Over the past 8 weeks, I have learnt a lot about the history of graphic arts, and have developed many skills during the process, mainly researching into past artists work and seeing how they shaped the graphics arts industry, from Avant Guard to postmodernism.

Although when I began this research blog, I had a dislike to the work I was studying, being the type of art that in the past I had disliked in the past I grew to like such as Shepard Fairy’s work that I learnt was more than just branding and a seeming cult type movement, it actually had meaning and was there to try and open our eyes to what’s around us.

What got me most was the counter culturism, I actually liked a lot of the work involved especially from the psychedelic work of Bob Masse and Bill Graham, i loved the art style and the colours they used as well as the way they use their work to express and provoke society in a sense of rebellion and going against the norm. I love the way they work with bold colours that shouldn’t be seen together, such as yellows next to purples yet it adds to the effect, my favourite artist was Bob Masse who used one of my favourite artists as inspiration, Alphonsa Mucha, an art nouvaue artist who’s art is one of my favourite to look at and I happy to see that someone has taken on his work and made something interesting out of it, by keeping the style of Mucha yet using colours to bring it into the counter-culterism movement. making it elegant and fun at the same time.

I prefered the works where I could explore my own interests, such as task 2 where I compared two images that I liked and had similar relations to my own work. I also enjoyed the publish or perish task of choosing my own images that I enjoyed and wanted to describe and look into more detail about how, I got to look into things I liked and share them with other students on the blog. It also makes me look at things more closely such as how a piece of art is put together, the colour schemes used and why they are used. As well as how they the piece works as a whole and if it completes it’s purpose, a lot of the work I have studied has influenced my own work, and has given me new inspirations and ideas that I can work with in the future with my own artistic career and has made me think about what really goes into a piece and what I’m really trying to say with my artwork, as well as it’s purpose, and makes me want to continue this research further as I progress with my study.

One thing I would do better next time is to research more into my artists and give more analysed reviews, as well as being more organised with posting my blogs and understanding the work more.

Shepard Fairey

Fairey’s work is world famous, with it being printed on t-shirts, mugs and posters, you can’t escape his artwork. It’s unique with it’s bold use of reds and creams and backs. The use of a minimalist colour palette shows how impact images can be even with the littlest of colour. Within Fairey’s manifesto he describes his movement as an attempt ‘to enable people to see clearly something that is right before their eyes but obscured; things that are so taken for granted that they are muted by abstract observation.’ which in a sense encompasses what postmodernism’s about, looking beyond what you are used to seeing and searching for a deeper meaning. His art inspires a lot of my own especially the way he shades and uses colour and lines in his own work.

Keith Haring

Haring is an iconic artist within the post modernism who wanted his artwork to be widely available to the people, even creating a pop up shop which ‘Haring considered the shop to be an extension of his work and painted the entire interior of the store in an abstract black on white mural, creating a striking and unique retail environment. The shop was intended to allow people greater access to his work, which was now readily available on products at a low cost.’ Haring wanted his artwork not just to be for the elite but for everyone, which is why his artwork is so recognisable.

Jean-micheal Basquiat

Basquiat’s work isn’t a well known as the other two artists yet he has still impacted our world and especially postmodernism, his work is inspired ‘from his urban origins, and in another a more distant, African-Caribbean heritage.’ which can be seen in the use of vibrant colours and the designs of his figures. Basquiat rose to fame quickly within the art community, his work is both a live and intricate and although his painting can come across as messy they are well thought out, intricate as well as being expressive, he used his work to speak out against racism, he also collaborated with Andy Warhol on multiple painting.

Reference:

Jean-Micheal Basquiat. 2017. Jean-Micheal Basquiat. [ONLINE] Available at: http://basquiat.com/. [Accessed 5 December 2017].

Keith Haring. 2017. Keith Haring – pop shop. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.haring.com/!/pop-shop. [Accessed 5 December 2017].

Keith Haring. 2017. Keith Haring Bio. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.haring.com/!/about-haring/bio#.Wiiaj0pl9PY. [Accessed 5 December 2017].

Shepard Fairey. 2017. make art not war. [ONLINE] Available at: https://obeygiant.com/prints/make-art-not-war-offset/. [Accessed 5 December 2017].

Shepard Fairey. 2017. Manifesto. [ONLINE] Available at: https://obeygiant.com/propaganda/manifesto/. [Accessed 5 December 2017].

Jean-Micheal Basquiat. 2017. Jean-Micheal Basquiat. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.theartstory.org/artist-basquiat-jean-michel.htm. [Accessed 5 December 2017].

In the Constructivst group’s manifest written by Rodchenko it states that “technology is the mortal enemy of art.” Which I do not agree with this statement as I believe that technology has helped the artistic industry evolve and become something greater helping the industry to move quicker and to produce better quality products, technology has integrated itself into the practice of art in new and exciting ways.

Technology has allowed artists more freedom to create and experiment with new styles and a forms in a shorter amount of time, it also brings possibilities of easily changing and altering images without any major cost such as making a piece all over again, instead you can simply alter a layer or undo an accidental paint brush stroke. Technology and the digital age has allowed artists to create quicker and easier than ever before it’s made the creative industry work smoother and produce more designs than ever before. It has also allowed artists to get their work across to more people from around the world, meaning more people can work and collaborate from across the globe, making the industry become one giant communal centre where artists can share their own work and discovers others, Rodchenko’s manifesto seems to want to halter that development and growth, by turning away from technology and it’s great opportunities and how it can open doors, to new and exciting things. We have entered an age that is certainly technology driven and we should embrace how it can help our art and not see how it can hinder it.

In the Oxford dictionary being ‘authentic’ is defined by ‘Of undisputed origin and not a copy; genuine.’ This definition brings up ideas of ‘originality’ which has often been disputed in the art world as to whether something is original or if someone has done the same idea before.

In creative writing at Alevel I learnt that no story is truly original and that there are only really 6 narrative structures and each story written is just a different way of looking at one of those narratives. The same can be applied to art, many people can have the same ideas without necessarily knowing of the other works similar to it. We are also often inspired by other works, in fact in education we are told to let other works develop our own and use it as reference, although this helps us as developing artists to learn more about past and present artists, it hinders our artistic growth as we don’t develop any originality but rather we are told to use someone else’s style within our own work making them similar, in this way it becomes difficult to be authentic and original, ultimately authenticity can be found in someone’s work yet it is how the viewer perceives them, and how they interpret their work against some other artists. An artist may think their work authentic yet someone may have seen work like it before and there for not call it authentic.

In conclusion authenticity especially in the art world is all about perception and how someone perceives someone’s art.