‘Closed’

The amazingly talented Hannah Jesmen

It is with heavy hearts that we have come to the decision to close Bloods for the time being.  We’ve had great fun and the people we’ve met and the work we’ve seen has been amazing.  We are sure we have brushed shoulders with greatness along the way and would like to wish each and everyone who has been involved with Bloods Art Monger the very best indeed.

We sincerely hope this is not the end, but a free market economy is a harsh mistress and we must, for now, step aside.

We plan to keep blogging and the facebook page will keep running, so if there’s anything you want to share let us know.

As one of our artists once put it “Goodbye, and thanks for all the fish!”

VELOCIRAPTOR!

I’m in love!  Artistically speaking.  Sad though this sounds I’m off out today to by Velociraptor!, the new Kasabian Album on the basis of the creative used for the ad campaign alone.  I liked their first album, but not the second and didn’t bother with the third.  But I JUST HAVE TO HAVE this one!

The annimation was designed by Lee Lennox at the immensely talented Aitor Throup and directed by them.  Aitor Throup were the creative team for the whole album so I’m looking forward to more stuff on the CD.

Goodbye Cy Twombly

The art world is mourning the loss of one of the greats:  Cy Twombly who died on Tuesday in Rome at the age of 83.  He was the enfant terrible of the post war American Art movement.  Born in Virginia 1928, Edwin Parker Twombly was widely know for his caligraphic and graffitti style works.  His CV reads like a who’s who of the art world.  Despite being largely ignored by the critics in his early career and he likewise ignoring them – his career turned during the 1980′s with the arrival of  a generation of younger artists who found him a great source of inspiration at the time European Artists were gaining wider interest and by 1989 the Philedelphia Museum of Art opened two rooms dedicated to his work, the rest as they say, is history.

The Tate carried a solo retrospective for him in 2008 and finally w week before his death, Twombly’s work was exhibited alongside one of his personal heros Poussin – at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, something I’m sure would have given him great satisfaction.

The name ‘Cy’ was a nick name shared by his father who pitched for the Chicago White Sox and given the moniker in deference to Cy Young.  Cy Twombly leaves a son Cyrus, who is also a painter and lives in Rome.

Fissures and Chips

I have this amazing graffiti wall in my kitchen, painted by the incredibly talented James Trimmer.  You either love it or hate it, there is no middle ground. It has been there for the last four years – not long in the world of murals, the cave paintings at Chauvet Cave have been there since upper paleolithic times – I wish mine was going to last as long. However, I am about to have building work done on my house which will almost certainly wreck the top part of the mural.

I have been looking for ways of protecting it, removing it was one suggestion – hilarious! Varnish seems to be the best advice and it is varnished so I guess I’m done.  The builders are going to be as careful as they can but I feel a digital tear forming as I type.

If anyone has any suggestions as to how to avoid chips and fissures – let me know!

Brave New Salon des Refusés

Fantastic!  Just the kind of the Artmonger loves:  Two of the 53 artist turned down by the National Gallery for entry into this years BP (cough, spit) Portrait Award have turned rejection into an art form by putting on their own exhibition Dazed and Refused, at the Hurwundeki Cafe, EC2 .  The pair Adam Laurence and Peter Jessett will showcase 53 rejected works together with the various rejection letters and emails the artists received.

Should make for a fantastic show – it worked for Cezanne, Manet, Pissaro and Whistler in Napolean III’s 1863 exhbition.  We wish you the best of British!

This is just one of the wonderful portraits in the exhibition which launches with its private view at 7pm today.

The winner Wim Heldens, is a 57 year old Dutchman – correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this the National Gallery?  And wasn’t this the British Petroleum award? We tried to show you Helden’s ‘Distracted’, just to add balance – but the image will not reduce to a comparative size – irony?

Catfish

I was passed a DVD to watch recently which I’d never heard of. The last DVD loaned me that I’d not heard of was ‘Into the Wild’, (if you ever need to feel depressed….) I was not hopeful.

However, I have much respect for the friend who loaned it so I proceeded undaunted to watch almost 45 minutes of absolutely predictable, studenty clap trap about Facebook only to realise I had fallen prey to the true film maker’s art and had been drawn in: At the point I was just about to give up, a twist appeared. The twist itself was quite blatant, but it was the film makers pursuit of the curious which gave the film depth: Nev (photographer, star and main narrator) ‘friended’ someone he’d never met, on facebook – because seemingly she was a talented 8 year old artist who painted one of his photographs.

The work was provocative and had touches of genius about it. One could see that aside from the barf making child prodigy stuff, that there was a real artist emerging. The film spins on and Nev’s curiosity is sparked because the artists’ sister (Megan) becomes romantically interested in him. As their virtual relationship developes – he notices that all the posts from the young artist’s network of gorgeous friends (who’ve also ‘friended’ him by now), are looking similar.

Nev travels to the girl’s home to surprise her on her birthday. Abbey – the artist, turns out a real person, but all the others are the creations of Angela – her mother. As Nev begins to talk to this lady, the truth is revealed: Angela is the artist. She feels disappointed by the life she gave up everything for, including, she now understands, her talent.

