Travis Louie

 Going back to the idea I had dabbled in my KAC review about what a drawing really is led me to thinking about Travis Louie's work. He does portraits based on an imagined culture that takes place in the Victorian and Edwardian era.

After seeing his imagery, it is no suprise learning about his roots. Louie was born in Queens, NY and spent his childhood making drawings  and watching atomic age sci-fi and horror films. On the weekends, he would spend his time at comic shops and seeing matinee shows at the theater. Louie was constantly "researching" and really loved 50's memorabilia. Specifically; rockets, superheros, monsters, pulp art, king kong, and godzilla.  This highly impacted his imagination, but the quality of his portraits was mainly influenced by the lighting and atmosphere of German film expressionist films and film noir from the silent era to the late 50's.

the reason i feel this could be related to the question of what is a drawing is related to his process. Louie constantly carries around a journal where he writes down ideas for characters and little doodles. This is because his pieces are all portraits of characters that he creates around entire stories that he comes up with first. From these doodles, he then goes to work on a larger scale and does a highly detailed drawing with graphite. After that, he then goes in to the piece with acrylic paint. So then, what does this get classified as? Simply mixed media, a drawing, or a painting?

Either way, I must say that I love his work. The portraits are fun and spooky at the same time. What I find most interesting though, is that he comes up with first and has the entire bios for each of his characters.

some examples-
also, more work can be found here- http://www.travislouie.com/

  

Herman and Morris

20×15 acrylic on board

Herman found his prized huntsman spider in the basement of his parents’ house. It followed him where ever he went for most of his adult life. He named it Morris because it reminded him of his Uncle Morris, who had long spindly legs and a strange gait that often confused people as to which direction he was about to step in.

Although it was common to have large insects as pets, in Rothbury, England(circa 1875). It was frowned upon to have an arachnid as a pet.  When they would go for a stroll or take in a show at the theatre, Morris would hide in Herman’s stovepipe hat and watch through tiny holes near the top of the hat band. Herman could even hear him clapping at the close of the each performance. It made him laugh out loud every time. 

 A Girl and Her Troll Head

Acrylic on board

16 x 20”

By Travis Louie

Trolls generally had little to do with humans. Every so often they become unruly and had to be “controlled”.

There was a time when the common practice was to behead them. The heads of older trolls possessed magical properties. Despite being  separated from their bodies, the heads remained alive and.  Some even grew their bodies back over time. In the 1890’s it became fashionable to keep them as pets.

Krampus Mugshot

Percy Carruthors had a fascination with the myth of the Krampus. Everywhere he looked he thought he saw evidence of their existence. Krampus were known to punish people in peculiar ironic ways. Really aggressive alpha-male types were found unconscious wearing mismatched women’s evening wear, abusive tax appraisers were dressed as pigs, all their earnings forcibly given away to charity, and various members of the “self-important” society around him were found dangling from lamp posts or stuck to railroad billboards . . . the glazed look in their eyes and the muttering of the word “Krampus” seemed like obvious clues, . . .strangely, these happening went unnoticed by everyone in the precinct he worked in. Percy’s co-workers made jokes about him, saying he had “Krampusitis”, for his constant obsession until the day a large Krampus turned himself in for “child-juggling”. Percy gladly took the mugshots.

Cindy Sherman

" In self-reflexive photographs and films, Cindy Sherman invents myriad guises, metamorphosing from Hollywood starlet to clown to society matron. Often with the simplest of means—a camera, a wig, makeup, an outfit—Sherman fashions ambiguous but memorable characters that suggest complex lives that exist outside of the frame. Leaving her works untitled, Sherman refuses to impose descriptive language on her images—relying instead on the viewer’s ability to develop narratives, as an essential component of appreciating the work. While rarely revealing her private intentions, Sherman’s investigations have a compelling relationship to public images, from kitsch (film stills and centerfolds) to art history (Old Masters and Surrealism) to green-screen technology and the latest advances in digital photography. Sherman’s exhaustive study of portraiture and self-portraiture—often a playful mixture of camp and horror, heightened by gritty realism—provides a new lens through which to examine societal assumptions surrounding gender and the valuation of concept over style."

