THE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 13

our artist is 19 years old..

he is finally at art school..

just..

he is on the foundation course..

and will have to be accepted on a Dip AD course..

in order to progress to degree equivalent qualification..

that was what there was..

then in 1971..

BRUCE DAVIDSON

becomes a part of his plan..

but not before..

ELLSWORTH KELLY

who has shown him this figure..

he likes this figure or shape as he calls it then..

he plays around with it..

a lot..

he will play with this for some while..

and he will bring Bruce Davidson along too..

he has found screen printing..

and he likes it..

he starts with this Bruce photograph..

from East 100th St..

in Harlem NY..

photographs of our boy's first screen prints

he loves this picture..

it has all the fresh bright future in it..

OK some jerk has spilled filler over his silk screen..

and it could have been..

all she wrote..

but our boy just shrugs and soldiers on..

maybe he is just lazy..

and can't be bothered to make a new screen..

maybe he is short of time..

but really he just likes the white out shape..

with the bits missing..

he prints both on sides of the paper..

then cuts out the 'flap' shapes on all but one side..

then he folds them back..

with another print underneath..

and anyways..

when he is experimenting with printing colour over black halftone..

he discovers what a moire pattern is..

again he likes it..

in fact he loves all of this stuff..

this is why he has studied for years..

Art School..

Heaven..

AFTRE BATHING AT BAXTERS

he has made a choice..

and chose being with his girlfriend..

on a Graphic Design course..

is the way to go..

OH DEAR

he has no idea what Graphic Design is..

and will struggle to make his Fine Art ways..

fit in and take off..

it's like Joe's Garage..

he has to make imaginary paintings in his head..

so..

eventually he will revert to Ellsworth and Bruce..

and create a book..

on his own dime..

SYMPHONY A RIFF NUMBER

where each page is a variation on a theme..

using his two favourite items..

sometime later..

The Scream..

up next on..

THE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

Iconoclasm..

a 'flaps' extravaganza..

50 YEARS ON

FOUNDATION 1971-2

 

 

 

steve willets..

 

told us at our first fine art seminar..

 

that painting was dead..

 

and that the thing we should be looking at was..

 

 

CONTROL  

 

 

which was his thing at the time..

 

and he had a magazine that he published under that name..

 

I listened to what he was saying..

 

stuff about cybernetics and message boards..

 

information exchange..

 

I think now he was into an internet kind of idea..

 

but had not a clue of what it was..

 

or how I could use it..

so after a while I tuned out..

and went to do some screen printing..

 

BRUCE DAVIDSON

 

 

I was taken with an image of Bruce's..

 

from his 'east 100th st'

 

it was the little girl..

 

behind the net curtain..

 

at home alone?

 

in a slum tenement..

 

in harlem..

 

new york..

 

I had a haltone screen made of this image..

 

and proceeded to make screen prints of it..

 

someone had spilled filler..

 

over my screen..

 

but I printed it anyway..

 

on both sides of the paper..

 

then cut shapes..

 

and folded back the flaps..

 

overprinted them..

 

some folded over, some not.. 

I shot these with my old zenith B..

3.5 lens..

just thought I would share them with you..

 

today..

50 years on

see my movie here

A TALE OF TWO INTERIORS

INTERIOR II
richard hamilton 1964


my friend alan..

had arranged with his art teacher..

for me to go along with them..

on their outing to london in 1969

we were off to see the magritte retrospective at the tate..

whilst there we came across..

the most exiting painting I have ever seen..

I was 17 so maybe not surprising..

when you get to see them in the flesh..

so to speak..





yes it's that room again..

we are back in harlem..

or somewhere the same..

this time the girl is a film star..

patricia knight..

and the room has had a make over..

but the tv is still there..


at 17..

it's the superb technical skill of richard hamilton..

that has blown the mind..

the chair seat is actually stainless steel and plastic..

the stem is a halftone screen print stuck on..

patricia is from a still that had been..

thrown into a waste bin..


EAST 100TH STREET




bruce davidson 1966

a single figure..

a window instead of an archway..

got the tv though..

compare and contrast these two interiors..

can you see why I was entranced?

love that clock and that fan..

fans really get to me as well..


SOMETIME LATER ALAN WROTE THIS


in charles stuart's paintings..

people are always drawn in boldly..

they are central to the pictures he shows us..

but always they are caught in the mists of paint..

trapped between patterns of brushmarks and scrubbed washes..


AND THIS


we can trace the memories of comic books..

half-remembered images from magazines..

the history of the painter's gesture..

the solitary immobile figure is captured frozen in a moment..

we pick up the clues and continue the story..

alan smith june 1979

EAST 100TH STREET

yo!.. my back pages... innit!

SOMETIME DURING ETERNITY

so one day these ace photos show up..

in the 'sunday times magazine'..

and this one in particular..

becomes part of my life..

DRIVE ME TO HARLEM OR SOMEWHERE THE SAME

Bruce Davidson

 USA. 1966-1968. East 100th Street.

 

I used this pic to create new work..

while on the foundation course for dip. AD..

as it was then in 1971..

I made a halftone screen print..

and over printed it..

and cut flaps in it..

and created this..

I never called bruce..

never tried to get in touch..

that's not my way..

today..

this image still influences my work..

 

figures in a souk