This lady created a whole social world for herself on Facebook, and in this way began to get her art promoted – almost no-one can resist a child prodigy and in a way her approach worked. Her story and her art was turned into a film which premiered at the Cannes Sundance Film Festival. There have been hoax claims which have been denied by the makers and the film explains who the real people are. Angela Wesselman dismantled the Facebook pages and now has a page for herself – good luck to her! Obviously, Nev’s page is growing.

Aside from the cautionary tale aspect, there’s a poignant analogy of Angela’s life, delivered at the end by her husband – but you’ll have to watch it if you want to know what that is.

The Art Monger saluts Angela. May you have as much success at least, as the producers of the film. I think the Saatchi Gallery will see to that.

Is Advertising Art?

A very old friend of mine once hypothesised that Advertising could be seen as Art. This is by no means a new hypothesis, nor (sorry mate) an original one – but it has always stuck in my mind.  Doubtless none of us would want a Tena Lady poster above our beds and many of you may have poo-pooed the headline.  But I would like to proffer Le Chat Noir, created by Théophile Steinlen, for consideration:  Yours for around £5 from any online poster supplier.  It began it’s life as an advertisement for the renowned restaurant and became an image synonymous with Paris.  You have to admire the sleek lines, the haughty, dangerously intoxicating personality of the cat, which can only have been delivered by the artist who conceived the poster and brought it to life.  Dali, Warhol* and Grant Wood all created advertisements in their lives: lucrative, socialised and noteworthy.

But that doesn’t really answer the question, does it?

I believe that art is art if it provokes an emotional reaction; inspiration, fear, joy, rage, desire. There is art in advertising.  As Marshall McLuhan said “the medium is the message”, whilst his primary point may have been the form of broadcast, there is no doubting that the artistic medium of the image of Eva Herzigova stirred many a response – however miss-directed.  The Hippy era gig posters became iconic, remained and recreated to grace our walls.  We even seek out biscuit tins bearing 20′s designed ads for our shelves – why?

Rather than attempting to justify a place for creative advertising work within the hallowed halls of the art world or demonstrating parallels between the two, I suggest that it stands alone.  We will all adorn our walls with different things – some a frame full of ticket stubs, some a stolen tube sign and those with the cash, huge Klimt canvasses, maybe the Tena lady person is out there, who knows?  The fact is that it takes a talented artist by anyones standard to imbue an image with just the right styling and emotional content to create the emotional response required by the client.

I think the answer to the question is subjective, just as your view of what constitutes great art is subjective – does that, therefore, mean it is art?

 

*No, not the Campbells soup can!

TRUST ME, I’M AN ART MONGER

Here’s an idea.  Naturally enough we had art. for Christmas and having just got it up on the walls it occurs to me that this is what my rooms needed:  An instant face-lift ready for the Spring and not a paint brush in sight.

That’s my kind of DIY. One moment everything was looking a bit stale and the next the room took on a whole new perspective and it didn’t break the bank.

Ask yourself this; do you have any wall space (mine is limited to say the least), when you look at it can you see a

dusty print or a faded photograph?  Imagine what a very large and colourful piece of art could do for that space – or conversely how a smaller, more monochromatic image might draw the curiosity? Don’t just hang pictures obviously in the centre of the wall, try hanging it in sympathy with furniture – we have a giraffe popping up from behind the piano!  After a cold and cloudy winter, those first lovely rays telling me that Spring is around the corner have alighted on my new pictures and made me smile.  Even if you just re-arrange your art, don’t leave it hanging about going stale. Move everything now – you’ll get something new from it.

Trust me, I’m an Art Monger.

MY GOTHIC VALENTINE

Along with The Scream, Whistlers Mother and arguably the Mona Lisa; there are few disturbingly evocative and iconic pieces as ‘American Gothic’ painted by Grant Wood in 1930.  The picture resides in the Art Insitute of Chicago. The image he created features Nan Wood Grant, his sister, and if you look at images of the artist himself the guy looks familiar too. Although I can’t substantiate that one.

Reading up on him, Grant was one hard working artist:  aside from his widely respected ‘regionalism’ paintings; he painted leaflets for mortuaries, and camouflage in the army.  He experimented with a wide range of media that most artists would find challenging.  He was passionate enough to share his gift eventually teaching in his home town.  Though he never moved from Iowa, he achieved much in his 51 years.

This little tribute to a great artist is brought to you today, because Grant was born on the 13th of February 1891 and died on the 12th of February 1942.

LAUGHING ALL THE WAY TO THE BANKSY

I mean, seriously.  I’ve long been an admirer of the Bristol born graffiti artist – right from my early teens when images would pop up over night along Colston Street and Perry Road etc.  But isn’t all this “Anonymity is my middle name, rebel yell street-artist” crap a bit much now?  You either are the establishment – or you’re outside of it.  In my view those who are the establishment make critically acclaimed films, have an ‘Agent‘ and are on their way to garnering their first Oscar – with their ‘Agent‘ hoping to make a big PR play out of the possibility that they may turn up.

Don’t get me wrong.  I admire the man, greatly.  I’m glad he’s making money out of the free art he’s created and had ripped off by the mass production moguls (cough, spit).

But when you’ve gone over to the dark side it’s time to stand up, admit it and drop the disaffected urban guerilla façade – no one believes it any more.