Paula Rego (b. 1935)
Dame Maria Paula Figueiroa Rego is a Portugese-born visual artist who is particularly known for her paintings and prints based on storybooks. Her style has evolved from abstract to representational, and she has created in pastels for much of her career. Her work often reflects feminism, incorporating folk-themes from Portugal.
Paula Rego’s work is really fascinating. I was particularly drawn to her use of colour and tone, which she uses beautifully. Her storybook illustration style is really captivating, as her work seems to tell an entire story in just one frame. In many pieces you don’t often think of the before and/or after of the subject/scene, but Rego really captures that within her work. For example, in the first piece, which is one from Rego’s Abortion Series, you’re able to infer what the figure within the piece went through before and after the piece was created. You can feel the misery, pain and solitude radiating from it. As is the case with all the pieces that I’ve looked at, it’s extremely thought-provoking and emotive.
Whilst I can see her use of line, it’s clear that she relies mostly on tone to build up an image. In some pieces the use of tone is strong, in others it is fairly subtle, however, one thing that stands out through all the pieces is the select colour palette she uses – predominantly browns, blues and reds. This use of colour is reminiscent of art from the Renaissance period, and, although these pieces were created within the past century, it feels as though they are hundreds of years old.
Some inspiration that I’ve taken from Rego is her abstract nature. She creates completely out of the box, and this is something I am becoming more and more encouraged to do. I am keen to experiment further with a range of tone/colour and conceptual ideas, similar to the way in which Rego worked. Whilst reading up on her, I noticed that when explaining the reasons behind many of her pieces, she uses the words “this is a response to…”. My tutor advised me that I should be not just drawing a subject/scene, but responding to it. To then read that an artist I’ve taken a great liking to has used these own words to explain her reasoning for creating a piece has instilled in me how important it is to react to something, instead of just drawing it.
Cy Twombly (1928-2011)
Edwin Parker ‘Cy’ Twombly Jr was an American painter, sculptor and photographer. Twombly is said to have influenced younger artists such as Anselm Kiefer, Francesco Clemente, and Julian Schnabel.
He worked predominantly on a large scale, freely scribbling in a graffiti-like style on solid fields of mostly grey, tan or off-white colours. His later paintings and works on paper shifted toward “romantic symbolism”, and their titles can be interpreted visually through shapes and forms and words.
I was looking back through previous artist recommendations from my tutor, not only from assignment 4, but also, the previous assignments, and Cy Twombly was one artist that really stuck out to me.
The simplicity of these pieces is what stands out the most to me. They’re unextraordinary but there is something completely fascinating about them. On first inspection, I would have said that these paintings are a portrayal of Twombley’s inner emotions and thoughts. I have used a similar technique previously, using marks and lines in a variation of colours to depict feelings and ideas.
On further exploration, I discovered that his paintings are reactions to things around him. He lived, for most of his life, in Rome, and spent much of his creative life responding to the beauty and history surrounding him.
As someone that usually works in monochrome, Twombly’s work has inspired me greatly to experiment further with bolder, warmer colours. His work has also shown me that, sometimes, simplicity is key. These paintings are brilliant, without being extravagant, which is really encouraging. Whilst it’s enormously inspiring to look at the art of artists such as Paula Rego, who create intricate, deep stories through their art, it’s also really reassuring to view and learn of the work and inspiration of Cy Twombly, who creates in an uncomplicated, child-like manner.
It has really proved to me that art can be approached in any manner, and still be art.
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988)
Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist of Haitian and Puerto Rican descent. He first achieved fame from the age of 17 as part of SAMO, a graffiti duo who wrote elusive and mysterious slogans around New York, where rap, punk, and street art coalesced into early hip-hop music culture. What began as street art and vandalism soon became a career, and, over time, Basquiat moved towards paint on canvas.
By his early 20s, his neo-expressionist paintings were being exhibited in galleries and museums across the world. Since his death at the age of 27 from a heroin overdose in 1988, his work has steadily increased in value.
Although he was the first Black artist to make a high-level breakthrough, he only ever saw himself as “an artist”, and not just a black artist.
Basquiat’s work was phenomenal, and I don’t know how I have only just discovered it. Whilst I enjoy historical art, I am an enormous fan of contemporary art such as Basquiat’s. I have always been drawn to this style of art, as I really enjoy the vibrant, abstract nature. Art with a message and/or story behind it is far more interesting to me, as it comes from a real life experience and feels extremely personal.
Basquiat drew a lot of his inspiration from his upbringing and his heritage. As a young black man living in New York in the 1970s/80s, he turned to art to express his criticism of the history of colonialism and racism towards African-Americans. His work was unique, and the themes that he communicated through his work continues to inspire artists and intrigue the attention of art lovers across the world.
Again, the painting subject and the vibrancy in which they are painted is what drew me to these pieces. Basquiat often uses dark colours against a lighter background. The figures within his paintings are often responses to or re-creations of black figures, and the bold backgrounds accentuate them greatly. The combination of colour and the original and unusual painting style that Basquiat adopted is what makes these so impactful, and I feel inspired to adopt a similar style in my future work.
I enjoy working in bold line, and, although realism is something I am often keen to achieve within my drawings, however, the neo-expressionist approach is something that I find totally captivating. The intensity in which the subject is painted, and the rough way in which the materials are transferred onto paper is impactful, and, over the past few months that I have researched a variety of artists, and neo-expressionism has stuck with me.
Jesy Gilkes 