of the Greenwich Foundation for the Old Royal Naval College, including the four great Grade I-listed courtyard buildings designed by Sir Christopher Wren and built as the Royal Hospital for Seamen between 1696 and 1750. The site (about 8 acres) comprises
two Scheduled Monuments - the buildings above ground and the remains of the earlier, Tudor, Greenwich Palace below ground. The Painted Hall has been referred to as the ‘Sistine Chapel of the UK’ what is your views on this statement? I think this is helpful to explain to be people who haven’t visited the site, just how spectacular and important the Painted Hall interior is, but the two buildings are very different in terms of how and why they were painted. Thornhill was the most brilliant ‘history painter’
Thornhill produced a large amount of preparatory sketches, before executing his scheme direct on the dry plaster surfaces in the Painted Hall. He painted the architectural framework first and then added the figures and other elements. To give some context to when the hall was painted, could you briefly explain what was happening in the world at this time? During the 17th century, England emerged as a major European power with a powerful navy and land army. It was now trading across the globe and was a determinate power in Europe.
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PAINTED HALL CEILING © NIKHILESH HAVAL
Could you explain the meaning behind the paintings? The main painting ‘The Triumph of Peace and Liberty over Tyranny’ celebrates the founders of the Royal Hospital, William III and Mary II. They are shown under a canopy of state, with the king passing an olive branch and cap of liberty to a kneeling figure representing Europe. The king is trampling on a figure representing ‘arbitrary power and tyranny’ Louis XIV of France. Elsewhere in the ceiling England’s Naval power and scientific understanding, is shown to underpin mercantile prosperity.
VIEW FROM THE UPPER HALL © JAMES BRITTAIN
Do you know any hidden meanings or myths around the paintings? The meanings of the paintings are explained in the guide book which Thornhill himself published in 1724. Not all the figures are identified in this pamphlet however, some may be portraits of familiar historical or contemporary figures. What would you recommend visitors to do or know before they see the paintings, in order to enhance their experience?
SPANDREL FROM THE VESTIBULE DOME WITH ROYAL INSIGNIA © NIKHILESH HAVAL
Explore our new interpretation gallery and use the wonderful new multi-media guide, available with the ticket price. You have the Lower Hall ceiling, the Upper Hall ceiling and the west wall. What is the differences between them. Do you have a favourite section? The Lower Hall ceiling is free-er and more ‘baroque’ in its composition. The later Upper Hall ceiling is stiffer and more formal, reflecting the changing styles of the time. VIEW OF THE WEST WALL © JAMES BRITTAIN
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PAINTED HALL CEILING © JAMES BRITTAIN
PROSCENIUM ARCH © NIKHILESH HAVAL
In March 2019 the Painted Hall was restored and reopened after two years. What stimulated the restoration project? The need to clean and conserve the paintings and ensure their longterm preservation, by improving the environmental conditions in the Hall. What was the process of the restoration? The process involved three different methods - 1. A surface clean with deionised water 2. The gentle softening or ‘mobilisation’ of the existing varnished layer, using solvents in order to remove the whitening of the surface 3. In a few places some flake fixing and consolidation. What challenges did you face with the restoration? The scale of the project was
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very challenging involving the conservation of 40,000 sq ft of painted surface. Conditions were not easy, the small group of conservators (no more than 7 at one time) worked standing up and sometimes in severe heat and cold. Was traditional or modern techniques used? All techniques were based on traditional approaches but using modern conservation material. Did you learn anything new from the process of restoring these fine paintings? We learnt a lot about why the whitening (blanching) occurs and how this is affected by fluctuating relative humidity in the Hall. How have you used new environmental interventions to drastically slow down any future deterioration of the paintings?
We have stabilised the relative humidity (RH) using a range of strategies, including a new visitor route with environmental buffers such as the glazed screen in the undercroft; a new heating system to circulate air more gently and effectively and solar shading on the windows. After completing the restoration of the Painted Hall, if you could go back, would you do anything different? No! What is the future for the Painted Hall? We hope it will be another 100 years before we have to treat the paintings again. In the meantime, it is there for everyone to enjoy and to inspire and delight visitors.
DISCOVER MORE Website: ornc.org Email: info@ornc.org Phone: 02082694747 Ticket information: Pay for a day and come back free for a year Pay As You Wish Wednesday (first Wednesday of every month) Adults: £12 Kids 16 and under go free* Concessions available *Up to 4 children per paying adult Ticket includes: •
Entry to the Painted Hall
•
Multimedia Guide to the Painted Hall
•
Expert talks throughout the day
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Free activities for children
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Guided tour of our grounds and buildings – Sir Christopher Wren’s masterpiece
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Entry to the Victorian Skittle Alley
Transport
SOUTH WALL IN THE UPPER HALL, DEPICTING THE ARRIVAL OF WILLIAM III IN TORBAY © NIKHILESH HAVAL
Greenwich Pier (1 min walk) DLR Cutty Sark (3 mins) Greenwich Station (10 mins) Opening Times: Painted Hall (ticketed) 10:00 – 17:00 Visitor Centre & Chapel (free to visit) 10:00 – 17:00 Old Royal Naval College grounds (free to visit) 08:00 – 23:00 The London Pass is accepted.
WEST WALL DETAIL © NIKHILESH HAVAL
WINDOW AND NAVAL BENCH © JAMES BRITTAIN
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THOR RAFNSSON
Please introduce yourself to our readers? My name is Thor Rafnsson born in Reykjavik, I live and work in Denmark. Art and above all else, visual arts, have always been my big interest. Tell us about your education? I received my education at The Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts. Along with my education I worked in the evenings as an assistant
to known Icelandic artists. My personal theme in my images have been woven by my own development in life. In 1995 when I began work within Anthroposophy, I got a new inspiration for my work and developed an entirely new artistic impulse. The Waldorf education and the work there has given me a lot of influence while developing my personal style. It was during those years of study, that I found my internal expression in my pictures. Describe your work?
