Artist Research

Kurt Schwitters

1. What are your opinions of the artwork? Why?

In my opinion, this Schwitters collage gives off a rather calm and tranquil ambience. The colour palette is made up of multiple shades of blue, purple, red and cream, giving it an almost autumnal and dark vibe. I feel like the shades add depth to the piece, as they compliment each other to create a rather mystical aura.

2. How do you think it has been created? Using which materials?

I think that various materials such as cloth and silk have been cut/ ripped and placed cautiously together to form this collage. Aswell as material, paper and text has been used and to great effect; There is a wide variety of materials used, yet they all compliment each other simply due to the colours that are used.

3. What do you think of the compostition?

The composition of the piece looks like it has been randomly put together effortlessly, however I think that Shwitters has put much consideration into the poistioning of his materials; They have been cautiously placed in certain positions for a particular reason (perhaps because of the colours that are being used). Little text has been used which it’s very subtle, maybe because Schwitters wanted to focus soley on the texture in the piece.

4. How has the artist used colour/ texture?

Like I mentioned previously, the colour palette is based around dark colours such as blues and reds. The texture of the material adds more depth to the piece. The textures are very subtle, therefore they all compliment each other because of this subtly. All of the materials that are used are rather ordinary, they appear to be everyday materials that we may see on a day-to-day basis. This further adds to the realness of the piece, it adds a great sense of depth.

Robert Rauschenberg

1. What are your opinions of the artwork? Why?

In my opinion, I feel like this collageis rather casual and has an unarranged feel to it. There is not just one set colour palette, various colours are used aswell aswell as materials. I feel like this collage is rather cluttered and disarranged.

2. How do you think it has been created? Using which materials?

I think that various processes and materials have been used to create this collage. Material included within it are found images(of a man), mono printing, paint and(what looks like) various kinds of pen. The piece looks like it has been randomly arranged and without much consideration, but I feel like Rauschenberg has done this purposefully to create some sort of hidden meaning.

3. What do you think of the compostion?

Like I said previously, the compostion of this piece is very random, there doesn’t seem to be a particualr order to it, like it has been placed by Rauschenberg without any consideration. There seems to be a lot happening in certain areas, it is hard to know what to focus on. However, I feel like Rauschenberg had wanted the main focal point of the collage to be on the two men (one in blue and one in orange). This may contribute to the meaning that he may have been trying to portray.

4. How has the artist used colour/ texture to make the work succesful?

The main colours that are used in the piece are blue and orange, with minor colours such as green and black being used. The colour palette for this piece don’t seem to be very complimentary of each other. Again, they are random and seem to have no meaning. However, I come back to my point that Rauschenberg has chosen these colours for a particular reason to create his desired meaning. There is quite a lot of texture in this piece, with the mono printing and the various paint/brush stokes. I feel like this adds a sense of depth to the piece, making it seem more textural gives it a more realistic feel.

Artist Research

Anna Atkins

Trained as a botanist, Anna Atkins developed an interest in photography as a means of recording botanical specimens for a reference book in the 1800’s. She is often considered the first person to publish a book illustrated with photographic images. Her use of cyanotypes-  or ‘sunprints’ of plants and algae in botanical studies paved the way for the use of photography in scientific publishing. Sir John Herschel invented the cyanotype photographic process in 1842. Within a year, Atkins applied the process to algae (specifically seaweed) by making cyanotype photograms that were contact printed by placing the unmounted dried-algae directly on the cyanotype paper. This process, known as blueprinting, was used mainly to reproduce architectural and engineering drawings.

In my personal opinion, Anna Atkins’ work emanates an aura of fragility; It shows the brittleness of the natural world around us. The natural objects that she uses to produce her photograms are extremely simple and ordinary. They are a part of everyday life, so normal that we take their beauty for granted. Atkins perfectly captures the essence of the natural world; the way in which things are beautifully crafted to create a unique article.

William Henry Fox Talbot

William Henry Fox Talbot was a British scientist, inventor and photography pioneer who invented the salted paper and calotype processes, precursors to photographic processes of the later 19th and 20th centuries. Fox Talbot went on to develop the three main elements of photography; developing, fixing and printing. Although simply exposing photographic paper to the light reduced an image, it required extremely long exposure times. By accident, he discovered that there was an image after a very short exposure. He found he could chemically develop it into a useful negative. The image on this negative was then fixed with a chemical solution. This removed the light-sensitive silver and enabled the picture to be viewed in bright light. He called this the “calotype”.

Much like Anna Atkins’ work, Fox Talbot reflects the beauty and detail of the natural world in his photographs. Aswell as using natural objects, he photographs landscapes and architecture. This allowed us to reflect upon the era in which he worked (during the 1840’s). They also have a rather gothic and edgy feel to them, especially his photo of the tree. The tree is solitary and rather morbid-looking. This could also be relevant to the time in which he worked when gothic was at its height.

Susan Derges

Susan Derges is a photographic artist, specialising in a camera-less photographic process most often working with natural landscapes for which she has become internationally renowned. Much of the work of Derges revolves around the creation of visual metaphors exploring the relationship between the self and nature. She endeavours to capture both visible and invisible scientific and natural processes – the physical appearance of sound, the evolution of frogspawn or the reflection of the moon and stars on water. This simples, elegant process was used in very early photography and, in essence, allowed the artist to fix shadows onto light sensitive paper. Removing the camera allows an almost alchemical transformation, to extraordinary and powerful effect.

