There's been a lot of chatter in the classes about this topic so I know your minds are working but what is needed now is - a little less conversation, a little more art please! All of our topics this year link up – some of you have already used text in work for other themes. A piece of work can include many starting points. There really are no rules.
Amongst the chatter, and from the sketchbooks I have seen, there is a splendid amount of invention and subversion going on with some of you are inventing new family proverbs and twisting others to your will!
Are words necessary in art? Should the image speak for itself?
How important is the style (font) and materials of the text?
What would Tracey Emin's tent (Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995 ,1995) be without the text?
This piece has featured many times in class. It reminds us that the painting is not a pipe but rather the artist's interpretation of a pipe.
'Asked to design a billboard for the Public Art Fund in New York, we welcomed the chance to do something that would appeal to a general audience. We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to count the number of women artists on exhibit compared to the number of naked female bodies in the art works. The results were very revealing. The Public Art Fund rejected it as a billboard, claiming it wasn’t “clear enough,” so we ran it as an ad in New York City buses instead. ' - from Guerrilla Girls, Naked through the Ages.
You can read more about it and them here - Guerrilla Girls
Taking the body from the La Grande Odalisque,1814, by de Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, the Guerrilla Girls make an important statement about female representation in art galleries. Lack of equality within the art establishment has been a bone of contention (there's a nice phrase for you!) for many years. Recently, the National Gallery in London closed for a major re-hang in response to public opinion on this very subject.
How many women artists can you think of?
Of those, how many of them were born before 1900?
Not a test – just something for you to think about.
Well, there's some food for thought, something to chew over..... I look forward to seeing your ideas.