The colours are most often light and I endeavour to capture after concord and balance. Through the pictures I also want to try and express mankind’s internal spiritual room, where the creation of the images occur. How to pick a subject to paint? Most often I find my subject through the people I meet in my everyday life. Some encounters spur my imagination and I get the urge to put what I feel on canvas.
THE LAID BACK WOMEN
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I usually enjoy listening to audiobooks or listening to music, things like David Bowie or Pink Floyd. How does nature effect your work? Nature is a big part of what I do and I endeavour to emulate her in my art. Her colours, shapes and mood speaks of that concord and balance that I want to find when I create my work. Who is your favorite artist and why? I have many, but the one that sticks out the most right now is David Bowie and his ingenious way of having to always been able to renew his artistry, finding new ways to express his music. This is something I try to emulate myself as to not get stuck in a groove and get bored with the creation process. Which artists inspire your own art? THE MAN FROM THE PAST
Do you ever see yourself in one of your portraits you have painted? It happens, most often in a symbolic way. I think every painting an artist puts out has some of him or her in it always. It can be the way one felt at that moment, a feeling you would like to capture or a space to explore. How long does a piece take and do you have a process you go through? It depends on my personal motivation, or when I feel ready to put what I am processing on canvas. Sometimes it can be a matter of days, other times a matter of weeks.
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After you have completed a piece do you feel you have learnt anything? Every painting is often something new, both technically and spiritually. I can change my style of painting often to suit what I want to express and sometimes it is even a struggle, which forces me to explore new avenues, so that I can reach the visual language I want to express. Do you work from a photograph or a real sitter? I work with both and sometimes from imagination. What do you like to do when not creating art?
Erro, an Icelandic artist with vivid and energetic artwork that really boggles the mind and of course Salvador Dalí. If you was not an artist what would you be? I can’t say, all the persons or roles I think of has some kind of artistry involved in it. I don’t think I would be anything else at all really. Has social media affected the way you view your work? To say that it hasn’t would be lying. The abundance of access to both inspiration, other people’s works affects me every day. As well as the ease with which people can criticize or praise your work, it can be both good and bad.
I HEAR YOU
What has been your favourite piece? I Hear You Do you learn from criticism of your work? Like with everyone, yes, if it is constructive. Really it is hard to take criticisms on your pieces when so much of yourself is reflected in them. It is needed though, for ones continued growth as an artist. UNBOUND
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What are your future plans? I want to continue my painting and hopefully get to put it on exhibit in 2020. DISCOVER MORE www.thorrafnsson.dk
Instagram: @thor.rafnsson Facebook: @thor.rafnsson
NÉ BARROS
Layer by layer, Né Barros builds abstract shapes, highlighting the beauty found in the process itself. The central theme of his work is colour, texture, roughness and all its plasticity, strongly influenced by the beauty of nature. His work seeks in nature forms in the relationship between natural elements and those man made. Nature has its own way of reinventing itself and over the years regenerates as well. Né Barros strives for perfection in imperfections, insignificant marks and neglect that nature creates in the chaos of the human footprint, searching for grandeur and a myriad of colours that coexist within nature. The artist instinctively works with textures and colours. The materials used are deconstructed using methodically plastic materials - spreading, burning and tinting. Time is invested in its realisation: the artwork can take days, weeks or even years to create. Starting and starting over, sometimes letting the work breathe, allowing to evolve organically. Each piece is built with layers of paint, glue, resin, beeswax, in three-dimensional abstract forms that hover between object and image. Together they create a unique, visual and tactile landscape, forming depth and texture challenges for the viewer to reflect upon. Born in Almada, Portugal in 1964, Né currently has his studio based in Portugal. He started as a self-taught artist however, his curiosity and the constant thirst for learning and keeping abreast of new trends have made him complete his artistic training in painting, at the school of Arts of the National Society of Fine Arts, Lisbon. Subsequently having a complementary year of Atelier with the master Jaime Silva, where he acquired new concepts and new techniques.
COLOR MOVEMENT N° 2
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SUSHI
In 1998 he began to exhibit his work, starting to perform exhibitions regularly both individually and collectively. Participating in prestigious group exhibitions, personal highlights of exhibiting in New York City and London. NĂŠ Barros has had works sold around the world in private collections and in public collections. Furthermore, being a member of several artistic orders, having been awarded in Spain and in Italy. His artwork is spontaneous and inventive, the painting that he
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performs utilises a strong linear drawing of schematized shapes. Style of slightly contrasted charged colours that, by their strength, are able to transfigure the surrounding world into an inner universe. The artwork is a prime vehicle for conveying sensations and emotions. The painting is your stage leaving you an infinite palette of colour, this colour with an expressive trait, which gives plastic force and results in it various readings. Brushstrokes are important with in the work building the piece together, creating your imaginary
world, this world with a colourful richness, developing an aesthetic in the approach to canvas. The pieces translate a pictorial narrative rich in colour and movement, allowing the spectator to be carried away by their organised chaos. With his works he seeks to interact with today’s complex world of free form, spontaneity and above all instinctive. NÊ Barros work, allows instinct and inspiration to come in explosions, chromatic, accompanied by changeability and shifting energy with rich and abundant textures.
