Meaning in the Visual Arts:Exploring Folk Art and Contemporary Illustration This essay aims to explore the concepts of meaning and authenticity within the visual arts, looking at how this can be found within the respective subjects of contemporary illustration and folk art. ‘Meaning’ is defined as being informative in terms of what is meant by something (such as a word or concept), as well as what is intended to be communicated without being directly expressed. When considering these two subject areas, meaning could refer to themes and ideas, a message (social or political, for example) as well as emotional meaning which could take on a rather personal or introspective form. This exploration will take folk art as being defined as art created by regular, working class people with a lack of (or at least, limited) artistic training. The focus on folk art is due to its uninhibited nature, it is the result of ordinary people expressing themselves, their values, and their identities through the creation of art and other creative pursuits. Due to the lack of formal art education commonly found in folk artists,their works are free from the typically blinkered views and prejudices of the fine art world as well as other societal influences. Creative concerns such as accuracy, representation, perspective, and technical ability aren’t at the forefront of the creator’s mind – it is more about the act of making something as well as the ideas and messages that can be conveyed as a result. Where a piece of folk art may arguably be lacking in technical ability or conventional ‘artistry’, it makes up for in authenticity and charm – showing something about real people and real lives which is much richer than appearance alone. There is a clear disregard (consciously or otherwise) of artistic trends, fads, and styles. Folk art pieces are normally made to suit ‘local needs and tastes’ (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2010), as opposed to pleasing a specific demographic or audience. Themes typically depicted in folk art are traditions, everyday life, community and heritage, as well as personal experiences and storytelling. The meaning given to their works of art are purely for themselves, their communities, or others within their culture. The ‘British Folk Art’ exhibition (Tate Britain, 2014) was an accumulation and celebration of all things folk art. In the exhibition’s coinciding text, it states that the folk artist is ‘very much a storyteller’ interested in ‘more than just symbols’, who is not averse to ‘embellishing his picture with an accompanying text or short story to set the scene’ (pg.15, McMillan, 2014) When thinking about contemporary illustration, it can at times be worlds apart from the authentic nature of folk art, often criticised for being purely aesthetics-driven and vacuous. ‘It’s all about the materials, rather than the message’, ‘style over content’ and ‘function following form’ claims Zeegen in an article for Creative Review. In the text, Zeegen criticises the current state of contemporary illustration and graphic arts, declaring that the discipline is much too concerned with its own, an audience ‘primarily comprised of other illustrators’. These statements are sort of a call to arms for those in the industry, urging those involved to ‘transcend the discipline’ and communicate to a wider audience, creating more than just another ‘glossy new tome’ of ‘jam-packed illustration’ ‘to take pride of place on the coffee table’ (Zeegen, 2012). This view expressed by Zeegen can also be found in
McLuhan’s criticism of popular media, stating that ‘content follows form’ and creates restrictions on what can be portrayed (McLuhan, 1994). That is why each of these topics have been chosen as part of this essay, because the essence of both is communication, narrative, and storytelling. Whether this is through informative, recreational, educational, or promotional means (illustration) or through more traditional means such as sharing customs, conventions, heritage, and histories (folk art). In terms of the visual arts and their relation to folk art, ‘British visual culture today draws from its own rich history of folk art’ (McMillan, 2014, pg 11). With many practitioners embracing traditional approaches - McMillan cites Tracy Emin’s quilts and embroideries, as well as Bob and Roberta Smith’s sign paintings as parallels of folk art that have made their way into the contemporary art sphere. A contemporary practitioner that uses similar approaches in their work is Grayson Perry. Perry’s work shares quite a pertinent link with folk art and traditional crafts, working in formats such as pottery and tapestries which both have a rich history to them. The ‘stories’ or ‘meaning’ within Perry’s work is embedded into these very artefacts, for instance a series of pictures spanning the surface of a ceramic piece (The Rosetta Vase, 2011), or a set of tapestries that sequentially tell a story(The Vanity of Small Differences, 2012). These objects are not only a display of craft and design, but also weave in meaning through the use of narrative or symbolism.
(fig. 1) Taking inspiration from 18th Century painter, William Hogarth, Perry’s tapestries (fig. 1) chronicle the social history and class struggles of modern Britain through the use of narrative and the character of ‘Tim Rakewell’ – closely referencing Hogarth’s series of paintings titled ‘A Rake’s Progress’ which also depict the rise and fall of a central character.
By fusing together contemporary themes and ideas through rather traditional means, Perry creates art that not only communicates to the audiences of today but harks back to something much older and long-established. Much like Perry, Hannah Waldron is an example of a contemporary practitioner who also uses materials and processes with traditional origins to create work. Described as an illustrator and textile artist, Waldron creates weavings, scarves, prints, and publications amongst others that reflect her own travels and experiences, or in the case of her client-led projects, they depict the subject matter of an article or theme. Her works are often made of simplified forms and shapes, which is best-suited to working with textiles (fig. 2) – rather complex messages and ideas are boiled down into straightforward pictograms and visual symbols.
