THE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE : 20 - King Elvis Has surely come

        putting on de Stijl

    

so..

HOW ART MADE POP and HOW POP BECAME ART 

is the title of a book..

publish by the tate..

he's read it recently..

it explains a lot..

his place in the story..

regular bots and readers..

will know all about this sorry tale..

boy from the burbs..

makes good..

or not..

no where else to go..

but art school..

his mother said he was tone deaf..

he is the guy who listens..

so close to john and dave..

but no cigar..

SOME OF THESE DAYS YOU'LL MISS ME HONEY

“A few seconds more and the Negress will sing. It seems inevitable, so strong is the necessity of this music: nothing can interrupt it, nothing which comes from this time in which the world has fallen; it will stop by itself, as if by order. If I love this beautiful voice it is especially because of that: it is neither for its fulness nor its sadness, rather because it is the event for which so many notes have been preparing, from so far away, dying that it might be born. " from 'Nausea' John Paul Sartre..

those who have read the first instalments of..

the 'artist in residence'..

will know that Nausea was the book..

our artist was reading..

on the train to liverpool..

to deliver his painting..

to the john moores painting prize in 1969..

https://charles-stuart.pixels.com/collections/king+elvis+has+surely+come

 

THE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 5

The Great Wen

Imagine an office boy.. the office junior..

Imprisoned from 8.30 until 17.00 five days a week..

He is going nuts writing poems and imagining great paintings he will make..

He goes out at 10.00 every day to fetch the sandwiches and pastries for the morning break. 

He dawdles in the square to waste time away from that place.

Then a friend who has stayed on at school to do 'A' level Art and other subjects has news. His Art Teacher has arranged a trip to London for the students to visit The Tate Gallery and see the Magritte Exhibition. 

He has asked the Teacher if Peter can come with them and the answer is Yes. 

It's February 1969 and our boy from the library is in for an Experience.

He gas seen the Magritte's

He is standing in front of 'WHAM'

He is standing in front of Dali.

He is now standing looking at the most exiting painting he has ever seen or imagined. 

Interior II by Richard Hamilton

 is a combination of images both painted and applied and in a variety of media. 

It is, to our boy, stunningly beautiful.

out of all the amazing art he has seen this day it is this picture that will create..

THE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

He wants to make Art like this.

powerful and beautiful..

memorable..

inspiring..

He must get qualified academically and must come to study in London. 

He must find a mentor. 

Go to the best Art Schools. 

Drink with the artists. 

He must become himself

MISTER PITIFUL

yo!.. los angeles 3.. innit!

this image above is from psycho..

it's not marilyn..

it's Janet leigh..

apart from the appalling attack in the shower..

I have given her the warhol treatment..

to make her look like marilyn..

a soup can marilyn..

like pop art..

innit!

ICONOCLASM

the destruction of icons..

that famous and beautiful face..

has had some art worked on it..

I am sorry for my part in this now..

at the time I was only thinking of myself..

and my little screen print..

so here you can see..

my cunning plan..

one print with  the image on both sides and with cut out and folded flaps..

with the second print beneath it..

clever innit!

I SAW THIS AND THOUGHT OF YOU

andy had given her the soup can treatment..

pile em high and sell em cheap..

mass reproduction..

just like elvis or the mona lisa..

15 minutes of lame..

on reflection..

I feel now that this was..

a poor show..

in 'marilyn reframed'

we are introduced to a great person..

the greatest photographer's model of all time..

she ran the whole show..

she had all the guts they ever made..

possibly the most famous face in the world..

and a great actress..

I was ten when she died..

she was the most beautiful woman in the world..

you can spend a long time in Hollywood..

and never see the part they put in movies..

farewell my lovely..

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