He says the following “I seek above all, that my work reflects light, colour, freedom and daring, conveying to the recipient pleasure, joy and contemplation. Allowing the art lover to have several readings of the work, which can be observed from various angles, directions and that after come back again, starting from the beginning but now discovering new ways. In painting I like the amazing universe of recipients who with she relates. Diverse, unexpected and as rich as human life itself. Around my works coexist with the most disparate looks, experiences, personalities and know. Everyone looks at her, but only each one feels and lives. ” In painting, the artist hopes that the work will neatly translate what he thought and felt disorganised. So more than images, seeks to convey the emotions without which his work would not have certainly existed. But more important than the emotion you seek to convey, is that painting causes emotions in people. The free creation must be rediscovered in the freedom of emotions that
COLOR MOVEMENT N°16
COLOR MOVEMENT N°15
their recipients lets you manifest. As an artist, Né Barros considers himself a marker of time, his works reflect a wave of contemporaneity. They are expressive and rhythmic to the sound of the new life we lead, always at a rapid pace and no time to contemplate all the beauty around us. The artist was inspired by The New York School, which was an informal group of abstract painters and other artists in NYC though it has become associated most with the abstract expressionist movement. He references Willem de Kooning and Arshile Gorky and Jackson Pollock. In 2019 Né began working in new mediums and trying new painting techniques, by mixing and remixing both oil and acrylic and begins the exploration of Encaustic painting. This being is a mixed media technique that involves using heated beeswax, to which coloured pigments have been added. The liquid/paste is then applied to a surface, usually prepared wood, although canvas and other materials are often used.
The term is derived from Greek, meaning a burning in. An ancient art begun by the Egyptians 5000 years old A.C. Having already thirty years of an artistic career, he continues as if it had begun yesterday. Curiously, constantly seeking new approaches and new abstract languages, often letting ink flow into their chaos, trying to control and guide this chaos to its intended effect. DISCOVER MORE
www.nebarros.net @artist_nebarros
COLOR MOVEMENT N°6
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THE TIMES SQUARE EDITION NEW YORK
EDITION USHERS IN A NEW ERA FOR TIMES SQUARE Ian Schrager recreates and reinvents the golden age of this world-famous icon for the present The Times Square EDITION may just be the long overdue and best thing to hit Times Square in over a century. There simply has never been anything like it before in New York City’s famed cultural and entertainment mecca. Ian Schrager, in partnership with Marriott International, introduces a new order with the first chic and sophisticated luxury hotel and the first Michelin-starred chef ever to grace the neighbourhood, along with the creation of a new form of Cabaret theatre and a complete reinvention of billboard art. But what could be the most important part is a revitalization of Times Square that will attract not just visitors and tourists, but New Yorkers as well, punctuating the area as the City’s epicentre and crossroads of the world...again. Throughout the decades, Times Square has seen myriad changes and has taken on many iterations. By World War I, it was the centre of culture, nightlife and entertainment. By the 40’s and 50’s, the Latin Quarter Nightclub presented festive floor shows that featured chorus girls and can-can dancers, Frank Sinatra, Frankie Laine and the Andrew Sisters. There was Tin Pan Alley, the Copacabana and the Theatre District. There was Roseland, Birdland, Ella Fitzgerald, marathon dancing, hot jazz, Doo-Wop and the pop rock of the Brill building as well as the invention of the now gossip columns. It was a democratic “meeting place” and nothing exemplified the disorder of the city or the dichotomy of high and low art than Times Square. Sadly, however, the Great Depression and World War II took its toll on the area and Times Square began its decline. From
the 60’s onward, the area was riddled with adult entertainment, prostitution, drugs, and crime. It wasn’t until the mid-80’s when the Marriott Marquis opened its doors and Disney debuted The Lion King at The New Amsterdam Theatre that the clean-up began with the redevelopment of new theatres, retail, hotels and eateries. Despite Times Square’s notorious reputation, it has managed to maintain itself as a symbolic global, geographic and cultural icon. It had long been home to media giants as well as the centre for theatre, music, culture and entertainment. This adventurous mold-breaking, however, has disappeared. Today, Times Square and its overindulgent commercialization lacks the substance and sex-appeal that once distinguished its streets. It is hungry for a Renaissance and The Times Square EDITION will usher in a new era. The hotel and all of its unique offerings seek to preserve the essence of the area during its Golden Age when it was the microcosm of the best New York City had to offer. From the moment you enter the hotel’s doors on 20 Times Square at West 47th Street, you are transported to another world-a
decompression zone. A long ivory hall with venetian plastered walls and ceiling and a floating custom green mirrored stainless sphere inspired by Anish Kapoor and the colours of Jeff Koons await you. Once you arrive at the Lobby and Lobby Bar, a series of black and white spaces, you are convinced that you are no longer in colourful Times Square anymore. The refined and pristine spaces of The Times Square EDITION are juxtaposed against the energy, vibrancy and chaos of Times Square. Each of these two extremes serves the other yet each stands on its own. But together, something new, original, and even stronger is created. Indeed, with this alchemic symbiosis, a new reality and a virtual fourth dimension is created. As you move in and out continuously, the space becomes boundaryless. This clash of worlds, this surreal sense of space and time is best experienced on the outdoor terraces, appropriately named the Bladerunner Terraces, that frame the various public space floors. On the terrace off the Lobby Bar, you can choose to be in your own private oasis escaping in a cocoonlike area or face the brilliance of flashing light and colour of Times Square for the best light show in the world.