Much of Derges’ work has been made at night in the open air; using the natural world as her darkroom she has quite literally invented a new way of making pictures. In one of her series, she submerged large sheets of photographic paper in rivers and using the moon and flashlight to create the exposure. Then, she returned to the darkroom to combine camera based and camera-less techniques that result in images that are at once recognisable, and yet not quite what they seem. They have a rather surreal feel to them.

I feel like Derges’ work is also contemporary in its experimentation and awareness of both conceptual and environmental issues. Her photographs are extremely interesting to at due to the great depth that she creates within them.

Adam Fuss

Adam Fuss uses early photographic techniques, such as photograms and daguerreotypes, to create evocative and enigmatic images that explore the mystery and complexity of life. Originally trained as an advertising photographer, Fuss’ decision to eradicate modern technology from the photographic process was a reaction to the mass-production of generic images. Early experiments with pinhole camera led the artist to explore the potential of other camera-less photographic techniques such as the photogram. Fuss relies on the most basic infrastructure of photography: objects, light and light sensitive material. His work includes photograms of water droplets, smoke, flowers, christening gowns and bids captured in flight. He is also known for giving the laborious daguerreotype technique, with breath taking results.

Conceived as visual elegies, a lot of Adam Fuss’ work is about the discovery of the unseen, the expression of the ephemeral and the universal themes of life and death. Working in his darkroom, he creates a series of ‘daguerreotype’ photograms of butterflies. Fuss also uses live snakes in his studio, making images that explore the animals’ symbolic and metaphorical meanings.

For me, Adam Fuss’ photograms are rather disconcerting to look at, especially that of the live organisms eg. a baby, rabbits and snakes. Other photographers tend to use inanimate natural objects, yet Fuss has thought differently and his individuality is cleverly portrayed in these images. For me they create an aura of mystery and enigma.

Man Ray

Man Ray, born Emmanuel Radnitzky in 1890 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was a renowned representative of avant-garde photography in the 20th century and is considered as the pioneer of Surrealist photography. Ray’s artistic work is very diverse. He was a painter, object artist, and a film maker. He was the very first artist whose images were more valuable to collectors than his artistic work. He therefore made a significant contribution to the evaluation of photography as a form of art. Initially, Ray was inspired by cubism and expressionism. But when he met Marcel Duchamp, he started to add some movement to his works. His focus then changed to Surrealism and Dadaism. In 1920s, influenced by the writings of psychologist Sigmund Freud, the literary, intellectual, and artistic movement called Surrealism sought a revolution against the constraints of the rational mind; and by extension, the rules of a society they saw as oppressive.

In my opinion, Man Ray’s work has a very film noir vibe to it. A vast majority of his work is in black an white, further contributing to the surrealism of his work. He makes the ordinary seem unordinary, much like many of the artists I have done research on.

Laszlo Moholy-Na

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy is a greatest influence on post-war art education in the United States. A modernist and a restless experimentalist from the outset, the Hungarian-born artist was shaped by Dadaism, Suprematism, Constructivism and debates about photography.Moholy-Nagy believed that humanity could only defeat the fracturing experience of modernity – only feel whole again – if it harnessed the potential of new technologies. Artists should transform into designers, and through specialization and experimentation find the means to answer humanity’s needs.

His interest in photography encouraged his belief that artists’ understanding of vision had to specialize and modernize. Artists used to be dependent on the tools of perspective drawing, but with the advent of the camera they had to learn to see again. They had to renounce the classical training of previous centuries, which encouraged them to think about the history of art and to reproduce old formulas and experiment with vision, thus stretching human capacity to new tasks.

I find his work rather strange, yet there is something rather intriguing about his photographs. Many of his photos are made up of colours and shapes, and I feel that by doing this he is opening up possibilities to the onlooker, allowing them to form their own opinion of his work.

Curtis Moffat

Curtis Moffat created dynamic abstract photographs, innovative colour still lifes, and glamorous society portraits. In the early 1920s, he collaborated with photographer Man Ray in Paris, making portraits and abstract ‘photograms’, or ‘Rayographs’. Moffat also utilised experimental techniques that are variations on the photogram for at least two of his camera-less pictures. To make a striking image of a dragonfly, he most likely placed the specimen in the photographic enlarger head (in place of a negative) and projected the image as an enlargement onto photographic paper. Another work seems to have been made by painting a design onto the photographic paper with chemical developer.

In his London portrait studio, Moffat created images of elegant simplicity, using striking poses and strong directional lighting. He employed a broad repertoire of poses, props, clothing and accessories to evoke the character of the sitter and to create a mood of elegance, opulence and allure.

Moffat often used one sheet of negative and contact printing paper for two separate exposures, probably to economise on materials. This practical method offers an insight into Moffat’s working methods and shows us how he refined an image by trying out different poses. Red pencil markings on some of the contact sheets show how he intended to crop or enlarge portions of the image.