Ink Deep

Michael Craig-Martin is a British-Irish artist born in Dublin in 1941.  Despite being born in Dublin, Craig-Martin spent most of his childhood in Washington D.C. and would study art in the US, the UK and even in France.  In 1966 he would make the UK his permanent home.  His contemporary work pushed the boundaries and in 1973 he would produce an installation that would challenge how art, and in particular, contemporary art was perceived. By the 1980's, Craig-Martin was a teacher where he inspired and culminated the Young British Artists (including Damien Hirst).  In 2016 he was knighted. Craig-Martin's work has been incredibly varied over the years, working in both sculpture and painting, though his work is rarely 'traditional'.  Even his paintings tend to have some form of twist to them, such as using aluminium as a canvas.  His style has evolved and changed as he has progressed, with his recent work taking a cleaner style with clean black lines and flat ...

Jean Tinguely was a Swiss artist born on 22nd of May 1925.  Although he applied his hand to a wide array of mediums from painting to sculpture, he is most well known for his 'Kinetic art'.  In particular, Tinguely created a variety of machines with questionable purposes.  Some did nothing, some created moving paintings, some created their own drawings and a few even intentionally destroyed themselves.  He continued to work up to his death in 1991 due to a heart illness.  After his death, a gallery in his hometown of Basel was named after him and permanently houses a vast collection of his work. Initially Tinguely's work started out as part of Dada, creating Metamatic machines in the 1950s.  These machines created their own art, all be it in a very clumsy and mechanical way.  Attaching a pencil to a swirling hanging metal appendage and such.  He would continue to work with this concept, developing it into moving images.  Canvases where the s...

The Birth Of Cubism Two European Artists, Spanish Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973) and French peer Georges Braque (1882 - 1963) are widely regarded as the creators of Cubism.  Following on from Post Impressionism and inspired by Primitivism, these two artists would take these ideas and study them, really focusing to develop their own interruption.  Both artists would spend years furthering Cubism.  Artists such as Paul Cezanne had been experimenting with fractured perspective, trying to show landscapes and scenery from various angles and times in the same image.  Initially his work was subtle, but soon fractured elements in his compositions would show through, resulting in geometric patterns and shapes.  Picasso would be the first to work with these shapes, exploiting them further. The Young Ladies of Avignon (Les Demoiselles d'Avignon) by Pablo Picasso is widely considered to be the first true Cubism painting.  Painted in 1907, it depicts five nude wome...

Surrealism began in the early 1920's, following (and in many ways taking inspiration from) Dada.  Like Dada, Surrealism wished to contest what we knew and understood as Art.  However Surrealism wanted to push this concept even further, encouraging us to question not only art, but our reality.  What was real, what wasn't, what composed our own conscious thought.  Whilst Sigmund Freud delved deeper into the mind and the subconscious, Surrealism wanted more.  Through numerous experiments and practices, Surrealism would explore the ideal of unconscious thought.  Pure original thought that had in no way been tainted by the outside world.  They would try to achieve these through the study of dreams, automatic drawing and other instinctual processes that seemed outwith Human control.  Surrealism would reject reason and preconceived notions, resulting in art and media that was incredibly alien, yet weirdly familiar. Andre Breton is widely considered to ...

In 1914 the world would change forever.  The Great War, or as we now know it, World War I, ravage the world, ending and lives and drastically changing the lives of those who would survive.  The War would have a tremendous impact on life as it was known, and art was no exception.  Having witnessed the War first hand, many of them on their doorsteps, many artists would become disillusioned with society and it's ideals, rejecting logic and reason.  From this the Dada movement was born, an affront to logic and reason, an insult to the rational right wing ideology that had resulted in such overwhelming and needless violence.  Dada would take pride in the nonsensical and refuted any preconceived notions of art and what art should be.  As a result, the Dada movement spans a great deal of mediums, extending into poetry, plays and writing. Although Dada was incredibly influenced by World War I, and didn't really see it's fruition until post 1915, there are example...

Cubism is without a doubt one of the most talked about and studied areas of art history.  Although the first Cubist exhibition wasn't held until 1911, there were a few artworks from around 1907 that hint towards Cubism.  Picasso and Braque are widely regarded as the creators of Cubism, though Paul Cezanne paved the way for them with his Post Impressionist work, particularly in his use of space.  The definition of  Cubism has become rather complex, especially in retrospect.  I like to define it as a distortion of time and space to create an idealist image of a particular subject.  Of course, that's my own view and incredibly simplified. Cubism would go through many iterations and crossed over from not only paintings but to other mediums such as collage and sculpture as well. Although Picasso (and to a lesser extent - Braque) is regarded as the father of Cubism, a lot of the original ideals and practices can be seen in earlier works.  Most notably i...

One of the shorter art movements we've looked at, Fauvism was only around for a few years, between 1904 and 1910.  Spearheaded by two French artists; Fauvism would push the ideals of Impressionism and Post Impressionism to their limits.  With a strong focus on colour, Fauvism would result in many vibrant and striking works.  These artists, known as the Fauves (French for "Wild Beasts") sought to express themselves through painterly technique, above naturalistic and realistic themes.  Though a number of artists would attempt Fauvism, few would stick with it, many moving on to different themes and styles.  Most notably Georges Braque, would soon join Picasso to work on Cubism. Along with the vibrant and unnaturalistic colours, Fauvism focused heavily on painterly methods and techniques.  Vivid and expressive brushstrokes started the movement, though many working under it's banner would take on George Seurat's Pointillism, pushing the boundaries further and ...