ENTRANCE
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THE TERRACE RESTAURANT
Off the Terrace Restaurant, a similar feeling awaits on expansive terraces that were inspired by the L’Orangerie at Jardin des Tuileries in Paris. The outdoor space in totality with thousands of plants, trees and ivy is perhaps the biggest indoor landscaping effort in the country was designed by Madison Cox and is literally, multi-level gardens in the sky. The public space interiors with their rich woods, lush velvets, waxed leathers, polished marbles and smooth metals are combined to create a chic, simple, hip, serene and luxurious setting, an antidote to the hectic life just outside the hotel’s doors. “The Times Square EDITION is an entirely new lens on Times Square. From an aerie above the hubbub below, you can engage, observe or withdraw. The hotel is an oasis of sophistication brought to you through the insight of the
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incomparable Ian Schrager, my friend and partner. There is simply nothing like it.” Arne Sorenson, President and CEO, Marriott International
TERRACE RESTAURANT ENTRANCE
The entrance to the Terrace restaurant will host the debut exhibit of specially curated candid portrayals of “the real New York
City”, the one not seen by visitors, capturing energetic, gritty and poetic street and neighborhood scenes by renowned photographers Helen Levitt, Elliott Erwitt, Bruce Davidson, Ruth Orkin, Arthur Leipzig and Cornell Capa to name a few. The following exhibit will shift to more current street scenes illustrating the culture and diversity that pervades the city today. The space will continue to house rotating photography and art exhibits by various well-known photographers and artists. “Why theatre? It’s live. It’s real. It’s the closest thing to dreams. Having theatre born out of order negates the whole point. What we make comes from utter chaos. Chaos is where we learned to do this even before we knew what we were doing.” Anya Sapozhnikova The shows will be part theatre, part performance art with talent
across many disciplines including dance, voice, aerial acrobatics, choreography, costume design and magic. There will be a regular ongoing performance based on William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. With no formulas, rules or any specific structure, but not for shock value, each performance at Paradise Club will be different from the previous one and different from the next. For a new twist on dining and entertainment, the menu will be original and creative from hot dogs to caviar and everything in between. “Paradise Club is a place of aspiration...Invention and reinvention...A refuge to enjoy life and forget life and the perfect place to escape into fantasy.” Ian Schrager This one-of-a-kind cultural entertainment space also features the most sensational, immersive, colourful and kinetic lighting effects designed by Tony and Academy Award-winning Fisher Marantz of Studio 54 fame and inspired by a Lenny Kravitz video, as well as bespoke hand painted murals inspired by Bosch and Dali--a modern successor to the world famous Maxfield Parrish’s King Cole mural on Fifth Avenue. Perhaps the most spectacular element of the space is the full-blown production studio and control centre that allows for live simulcasts and broadcasts around the world, as well as locally to a “Best in Class” 17,000 sf-8K8mm Jumbotron outside of the building and a high definition digital screen on the stage. The exterior Jumbotron will also display rotating art by current video artists, cinematographers and animators.
THE TIMES SQUARE EDITION EXTERIOR
DISCOVER MORE
www.editionhotels.com/times-square
All images taken in The Times Square
EDITION feature have been taken by Nikolas Koenig.
LOFT SUITE
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FRANCIS AKPATA
My initial foray in art was as a young boy that liked to draw comics and depict superheroes like Spiderman, the Incredible Hulk and then started painting the characters in Star wars like Darth Vader. With Star wars I decided to place the characters in settings like the desert and in mountains. I always retreated to this world, to depict any subject I was interested in. Once while painting the seaside as a teenager, I painted the river and sky green. My fellow students looked at it as awkward, while my tutor said it is like an impressionist painting. This led me to also study history of art movements like impressionism, expressionism, cubism. I studied philosophy at Kings
College London and focused on aesthetics. I studied the aesthetics of Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Hegel and Schiller. After graduation I took life drawing and painting courses at the City Literary institute. In art I am primarily concerned with the concept of the sublime. The sublime normally refers to something unusual , it surprises us and takes us to a new direction. This being physical or conceptual. We describe something as sublime when it stretches our imagination and understanding in that we are going beyond obviates of our usual expectation or calculation and so we tend to ponder a bit before we comprehend what the artist has painted. The German Philosopher Kant, put the sublime into 3 categories the noble, the
splendid, and the terrifying. Kant also described the sublime as taken forms which are the “mathematical and dynamical”. A painting becomes sublime when it compels us to reflect while comprehending the painting as the impressionist, surrealist or fauvist have done in the past with any new genre.
BEETHOVEN AFTER EROICA
This is what I attempt to depict with my paintings, I am particularly interested in altering or affecting the audience’s perception of a person, an object or concept. I also like to place a painting in different settings or context. I have exhibited with a group called Art Below where we exhibit a painting in a gallery and then placed a poster of the painting in an open space, like the train station or a bill board poster. I like the reaction of the audience when they see a painting or sculpture in a setting where they would not normally expect it.
THE LABYRINTH
I am particularly influenced by three art movements, German expressionism in relation to my use of colour, Cubism/African sculpture when it comes to drawing or use of space. Perspective and abstract expressionism, in relation to depicting subconscious ideas.
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or carrying out an unrelated activity, a theme or idea comes to me. This could be listening to music or watching a film. That Idea becomes the subject of the painting. . I usually stand in front of a canvas and paint until some patterns and shapes form a rhythm and format of their own. Abstract painting teaches me to trust my subconscious mind, to create patterns with colour and take me for a journey to reach its own destination. I like abstract painters like Kandinsky, Hans Hoffman and Mark Rothko. They enable us to see how colour and form, without representing anything in particular, give us the feeling of perceiving the sublime. The same occurs with the paintings of Van Gogh, Basquiat and Lucien Freud.
JOHN COLTRANE “BEFORE ASCENSION”
I have an initial idea and then slowly decide which style would be most apt to depict the idea. Following Kant’s idea, I aim not just to depict the beautiful which “relates to the form of the object” and has “boundaries” which reduces the ability to depict anything that will challenge the audience’s expectations. Kant said the sublime “is to be found in a formless object” which is represented by “boundlessness”. That “boundlessness” quality is what I want the subject to have in my painting. I paint in the representational and abstract form. With representational I choose my subjects when I am interested in something that relates to the subject or have met someone that has an interesting face or unique personality. I have done a series of portraits of Jazz and classical composers. The style here is a mixture of expressionism in the use of colour and cubism in terms of space and perspective.