(fig. 2) Waldron not only considers weaving and similar processes from a technical standpoint, but also ‘the historical context of textiles as a whole’. She claims that when looking at examples from across historical periods, ‘you begin to observe a universal language of patterns and forms’ that are able to ‘tell narratives without words’ (It’s Nice That, 2012). The idea of communication continues over to her work within publications. ‘Stories in the Stars’ published in 2014 was a collaborative effort of Waldron’s, with the illustrations accompanying an author’s written stories. Dealing with traditional and ancient themes of astrology and constellation myths, Waldron’s images illuminate the accompanying text and even have subtle visual hints at the meaning behind each of the tales hidden within her intricate patterns. Waldron’s interest in these old methods of storytelling and the influence she draws from them show how they haven’t lost their communicative power after all this time, and that sharing a message or narrative is an integral part of her work as a contemporary illustrator.
In ‘The Fundamentals of Illustration’ (Zeegen, 2005), the National Museum of Illustration describes that illustrators ‘combine personal expression with pictorial representation in order to convey ideas’ (pg 11). Ideas and context also seem to be fundamental aspects of illustration according to Zeegen, referring to them as the ‘backbone of what an image is trying to communicate’ – ‘bringing life or visual form to a text or message’ (pg 95). His assertions make it clear that meaning no doubt measures up to aesthetics and that one cannot function without the other. ‘Art speaks to the mind, not to the eyes…art is a language: an instrument of knowledge and an instrument of communication’ (Dubuffet, Chicago Arts Club lecture, 1951). As an artist that always looked beyond fine art and the mainstream, drawing influence from primitive art, art brut, children’s drawings, and Rorschach ink blots, Jean Dubuffet’s own work (fig. 3) is naïve in style and possesses a ‘pseudo childlike nature’ which was seen as ‘a radical way of sweeping away the whole of artistic culture’ (Danchin, 2001). By moving away from the concerns of the art scene during his lifetime, he managed to create art that was authentic and universal. The themes of which always came from within, or from observations and experiences. The immediacy of his work doesn’t require in-depth explanation as the simplicity of its appearance makes it accessible and understandable to all; dealing with concepts of everyday life, emotions, and the human condition.
(fig. 3) Much like the amateur folk artists, Dubuffet rejected perspective, scale, depth, and representational image-making. Bold colours, expressive marks and textures, and childlike figures of are what characterises his work as well as being tonally both childish and psychological. Whereas Dubuffet’s art is more naïve in its aesthetic style and ethos, the work of Johnny Hannah (fig. 4) is an example of a contemporary practitioner drawing influence from the ephemera and subject matter concerned with folk and vernacular art, involving more real life objects compared to the visceral, psychological subject matter of Dubuffet’s paintings.
(fig. 4) Hannah’s book ‘Greetings from Darktown: An Illustrator’s Miscellany’ is a collection of a lot of these artefacts; references to jazz musicians, sailors, seaside towns, tattoo parlours, fairground rides, and with hand-drawn typography that is reminiscent of old amusements, penny arcades, and hand-painted shop signs. He has also been known to utilise unconventional surfaces and materials as part of his creative work, painting and adorning suitcases, guitars, toys, coffee pots, and others – which aligns with the resourceful, make-do attitude that is commonly found within folk art, using what is available. Although Hannah’s work does come from a personal interest in these subjects, there is arguably a danger of making folk art into a commodity or just an aesthetic style. However, in the text, his body of work is likened to a ‘new vernacular, a folk art of the twenty-first century’ stating that its content is ‘sourced in the apparently commonplace’ (Hoare, 2014, pg 13). Maybe this is the nature of contemporary illustration, sourcing things from past, present, future, from real life and imagination, from all of these places at once? This could be derived from a number of social factors, including the prevalence of the internet which has helped to make lots of information and reference material widely accessible which would have otherwise been overlooked. ‘Every image that Hannah creates has its own narrative’ explains Hoare, with ‘each illustration and assemblage (being) its own short story’ (pg 14). Maybe Hannah and artists like him do lend from the past, but they go beyond simply emulating a style by imposing their own meaning or importance to it. Hannah’s work revolves around his ‘magpie imagination’, ‘picking up that which history and our contemporary culture have left behind’ (pg 15). If you were to compare folk art to Adorno and Horkheimer’s criteria of ‘authentic culture’, it could indeed be classed as such. It is real, involves individual creation, imagination, and is not widely and passively consumed by the masses. In ‘The Culture Industry’ (2001) Adorno criticises mass popular culture, suggesting that our concepts of what is important or valuable in terms of culture is illusory, that our ‘unified standard of value’ comes from the level of ‘conspicuous production, the amount of investment put on show’ (Adorno, p97). Despite the text’s focus on popular culture (specifically film, TV, and radio) similar arguments could be applied to the arts, with the interest of the audience being ‘focused on technology (production methods)’ and not on the real meaning or thought, which Adorno refers to as ‘rigidly repeated, threadbare and half-abandoned content’ (pg. 108). Although visual art that is more commercially successful may give
power to the audience, surely with folk art, the power is with the maker themselves who aren’t concerned with commercial audiences.
