Silk is smooth

For the last two days we have been in beginning silkscreen block and while at first seeming somewhat complicated ( doesn't it all, at first!) by the end of today I had my first exposed screen drying and had already started reworking the initial image with a view to taking a second screen which will then be dropped into the first - maybe a slightly different colour; here was what I left this evening:

 

...below is the MRPVC sheet with the working image which has already been modified - it will be interesting on Tuesday to see what sort of an image the first screen produces.

 

This morning Des gave us a terrific run through a number of artists who have worked with screens and I was particularly fascinated because way back in the 60s I can remember Bobbie Ballagh working with silkscreen and I only had the haziest idea of what it entailed although I can still remember the multiple images he made, all of a pretty political nature; in fact, I will go and dig one up now and pop it on here

This was called Series 4 from 1969 and was related to the Civil Rights marches in Northern Ireland.

 

 There were a lot of names this morning and I intend to work my way through them over the next while, online and in the library, but first I would like to mention something else from this morning.

 

With  CCS over for now, I have returned to reading Robert Hughes on the train and it was coincidental that the subject was Andy Warhol from 1982. It was interesting to try to elicit what Des felt about the same Andy - noncommittal, maybe - because Mr Hughes certainly did not do any fence-sitting. Considering what has happened in the art world and the world of "celebrity" since then the essay makes fascinating reading.

 

This artist was who I really wanted to talk about, though. Robert Hughes' review was of Saul Steinberg (1914 -1999) and while the name was familiar it was only when I looked up his images I realised I had often seen them before. The review was of a show in NY in 1978 covering his drawings, prints watercolours and oils and a point was being made about art versus illustration.  Now while I was checking out Mr Steinberg I came across this work by Francesco Bongiorni:

 

 

 

 

 

They are described as illustrations and I have not been able to find out how they were made, but on the basis of a lot of the work we looked at today what is illustration and what is art, and does it matter?

 

Well it seems to matter to some people and maybe indeed there is a a deep chasm between these two areas of work, but maybe equally there is a certain amount of pretension here.  I stand to be ticked off..............

 

Once again though, I recommend Robert Hughes Book - 'Nothing if Not Critical' -to stir up ones thinking and also for tight examples of close critical analysis

 

 

A-Ha...............you thought I had forgotten

 

 

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