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With representational painting, I am more focused on using my conscious mind and imagination but would like the perceiver to have a variety of interpretations. I have less control with abstract painting, In that while meditating
I like to play classical or ambient music when painting. With a representational painting, the music makes me focus and concentrate on detail. While painting abstract, the music enables me to tap into the subconscious meditative mood. In the future I aim to make installation videos with performance artists. DISCOVER MORE
www.francisakpata.com
MILES DAVIS “MUSIC FROM THE STILL POINT”
MEANDERING SEAMLESSLY
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LUCIAN FREUD
Lucian Freud: The Self-portraits will be the first exhibition to focus on the celebrated artist’s visceral and unflinching selfportraits. Executed over almost seven decades on canvas and paper, the exhibition will bring together around 50 works that chart Freud’s (1922-2011) artistic development: from his early, more linear and graphic works to the fleshier painterly style that became the hallmark of his later work. The majority of the works are from private collections and a number have not been seen publicly for several decades. The exhibition will be organised following a loose chronology in six sections, revealing Freud’s unexpected and wide-ranging exploration of the self-portrait. Freud was once asked if he was a good model for himself, to which he replied “No, I don’t accept the information that I get when I look at myself and that’s where the trouble starts”. This ‘trouble’ led to a continuous confrontation with his self-image that went in tandem with his interrogation of paint. This will be highlighted within the first section that places his first major self-portrait, Man with a Feather, 1943 (Private Collection)
MAN WITH A FEATHER, 1943
SELF-PORTRAIT, REFLECTION, 2002
alongside his late work Selfportrait, Reflection, 2002 (Private Collection). While the first reveals the tight brushwork that would define his early period, the latter exemplifies the use of impasto and the technical virtuosity of his mature work. The second section will focus on Freud’s early works, including his drawings and sketchbooks. They reveal a playfulness in his presentation of his own self-image that was especially evident into the 1960s. He depicts himself in the mythological guise of Actaeon (Self-portrait with Antlers), 1949 (Private Collection), and as a character in illustrations for plays and stories such as Flyda and Arvid, 1947 (Private Collection).
STARTLED MAN: SELF-PORTRAIT, 1948
Freud also began to put himself in and out of the frame, his eyes peering from the bottom of a page, or his side profile from the edge of the canvas such as in Still-life with Green Lemon, 1947 (Private Collection).
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HOTEL BEDROOM, 1954
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Freud’s work from the 1950s traces a gradual transition towards his mature style, prompted in part by changes to his working method, which will be the focus of the third section of the exhibition. Hotel Bedroom, 1954, (The Beaverbrook Foundation, Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton) is the last work Freud painted sitting down at the easel. He said, “I felt I wanted to free myself from this way of working. When I stood up I never sat down again”. Freud’s intense friendship with Francis Bacon contributed to another development, seen in works such as Self-portrait, c.1956 (Private Collection). Adopting the use of more coarse hog’s hair brushes helped further open up his brushwork towards the sweeping impasto that would become characteristic of his later work. SELF-PORTRAIT, C. 1956
reflected source of his self-image by depicting mirrors, which can be seen in Hand Mirror on Chair, 1966 (Private Collection). Freud stated that he used mirrors to remain true to visual experience, as well as to try and see himself from unconventional angles and capturing aspects of his face visible to others but that he remained less familiar with. MAN’S HEAD (SELF-PORTRAIT III), 1963
Further sections of Lucian Freud: The Self-portraits will reveal his working process, where a number of sketchbooks and unfinished portraits will be on display. At times Freud gave his brushwork a sharper edge, to suggest a door lintel or trace a separation between wall and floor, locating the artist in his own studio. At others he drew attention to the
The final sections will examine Freud’s later self-portraits, in which his mastery of paint is matched by the imposing and uncompromising image of himself. Works such as, Reflection (Selfportrait), 1985 (Private Collection, on loan to the Irish Museum of Modern Art) possesses the intensity and penetrating stare for which Freud was renowned throughout his career. In 1993, shortly after he turned 70, Freud completed Painter
Working, Reflection, 1993 (Private Collection): “Now the very least I can do is paint myself naked.” Having given new expression to the nude in his portraits of others, Freud turned his unflinching gaze back onto himself, depicting himself naked but for a pair of unlaced boots. Between 2002 and 2003 Freud painted two further self-portraits. Sombre in mood, they show him now in his 80s, clutching his scarf and resting his chin on his hand, his face gaunt and built up with thick layers of paint. Freud’s portraits chart a life’s journey, from young boy to old man, in what was effectively an ongoing study into the process of ageing and the changes it inflicted on his own physical form. Few other artists in the 20th century have portrayed themselves with such consistency.
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REFLECTION WITH TWO CHILDREN (SELF-PORTRAIT), 1965
Lucian Freud biography Lucian Freud, OM (8 December 1922 – 20 July 2011) is celebrated as one of the foremost 20thcentury painters. Born in Berlin in 1922 to Ernst L. Freud and the grandson of Sigmund Freud, Freud’s family moved to Britain in 1933 to escape the rise of Nazism. In 1939 he attended the East Anglian School of Painting, after enrolling for only a short time at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London the previous year. Freud moved to London in
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1943 and over the next few years he became closely involved with the London arts scene, forming a particularly close friendship with Francis Bacon. In 1944 Freud was given his first solo show at the Lefevre Gallery in London. Freud’s early career as a painter was influenced by surrealism, but by the early 1950s his paintings tended towards realism and drawing became less prevalent. From 1954 Freud no longer sat down to paint, finding standing to be less restrictive, and by 1956,
having chosen to work with coarser hog’s hair brushes there was a dramatic stylistic shift in his work. By 1966 Freud moved away from painting only the heads of sitters to full-length portraits, although his self-portraits remained focused on his head and torso. In 1977 Freud moved to a top-floor apartment in Holland Park, which continued to be his studio for the rest of his career. In 1990 Freud met the artist David Dawson, who became Freud’s studio assistant and remained his close friend, assistant and model until Freud’s death. In
1993 Freud was made a member of the Order of Merit, limited to only 24 living recipients at any one time. Freud was an intensely private man, and his paintings, completed over a 60-year career, are mostly of friends and family. He died in 2011 at the age of 88, having worked until two weeks before his death. Organisation The exhibition is organised by the Royal Academy of Arts, London in collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It is curated by Jasper Sharp, Adjunct Curator for Modern and Contemporary Art at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, and David Dawson, painter and photographer, and Freud’s former studio assistant with Andrea Tarsia, Curator at the Royal Academy of Arts.