(fig. 5) The practitioners and artists referenced have been a big influence on the practical work I have produced in response to my research. Not only in terms of the aesthetic choices made, but also the processes in which the drawings and images have been created. Fig 5 is an image of a collaged pieces comprised of cut-out drawings and other papers. The straightforward nature of the symbols and motifs depicted in the image have been influenced by the simplistic imagery commonly found in folk art, as well as a personal interest in naïve, lo-fi illustration. The visual exploration began with content that was more regionally-specific and the coast. However, over time this became more personal and removed from a general retelling of that specific landscape or place. As narrative and meaning were an important aspect of both the written and visual research, bringing in hand-drawn type and words became part of the images that were being made, almost to give a sense of context and a vague ‘story’ to the otherwise quite abstract forms. Although the words themselves are fairly cryptic as they are based on memories and personal experiences. Gannon’s essay on drawing in non-places sums up these intentions well when referring to her own sketchbook work; ‘memory and documentation co-exist in these images; the past and the present’ (Gannon, 2013) adding that she was not only recording a subject in front of her, but her own memories and impressions too. This can be evidenced in the image above, which layers up forms reminiscent of landscapes, objects, and happenings – showing that the images are more than just a drawing that looks like a typical seaside scene.
(fig. 6) The work goes on to explore the subject matter of region and origins, but in a much more personal and introspective way – to the point of where the setting and geographical area in the earlier drawings becomes irrelevant. The focus is more on feelings and associations, of being home, of what is remembered. ‘Drawing can be defined as both gesture (verb) and object (noun)’ (Gannon, 2013) – these images aren’t concerned with creating a finished item, but more about interpreting information (area, objects, mapping) and contrasting those with the intangible (memories, feelings, thoughts) through the act of drawing, through using ‘drawing as a process’ (Gannon, 2013). A link between the person creating and the work produced is evident and purposefully shown, which is also a common attribute of folk art which typically offers up stories, heritage, and histories with each artwork. Berger (2007) refers to drawing as ‘an autobiographical record of one’s discovery of an event – seen, remembered or imagined’. The appeal of folk art and similar areas of the visual arts could lie in the fact that they are led by the individual makers and artists and not dictated or led by any external influences or hierarchies. Barbara Jones, curator, writer, artist, with knowledge in the areas of the vernacular arts as well as British popular art, defined her book ‘The Unpopular Arts’ as ‘a book about the things that people make for themselves that are manufactured in their taste’ (pg 15). If that is the case, it suggests that folk art is more than just chintzy objects and crudely drawn artworks. It involves a level of making art for the sake of making, and expressing a sense of self and telling your own story.
Bibliography •Encyclopaedia Britannica, published 2010 <https://www.britannica.com/art/folk-art> • Zeegen, L. (2012). Where is the content? Where is the comment?. Creative Review. • McLuhan, M. and Lapham, L. (1994). Understanding media: The Extensions of Man. 1st ed. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. • McMillian, J. Kenny, R. and Myrone, M. (2014). The House That Jack Built: essay as sampler. British Folk Art. Tate Britain Book, London.
•Hannah Waldron Interview, It’s Nice That, published 2012 – Accessed 25.01.17 <http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/hannah-waldron> • Danchin, L. (2001). Jean Dubuffet. Finest S.A. / Editions Pierre Terrail, Paris. • Hoare, P. Chrisp, P. and Calvert, S. (2014). Greetings From Dark Town: An Illustrator’s Miscellany. Merell Publishers Limited, London. • Adorno, T. (2001). The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture. 2 nd ed. Routledge. • Jones, B. (2013). The Unsophisticated Arts. Little Toller Books • Being There: Conversational Drawing in a Non-Place – Rachel Gannon, Varoom Mag, 2013 – Accessed 27.02.17 http://www.varoom-mag.com/?p=4817 Image Sources • Fig 1. The Upper Class at Bay (2012), Grayson Perry – Website accessed 25.01.17 http://visualarts.britishcouncil.org/exhibitions/exhibition/the-vanity-of-smalldifferences-2013/object/the-upper-class-at-bay-perry-2012-the-vanity-of-smalldifferences-p8401 • Fig 2. Venice Weaving (2013), Hannah Waldron, website accessed 25.01.17 http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/hannah-waldron • Fig 3. CasseGamelle (1962), Jean Dubuffet, website accessed 25.01.17 http://www.dubuffetfondation.com/oeuvres/4382/4382.jpg • Fig 4. Jonny Hannah page spread, Merrell Publishers, website accessed 25.01.17 http://www.merrellpublishers.com/db_img/466spread6.gif • Fig 5, 6. My own work