Things for which I am grateful #233 – 274 – Art.

As you’ve probably gathered, the arts are a huge part of my life. And this is my mantra:

 

Without the arts,

We have no culture.

Without culture,

We have no society.

Without society,

We have no civilisation.

And without civilisation,

We have anarchy.

 

Which, in itself, is paradoxical, because so many artists are viewed as rebels to society. To me, artists aren’t rebels, they are pioneers. They show us new ways of interpreting the world.

Art galleries are my cathedrals. They are the places I go to escape from reality and immerse myself in the presence of their genius.

Here are a few of my favourite artists. (I haven’t included ones that I’ve already written individual posts about, such as Modigliani, Chang or Lautrec.)

As you can see, I’m quite traditional in a lot of respects. What I love about much of the impressionistic work is the space, light, colour, composition and texture. Quite a lot of them have a simple, graphic quality, too. Which, perhaps, is no surprise considering that that is what I studied at art college.

Some famous names missing. Who are your favourites?

Michael McGinn

Aaron Smith

Yup, Banksy.

Edouard Vuillard

Frida Kahlo

Gaugin

Igor Shipilin

John Singer Sargent

Kees van Dongen

Kris Kuksi 1

Kris Kuksi 2

Manet

Mary Cassatt

Matisse

Yes, Monet.

Grayson Perry

Picasso 1

Picasso 2

Pierre et Gilles

Renoir

Sergey Rimashevsky

Sorolla

The chapman brothers 1

The Chapman Brothers 2

Van Gogh

Vermeer

Degas

Francis Bacon

Egon Schielle

Gustave Klimt

Pierre Bonnard

Antonio Canova

Paul Cézanne

William Merritt Chase

Salvador Dali

Richard Estes

Edward Hopper

Norman Rockwell

Jan van Eyck

Foujita

Wilhelm Hammershøi

Frederick Childe Hassam

Peder Severin Krøyer

Berthe Morisot

Camille Pissarro

 

By the way, if any late-comers are wondering what the hell all the numbers are about in the titles of these posts, the reason is: I decided, at the back end of 2013, to write 365 things for which I am grateful – one for every day of the year.

Why? Because, I think a lot of us in the ‘West’, (including me), sometimes forget how lucky we are and take too many things for granted. Which people in other parts of the world would die for, and do so, on a regular basis.

 

 

 

Inspiration V Plagiarism

I saw this mesmerizing portrait by Norman Parkinson on a postcard when I was on a recent jaunt to old Londinium.

Stunning shapes, texture, composition and colour.

I didn’t realise that when he took this shot he was actually paying homage to Dutch painter, Kees Van Dongen, 1877-1968.

Whether we use art directly to influence our work or only in part doesn’t matter.

What is important is that we continue to absorb inspiration wherever it lurks. Whether that be an old master who can teach us about perfect composition or a graffiti artist’s integration of the environment as a canvas.

Courtesy of Street Art Utopia. (And my mate, Markham.)

The ad industry is rife with plagiarism – “Wassup”, by Budweiser was a short film by a new director. Honda Cogs was an art installation.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being inspired by art. Where it falls down is if you try to pass off the originality as your own.

If you can’t physically credit the people whose idea you’ve been inspired by – i.e. you can’t put a credit on the end of a TV ad – then help out in other ways. Either pay them to be involved in making the project, or at the very least donate some hard cash to help further their art. (In the cases of Budweiser and Honda the ad agencies or client may have done this, I don’t know.)

With the infamous Guinness “Dancing Man” commercial, the agency saw the short film – again, a promo piece by a young director – and approached him with a view to remaking it for Guinness.

He said no because he’d already made that film and didn’t want to make it again.

So the agency made it anyway with a different director.

The director sued. And lost.

Not sure why. Perhaps you can’t copyright a man dancing. Or maybe the judge felt the new film was sufficiently different. (If you see them both together, you’ll see that it isn’t.)