About the Royal Academy of Arts The Royal Academy of Arts was founded by King George III in 1768. It has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to be a clear, strong voice for art and artists. Its public programme promotes the creation, enjoyment and appreciation of the visual arts through exhibitions, education and debate. The Royal Academy launched a new campus as part of the celebrations of its 250th anniversary year in 2018. Following a transformative redevelopment, designed by the internationally-
acclaimed architect Sir David Chipperfield RA and supported by the National Lottery, the new Royal Academy of Arts reveals more of the elements that make the RA unique – sharing with the public historic treasures from its Collection, the work of its Royal Academicians and the Royal Academy Schools, and its role as a centre for learning and debate about art and architecture – alongside its world-class exhibitions programme. DISCOVER MORE www.royalacademy.org.uk All works by Lucian Freud and © The Lucian Freud Archive / Bridgeman Images
The exhibition will travel to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston from 1 March – 25 May 2020. Dates and Opening Hours Sunday 27 October 2019 – Sunday 26 January 2020 10am – 6pm daily (last admission 5.30pm) Fridays until 10pm (last admission 9.30pm) Admission Full price £18.00 (£16.00 excluding Gift Aid donation); concessions available; under 16s go free; Friends of the RA go free. Tickets Tickets are available daily at the RA or by visiting www.royalacademy.org.uk. Group bookings: Groups of 10+ are asked to book in advance. Telephone 020 7300 8027 or email adultgroups@royalacademy. org.uk. BURLINGTON HOUSE COURTYARD ©FRASER MARR
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JESSICA M. HANCOCK
Her artistic style is very clean and has been described in many ways, but the favourite is “Vennism” breaking apart multivariate reality into constituent and relational elements, as separated and nested 2D representations. Everything Jessica draws is done entirely by hand using only a compass and ruler as guides.
Jessica Marie Hancock (formerly Springman) is a visual artist producing highly detailed drawings with strong geometric elements. She received her Bachelor’s degrees in Communication and Art from Westminster College of Salt Lake City in 1998. Interested in the concepts of design and spatial relationships, her work explores the idea of abstraction, as it relates to aesthetic uniformity and universal balance.
Contemporary art is typically distinguished by the lack of a uniform organising principle, ideology, or -ism. This freedom of expression gives voice to the varied and changing cultural landscape of identities, values, and beliefs that are rapidly emerging and converging worldwide today.
The art produced is highly sophisticated, very detailed and Early in the artists life, Jessica clearly ordered. It is not created to noticed that she was able to draw be interpreted as “sacred” or based better than most of her classmates. in any way on the principals of Even before realising (or really mandala. There are similarities that caring) how art was used privately people often point out, but that’s or commercially, people would the abstract nature of her work, complement her on the ability of doing exactly what contemporary the work she produced, labelling art is supposed to do - leave the it a “gift,” and emphatically viewer free to interpret the art encouraging her not to waste from their own unique perspective it. Later on understanding and - spatially, spiritually and appreciating the “art world” and emotionally. If they “see” answers as more and more people started to the mysteries of Life in her work, asking if the work was available for good for them. sale, realising the potential to make a life with the “gift.”
PRISTINA
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DARKNESS
Audiences also play an active role in the process of constructing meaning about works of art, especially in the contemporary sense. The viewer contributes to (and sometimes even completes) the artwork by offering his or her personal reflections, experiences, opinions, and interpretations. They can revel in the detail or focus on the overall composition. It doesn’t matter and THAT is what makes it art - It was made , but the second it is shared by Jessica, it becomes irrelevant and the viewer’s “self” take control. Nothing in the universe is truly random and everything, however small, has a purpose. Jessica strives to express these personal truths in all of her art. Everything is created entirely by hand using only a ruler and compass as guides, rarely sketching and with no maths. The finished image is completely in Jessica’s mind. The challenge
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is figuring out how to faithfully render it on paper. Jessica has been the focus of many solo exhibitions and included in over 65 art shows since 2013. She is the recipient of various honours and awards, including membership with the National Association of Women Artists (2017), a
Distinguished Artist Award from ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal (2016) and the 2015-2016 Stutz Artist Association Studio Resident Award (Indianapolis, IN). She was also awarded one of 12 seats at the Butler [Indiana] University Religion, Spirituality, and the Arts Symposium in 2016.
WELCOME RACE FANS INSTALLATION
Jessica’s work was recently used by Pearl Drums, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Boy Scouts of America. She has been published twice by Westminster John Knox Press and can be found in print circulations including ArtAscent, StudioVisit Magazine and Artblend Gallery’s “The Art Book 2019”. She is represented by the Directory of Illustration, the Art Works Gallery (Cedar City, UT), the Evan Lurie Gallery (Carmel, IN) and the Artblend Gallery (Pompano Beach, FL). Jessica is most proud of being accepted to the National Association of Women Artists, as a regular juried member, in November 2017. The NAWA is the oldest women’s fine art organisation in the country, founded in 1889 and is considered a pioneering organisation for the advancement of women in the arts. Notable past members she personally admires include Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot and Cecilia Beaux. Through the NAWA her work is archived at the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University and with the Smithsonian Institution. DISCOVER MORE www.jhancockart.com
OMAR HAKIM WITH THE OFFERING PEARL DRUMS
WELCOME RACE FANS
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MAURICIO VEGA
selected and awarded in different competitions and biennials such as: Rufino Tamayo, Diego Rivera, Alfredo Zalce, Julio Castillo, National Painting Salons, INBA, among others. In 2017 he participated in the First
International Biennial of Painting of Mexico in the Museum of Contemporary Art of San Luis Potosí and in 2018 he made “Umbralia” individual exhibition at the Cultural Centre of the Hellenic Community, Embassy of Greece.