                        -http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/cindy-sherman


Cindy Sherman brings a new life and take on portraits. I love the fact that she gets decked out into full costume before diving into creating these pieces. Also, they are humorous and much like Maurizio Cattelon, picking on some aspect of society. She is picking on/ poking fun at aspects of modern culture, like the over tanned woman or the too ponx to live teen. She is someone who truly envelops herself in her work and has fun doing it.

Maurizio Cattelan

“Comedians manipulate and make fun of reality. Whereas I actually think that reality is far more provocative than my art.”- Maurizio Cattelan

Maurizio Cattelan is one of the many contemporary artists who uses humor and satire to his own disposal. I mean, just look at one of the pieces he is most known for, La Nona Ora , where he portrays the pope being stuck to the ground by a meteor. He picks controversial topics that are easy to poke fun at.

 

Born in Italy and based out of New York, Cattelan started his career making primarily wooden furniture in the 80's. Through that, he was able to meet some well known designers. He then began to promote himself by sending out portfolios to different galleries, which led to him gaining the opportunity to create sculptures rather than furniture. One of his early sculptures was of an ostrich that had its head underground and wore a costume of a figurine that had the giant head of Picasso and then added a Milanese gallerist to a wall with tape. It is even said that early in his career, “Cattelan convinced gallerist and notorious womanizer, Emmanuel Lapin to wear a giant pink rabbit costume shaped like a phallus to Cattelan's gallery opening.” Cattelan is and never was short of eccentric punchiness. He was ready to unleash the sattire as soon as he hit the scene.

During this time, Cattelan also started the Oblomov Foundation which is a commemorative plate with the names of 100 persons who gave him $ 10, 000 for a grant. It was hung up abusively on the wall of Accademia di Brera in Milan. The grant went to a young artist with only one condition: don't do show for one year. Then, in 2009 Pierpaolo Ferrari and Cattelan teamed up to create an editorial for W Magazine's Art Issue which resulted in one of Cattelan's most well known projects, “Toilet Paper,” a bi-annual picture-based publication.

“Every issue starts with a theme, always something basic and general, like love or greed,” Cattelan explained. “Then, as we start, we move like a painter on a canvas, layering and building up the issue. We always find ourselves in a place we didn’t expect to be. The best images are the result of improvisation.” Many images are rejected, he said, because they’re “not Toilet Paper enough.” What makes a Toilet Paper photo? “We keep homing in on what a Toilet Paper image is. Like distilling a perfume. It’s not about one particular style or time frame; what makes them Toilet Paper is a special twist. An uncanny ambiguity.”

Even in his 2D work, Catellan is still looking for that angle of humor through creating the unexpected. These images compared to his sculptures may not have as much specific underlying meaning, but they are still definatly getting at something. Cattelan, even in the beginning, was very focused on representing his topics in an unusual and uncanny way. A way that makes his audience think twice, and even chuckle a bit.

Though, what has really gotten him noticed is his 3D work. Through his taxidermic animals and life size wax figures, Cattelan has gained a large reputation for his humor. This also has to do with the scale works at. The taxidermic animals range from horses and donkeys to dogs, mice, and even pigeons! His reflects a larger than life quality both physically and conceptually through his use of unusual materials.

Particularly, Cattelan likes to poke fun at the order of things all around him. This could be anything from religion ( as seen in La Nona Ora) to the thing closest to him; the art world. What I find most interesting, is that when he pokes fun at the art world, he digs into art history and picks out past themes to portray his new point. This is much like what is done in his “Toilet Paper” annual. Since his start, Cattelan has derived the subjects of his work from very specific themes. What I enjoy most about his work though, is that he prefers to use simple puns in his work, making it more relatable to the general public. Which therefore, causes more investigation for his audience. He draws you in with the simplicity and then plays with your wit a bit to see if you really see what he is poking fun at in his works.

Works Cited

"Guggenheim." Collection Online. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. <http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/show-full/bio/?artist_name=Maurizio Cattelan>.

"Guggenheim." Maurizio Cattelan: All. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. <http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/exhibitions/past/exhibit/3961>.

"Maurizio Cattelan, "Oblomov Foundation" 1992 Courtesy: Galerie Perrotin, Paris." Galerie Perrotin. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. <http://www.perrotin.com/Maurizio_Cattelan-works-oeuvres-1432-2.html>.

