America’s Next Minimalist Art Star
Americaâs Next Minimalist Art Star
40 X 30
2007/#10
There are a few reality TV shows which I find very entertaining because they deal with creative challenges. The next âtop chefâ, âtop modelâ, and âtop designerâ type programs are less about personalities and more about skills. Which got me to wondering, why are there no reality TV competitions for artists? Could it be because watching paint dry is rather boring?
This painting idea originated with the idea of creating my own TV show and what artists that I have known would make good contestants. A few years ago, I took a studio class near the private studio of a star undergraduate student. His whole body of work consisted of drawing a pencil line on white canvases exactly 5.5 feet above the ground so that the canvases hung at different heights so the line remained at a constant height. I called him the minimalist art star. As a side note, he had the personality to match.
Deciding that the viewing audience needed to have a connection to the characters in my painting, I chose famous faces with easily associated imagery. Left to right, Andy Warhol has his spoon for the Campbellâs soup series; Vincent Van Gogh has his knife for the whole ear fiasco though I did have to switch ears to make the image work; Mr. American Gothic has his fork; and Salvador Dali has my favorite joke, the Salvador Dali Llama. Reducing their image to a simple shape on a white canvas is the minimalist part, they are all art related, and are all âstarsâ in art history in one form or another. The 3 judge panel is typical of the reality show biz, so I have three very bored figures. One even brought his beret. The âwet paintâ sign is a direct reference to being bored by watching paint dry, and of course it has a drip on it because the sign is wet, not the canvas. Did you notice that Van Gogh is painted in his characteristic impressionistic style? My artist friends did!
40 X 30
2007/#10
There are a few reality TV shows which I find very entertaining because they deal with creative challenges. The next âtop chefâ, âtop modelâ, and âtop designerâ type programs are less about personalities and more about skills. Which got me to wondering, why are there no reality TV competitions for artists? Could it be because watching paint dry is rather boring?
This painting idea originated with the idea of creating my own TV show and what artists that I have known would make good contestants. A few years ago, I took a studio class near the private studio of a star undergraduate student. His whole body of work consisted of drawing a pencil line on white canvases exactly 5.5 feet above the ground so that the canvases hung at different heights so the line remained at a constant height. I called him the minimalist art star. As a side note, he had the personality to match.
Deciding that the viewing audience needed to have a connection to the characters in my painting, I chose famous faces with easily associated imagery. Left to right, Andy Warhol has his spoon for the Campbellâs soup series; Vincent Van Gogh has his knife for the whole ear fiasco though I did have to switch ears to make the image work; Mr. American Gothic has his fork; and Salvador Dali has my favorite joke, the Salvador Dali Llama. Reducing their image to a simple shape on a white canvas is the minimalist part, they are all art related, and are all âstarsâ in art history in one form or another. The 3 judge panel is typical of the reality show biz, so I have three very bored figures. One even brought his beret. The âwet paintâ sign is a direct reference to being bored by watching paint dry, and of course it has a drip on it because the sign is wet, not the canvas. Did you notice that Van Gogh is painted in his characteristic impressionistic style? My artist friends did!