Mauricio García Vega (MAURICIO VEGA) is a painter, illustrator and graphic designer, with painting studies at the AFHA Institute of Plastic Arts in Barcelona, Spain. He is a graduate of the Free School of Art and Advertising, Mexico City. With more than 400 individual and collective exhibitions in Mexico, the United States, Cuba, Argentina, Spain, France, Sweden and Italy. His work has been
REVELACIONES
JUEGOS DE ARTIFICIO
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GOTIKA
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PESADILLA
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NEZAHUALCÓYTL...UNA VISIÓN
The direct and vigorous impact of a work that seeks to create multiple and infinite spaces through new forms, with a strong expressive load is implied in the plastic language of Mauricio Vega.
museums and private collections both nationally and internationally.
Instagram: @mauriciogarciavega
DISCOVER MORE www.pintoresmexicanos.com/ mauriciovega
It is a maze of mirrors where we find megalithic architectures, telluric skies, apocalyptic symphonies of an artist who, like Orpheus, descends into the abyss; to that hell that only through art could be accessed and thus resurface with new life, which in him is feeling, is passion. In his painting we find Piranesi, Goya, Bacon who support his vision of the classic, the modern and the avant-garde. Mauricio Vega’s work has as a fundamental premise, that the value of painting prevails beyond what it may represent. He currently explores with other materials such as clays, metals and plastics in search of a three-dimensional language. His work is part of institutions,
ROJO (PRESENCIA)
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MATTHEW TAYLOR
It was 1997 when Matthew Taylor cracked open the sizable biography on Marcel Duchamp his father had given him to read. Matthew had grown up in an artistic family, his mother was a fashion photographer and his father a painter and photographer. As Matthew was about to enter art school the next year, his father thought an understanding of Marcel Duchamp would be the perfect preparation. Little did Matthew or his father know what would come next. The biography, written by Calvin Tomkins, quickly became not only Matthew’s Bible, but his “anarchist cookbook” that completely rearranged his perspective of the world. Suddenly there were no universal truths, no absolutes, nothing but a drive to adopt every material, meeting and experience as something to be molded and adopted as a creative act. Matthew entered every assignment with Duchamp whispering in his ear to subvert, change, and sometimes make something interesting. While in art school, the turn of the millennium occurred. There was optimism, excitement and a whole new world opening up. Massive technological and cultural shifts happened with the rise of Google and the democratization of creative tools. For Matthew, these new technologies opened up infinite possibilities in the trajectory of creative thought. He discovered the art of filmmaking, but more on his own terms by taking the camera and adopting it, similar to how a sculptor shapes his material. And thanks to Duchamp, there was no shortage of material to manipulate.
DIRECTOR DESCENDING THE STAIRCASE
JEFF KOONS, A VOICE IN MARCEL DUCHAMP: THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE
But Matthew identified something more interesting. Since he also had a deep interest in art history as well as art theory, Matthew noticed the parallels between Marcel Duchamp’s formative years at the turn of his own century and the turn of the millennium that Matthew was living through. Duchamp also witnessed massive technological changes - including the discovery of the X- Ray, photography, cinematography, non-Euclidean geometry, the 4th dimension, the deconstruction of science by Henri Poincare and the breakthroughs coming out of Madame Curie’s lab. These scientific shifts shaped and influenced the artists of the day, leading to Cubism, Futurism, and DADA. Few artists were more influenced by these radical changes than Marcel Duchamp, who appropriated these scientific changes in his work. Marcel Duchamp was a quintessential 20th century man who embraced technology and its impact on the future. As a young artist at the beginning of the 21st century, Matthew felt a connection to his idol. With the new century laid out before him, Matthew saw Duchamp as an artist of the future, a guide on interpreting the unknown and thinking of black swan events creatively. Matthew decided that he wanted to make a film about these ideas.
Years later, after Matthew had traveled the world, made over 100 shorts films, and worked on dozens of film projects, he finally pulled the trigger on creating a film about Duchamp. In February 2013, Matthew shot his first interview with Dalia Judovitz in Atlanta and a month later moved to New York City to start the movie. This effort took five years with production spanning five countries and 33 interviews. Matthew talked with great artists including Jeff Koons, Marina Abromovic, Ed Ruscha and Joseph Kosuth as well as scholars including Michael Taylor and Francis Naumann and individuals who knew Duchamp personally including his step-son Paul Matisse and Arturo Schwartz, who made the 1964 edition of the Readymades. Matthew filmed Duchamp collections at the Yale Art Gallery, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Eskenazi Museum of Art in Indiana in addition to private collections.
BEHIND THE SCENES OF MARCEL DUCHAMP: THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE WITH ARTIST GERARD MALANGA
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technology, the film’s third act opens with David Bowie discussing the Internet in 1999. In this interview, Bowie outlines how the era of the Internet is the ultimate embodiment of Duchamp’s own Creative Act Essay. Duchamp gave viewers the freedom to have an opinion on art, thus bringing them directly in to the art making process.
