Wangkatjungka May 2023
Scarecrows The Eclipse
Harry Epworth Allen (1894-1958)
Discuss a photograph that takes an existing work of art as its starting point. Write a 500 word reflection on your chosen piece in your learning log.
Next, re-make an existing work of art using photography. This can be a simple re-staging – using photography – of an existing painting, drawing or print (see, for example, Sam Taylor-Wood's Dutch still life-inspired Still Life video portrait at Link 4) or a more elaborate figurative tableau (like that of Hara).
David Hockney
While researching Yorkshire artists' paintings during the 1940s, I came across Harry Epworth Allen (1894-1958). He was born in Sheffield and lived there all his life apart from War service. Recognised as one of the Yorkshire Artists group, and his style is often considered surreal. When I looked further at some of his paintings, they reminded me of David Hockney's paintings – not in terms of colour but the use of curves and perspectives.
David Hockney was born in Bradford in 1937. He studied at Bradford School of Art from 1953-57, followed by National Service then the Royal College of Art in 1959. A rich and varied artistic career, Hockney embraces new forms of creative technology with enthusiasm and energy, providing a model for others.
Hockney has often used photography as a medium. In the late 1960s, he realised that polaroid shots of a living room, glued together, created a narrative. He began to work more with photography and stopped painting for a time but returned to it when he became frustrated with the limitations of photography and its "one-eyed" approach. In the early 1980s, he produced photo collages, calling them 'joiners', arranging a patchwork to make a composite image, using polaroid prints, and then 35mm processed colour prints. Since 2009, he has painted many portraits, still lifes and landscapes using an iPhone app and, since 2010, the iPad, and he now carries his iPad around like a sketchbook.
I referred earlier to his comment on the "one-eyed" approach of photography, and such comments are not new. On drawing grasses "…I started seeing them. Whereas if you'd just photographed them, you wouldn't be looking as intently as you do when you are drawing, so it wouldn't affect you that much" ( M. Gayford 2011: 32.) On ways of depicting that world that escapes the 'trap' of naturalism. "Most people feel that the world looks like the photograph. I've always assumed that the photograph is nearly right, but that little bit by which it misses makes it miss by a mile. This is what I grope at" (ibid 2011:47)
In 1995, Hockney painted Sunflowers for Jonathan as a get-well painting for his friend and patron Jonathan Silver, who had been diagnosed with cancer and just had an operation. This then became a photograph in an Exhibition of post-modern Photography at the V&A in 2011, titled Photography is Dead. Long Live Painting. This is a photograph of a 'real' vase of sunflowers, probably referencing Van Gogh, seated next to a painted version positioned to appear in the correct perspective for the camera. It is an inkjet print from a colour transparency printed on watercolour paper. The title is ironic as it decries photography but relies on the camera for its execution.
When I saw the photograph, I thought it was delightful. It made me smile, and I thought about what a wonderful get-well card it made – playful yet clever, and it made a visual comment about photography. In response to the exercise, I created something that developed into Assignment 1.
References
Gayford, M, A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney, Thames & Hudson Ltd, London