"Maurizio Cattelan." The Menil Collection. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. <http://www.menil.org/exhibitions/MaurizioCattelanNew.php>.

"Photo Booth: Maurizio Cattelan’s Toilet Paper : The New Yorker." The New Yorker. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. <http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/photobooth/2011/11/maurizio-cattelan-toilet-paper.html>.

"TOILET PAPER MAGAZINE." TOILET PAPER MAGAZINE. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. <http://toiletpapermagazine.com/>.

John Michael Kohler Arts Center The Drawing Season

“In a series of six exhibitions, the Arts Center illuminates the vitality and varied vocabulary of the art of drawing as practiced by contemporary artists. From miniature works of graphite on paper to massive gallery installations employing unconventional materials, these drawings are neither preparatory sketches nor pages from sketchbooks; they are works of art that stand on their own. Here is a rare opportunity to experience contemporary drawing as something both comfortably familiar and startlingly new.”

Upon hearing about the John Michael Kohler Arts Center (KAC), I was a little weary of making the trip. It is located in Sheboygan which is a bit of a trip for me from Milwaukee. Its not fair that this turned me off from it but, so it goes. After arriving though, I was extremely happy with the outcome. Aside from the outside of the building being very inviting, the inside was even more inviting and exciting. Everything screamed art and fun! Of course, after the hour or so ride, I had to use the washroom and was pleasantly surprised by the highly decorated washroom. Every tile on the wall had a different illustration and each stall had a different illustrated theme. Even the toilet bowls were painted with some sort of design! Aside from that, there was also this variety of electric lines flowing from the entrance to the museum into the exhibits. Parts of it attached itself to odds and ends like the water fountain, but these lines also led you to the first exhibit as well. ( later I realized these electric lines were part of the exhibit itself)

Anyways, I was there specifically to see The Drawing Season. As soon as I walked in to the exhibit my face was taken over with a huge smile filled with awe. I was completely taken back by Heeseop Yoon's piece. It was a larger than life still life that consumed the whole wall. It was surely a large drawing, but done on mylar with tape and attached to this huge wall. I immediately got unnecessarily close to the piece to investigate. From there, I allowed myself to explore the other pieces in the front room. There was one made entirely of pipe-cleaners and other materials reminiscing of summer camp youth that I also got very close to. Before I go any further, I must admit that I am always the kid in the museum who gets yelled at or kicked out for touching or getting too close to the wrong things. With that said, you can assume I really let myself investigate these works as much I could. I was very plesently surprised. Not only by the work, but the space itself. The collection in The Drawing Season was made up of several very large works. KAC's space allowed for this work to be shown and glorified in its space. Really, the space mimicked and complimented the work rather well.

Rita Macdonalds' Heap, another large scale piece, also caught my eye very quickly. It was giant and red and looked like a cloth folding in on itself. Heap really played with the idea of what a drawing could be defined as. The pieces surrounding it were easier to try to genre-lize as drawings because they focused heavily on the quality of line. Where as, this piece was made up more of larger shapes that formed lines. But then again, if the stroke of a line is increased, then it really does just become some sort of shape. That seemed to be the point of this exhibit though; to challenge the ida of what a drawing is.

Over all, I would recommend this exhibit to everyone and people of all ages. Its fun to look at, thing blow up with air, and its not something you see everyday. This exhibit has contemporary art that is more relatable than what most people perceive it as.

 

Still Life #12- Heeseop Yoon

 

Heap- Rita Macdonald

 

 The Line Unleashed- David Eppley

Whats Going on Here?

Contemporary art is often seen as something that is very scary and illusive. I feel that generally, the idea of it scares away its audience. I mean, it did for me. A lot of it is strange and tests many boundaries. Though, once you allow yourself to explore the many aspects of it contemporary art is much more inviting. Like any art throughout history, there are numerous different styles and topics explored throughout the bodies of work. The mission of this blog is to make contemporary art less scary for the average person. I will explore the humor in contemporary art and the pieces that are more inviting in general, since that is what I am most drawn to. I find it important in life, to not take things too seriously, but still be able to dig deep into them. This, I feel, can be transferred directly into the exploration of contemporary art.