A DOCUMENTARY, A MOVEMENT
In early 2019, Matthew’s vision of a film about Duchamp came to fruition as Marcel Duchamp: Art of the Possible was released. Art of the Possible is a 90-minute journey through Duchamp’s thought process, ideas and art. The film takes the audience on an odyssey to examine the idea of an idea and how to liberate and empower one’s own self as a maker and creator. A critical aspect of the film is to show that Marcel Duchamp is not an ivory tower philosopher or an irreverent artist making
fun of everything. Rather, he is a liberator of the individual. The freedom to think and be was not only in Duchamp’s work, rather, his work was the catalyst of his ideas. Duchamp’s gestures, artwork and writing make one think and force viewers to address serious philosophical questions about the state of humanity and how and why we assign value. Matthew believes Marcel Duchamp is a 21st century artist that can act as a guide in our rapidly changing technological world. Drawing on his own interest in art and
It is for these reasons that Matthew set out to make the film - to re-contextualize Duchamp for a new generation of art lovers, Silicon Valley start-ups, gallery goers as well as everyday citizens who use Instagram and YouTube to broadcast themselves. As we become digital avatars of ourselves, there is an opportunity to look back at what Marcel Duchamp was doing in order to see the clear horizon going forward. What appeals to Matthew most about Duchamp is that his ideas reach far beyond the borders of art. Duchamp empowers any person who chooses to use their mind and “do” something. Duchamp eliminates the artificial hierarchy set by man, and allows
FOUNTAIN, A MOST NOTORIOUS READYMADE
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anybody “to do” to the best of their ability, no matter what industry they work in. Under Duchamp, everything is available to be used and adopted and changed. This is a strong theme that runs through the Art of the Possible film. Marcel Duchamp: Art of the Possible released an abridged version on ARTE in Germany and France in June and recently was screened in Mexico City to coincide with the Duchamp/Koons exhibit, bringing this new fresh perspective on Duchamp to a global audience. In November the film will make its North American premiere at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden to accompany the opening of a new year-long exhibit on Duchamp. Over 20 years ago, Matthew set out on a journey into the mind of the father of conceptualism and came out the other side a true believer in the unlimited ability of freedom in creativity. As Art of the Possible enters distribution, Matthew hasn’t stopped working, already shooting multiple documentaries, short films, as well as several fine art and music projects.
MATTHEW TAYLOR AND JOSE AT THE DUCHAMP/KOONS EXHIBIT AT MUSEO JUMEX IN MEXICO CITY
“METAMORPHOT”, SHORT FILM BY MATTHEW TAYLOR
Matthew says of his film “I just hope people feel as liberated as I did when I first read that book. Marcel Duchamp is a guiding light, if you can think, that’s good enough.” DISCOVER MORE
www.matthewtaylorcreative.com
“DROIDICA”, SHORT FILM BY MATTHEW TAYLOR
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ANNE KARIN SELVIK KRISTENSEN
My name is Anne Karin Selvik Kristensen. I live with my husband in Egersund, we have 3 grown up children and 10 grandchildren. After finishing my degree in physiotherapy I specialised in paediatrics treatment and worked full time for 20 years. As far back as I can remember my main interest was drawing and I attended art courses and did self learning studies as often as time allowed. Passing 40 years old I eventually became a full time student at art school and the years following I became a student at a graphic workshop for 3 years. Eventually I
could afford to have my own studio with a press to do graphic artworks. During this time I had several exhibitions with my art friends in the district, all with graphic art. With my close proximity to children both at work and to my 10 grandchildren, all born within a period within 12 years, it was natural that this gradually became my subject matter. Taking the little babies to work 3 days a week, I worked in my studio for the following days, often having my grandchildren asking to be a model or just being around. These years I have mainly been working with charcoal and graphic art in all sizes.
I have completed commissions of children and also many portraits of my own family. Recently I have painted all my grandchildren in oil on panels size 30/40 cm.
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SARA, GRAPHITE
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What inspires me? Of course my family and my young patients. I love their openness, innocence, spontaneity and trust and of course their funny facial expressions. They hide nothing behind a mask and are totally themselves all the time. I also get inspired by all kinds of portrait artwork, both by visiting major galleries in Europe and and by studying art books. I love both classic figurative art and part of our modern art. I live in a small fishing town by the sea with nature close by and summertime we move out to live in a cottage only 10
minutes drive from our house. I get inspired when I’m out at sea and when I hike along the shore or in the mountains. During the summertime I try to spend time outdoors painting landscapes. I have attended several plain air workshops in Europe during the last 5 years. I doodle in my sketch book as often I get a chance, mostly in the evenings half watching something on TV. Drawing with a fine liner or a ball pen. Never knowing what the result will look like, it is a relaxing and lovely way to draw.
MY DAILY DOODLES, PILOTPEN
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DOODLES, PILOT PEN
MY CHILDREN GETTING READY FOR BED, OIL PAINTING
What is my favourite artwork? It must be a painting I did years ago of my three children getting ready for bed. It is a typical situation motif and as they now have moved out and got their own children, it brings back lovely memories of a hectic but lovely time. When I have completed a piece of art I am mostly done with it. When it is sold by a gallery I forget all about it. Apart from that I see things to correct all the time, if I have drawings and paintings in the studio. Having a blank canvas is a dream, everything is possible! But quite soon I’m dictated too by forms, lines and values to make a composition work.
LOTTA, GRAPHITE
I do learn from criticism of my work. Of course I received a lot of criticism at art school, all the students did. Our teachers mostly encouraged us to make modern non figurative art, something that was of little interest for me at that time. My children and my husband love to make comments about my artwork, both in a positive and in a negative way. And thats ok. We all need an honest response from others. This feature is dedicated to the memory and work of Anne Karin Selvik Kristensen, who sadly passed away after writing this. Anne’s family and Artist Talk have chosen to print this issue in her memory.
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MOTHER, GRAPHITE
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SARA, CHARCOAL
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VI HOUR
PORTRAIT
CHALLENGE Famous Portraits A - Z
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