Modern Art is Rubbish

Gavin Turk is a British Artist who was born in 1967. His work deals with questions like authorship value, and what it is to be an artist.

This work is a blue plaque that has “Gavin Turk Sculptor worked here 1989-1991 Borough of Kensington.” It based on the Heritage blue plaques seen on buildings around England. Normally to commemorate people who have a lifetime of work behind them, Turk’s work playfully inserts himself into art history, when he was just starting out. The Royal College of Art was not impressed and refused to offer him his master’s degree.

As well as several silk screen works, he has made several waxworks of himself in different guises. He may appear as a Queens Guard in a bright red uniform, or a tramp. He also created waxworks of himself as famous cultural icons such as Che Guavra.

This is a life-size waxwork of the artist made to look like the Punk Rock Icon Sid Vicious. He is in the same gun-slinging pose that Elvis was famously shown in a work by Warhol.  The whole work is placed in a Glass Vitrine Display case.  Both Elvis and Vicious were stars that burned brightly, but ultimately self destructed. This piece it is a comment on the nature of celebrity, Sid vicious the hard living rebellious bass player in a punk band, now is reduced to a museum curiosity. Also with artist’s once they become part of the establishment, they are no longer the outsider and are part of system they once rebelled against.

Placed in a rather grand looking wooden vitrine looking a bit like a 4 poster bed the artist has portrayed himself as Jean-Paul Marat in his bath. Marat was a revolutionary who was stabbed to death by a political assassin during the French Revolution. You can find out more by listening to our Baths Special episode here.

This is a small bronze self-portrait that looks a lot like an Oscar statue. It was meant to be awarded each year to an individual who captured the spirit of the Artist. The prize was launched in a pseudo-ceremony in 1994. The first winner was the artist Michael Craig- Martin. Turk never actually delivered the statue and it was never awarded it again.

A print of the artists last name in the style of Robert Indiana’s Love. In many of his signed works, Turk questions to the value we place on objects. Once we know a work is by a famous artists, we view it differently and it takes on a different meaning for the viewer.

This is painting in the style of  Jackson Pollock style painting, it is created by the artists constantly writing his signature.

“Box” Is a bronze sculpture painted to loot like a cardboard packing box sealed with tape. Turk is very interested in the idea of taking something particularly that might look like a discarded object and placing it back in a gallery setting.

“Nomad” is a bronze cast of figure curled up in a dirty sleeping bag, you cannot see the person’s head. It looks as though it would be occupied by a homeless sleeper. By putting this work in the gallery it forces the viewer to look at it and think about the plight of the homeless, a sight that some may ignore if seen on the street.

This was a piece which was show at the Skip gallery (a rubbish skip) a temporary gallery space  on a street in London.  In the skip was a single art work. It was a brown paper bag, painted to look like an empty bag of prawn cocktail flavoured crisps called Skips.The work is called Transubstantiation, this refers to the conversion of bread and wine into the flesh and blood of Christ. The shape of the crisps reminded Turk of communion bread.

We talked about a couple of works created by the artist Lucy Delano on the show.

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Tom is back and for this show and we have picked a few Art news updates. 

A Bathtub has just been sold at Christie’s in New York for 4.3 millon dollars. Built-in 1969 it is a bronze bathtub created by the French artist Francois Xavier Lallane. Shaped like a hippopotamus it is a fully functioning bath that opens up to reveal a sink and a vanity.

An audacious attempted theft of 2 Rembrandt’s currently on show at the Dulwich Gallery in London has been prevented. This Wednesday someone broke into the gallery and attempted to steal two Rembrandts. An officer chased after the robber, but they used a canister to spray the officer in the face and the suspect was able to escape. The paintings were however swiftly recovered. The Officer was not injured. The gallery has not released details of the stolen works.

Video Trailer of the Exhibition

In an episode of Britain’s Lost Masterpieces they have found an original Botticelli known as   Madonna and Child with pomegranate. The 500-year-old painting was languishing in storage in the National Museum of Wales. It was  attributed as a follower of Botticelli. The Pomegranate in the painting represents the suffering of Christ. A Botticelli scholar decided that the work has come from the studio of Botticelli, and that many parts of it probably would have been painted by the master himself.

Link to the Episode on the BBCI player

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In Part2, we pick more of our highlights from the last almost 2 years of Modern art is Rubbish.

In this clip episode, we talked about the board games that were created by the fun and playful Fluxus group of artists, including Vegetable chess.
Hungry for more Fluxus check out this link!

As part of our spooky Halloween special, we talked about  Marc Quinn’s Blood Head. You can hear the whole episode on the link here.

The Installation artists use a lot of materials to create work their site-specific works. There works range from wrapping an iconic building or coastline in fabric to building a giant sculpture out of oil barrels. In this clip Tom imagines that they would be very popular with their suppliers as they would have to purchase a lot of materials. You can hear the full episode here.

Many artist’s, of course, have jobs before they become artists. In this clip we talk about the time Olitski decides to try his hand working at a cinema. You can hear more about this late great titan of American art on here

In this clip, we tackle the questions that people on google has been asking about, Van Gogh’s Ear! You can listen to the full episode on Van Gogh here.

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In this episode, we pick some of our highlights from the last almost 2 years of Modern art is Rubbish.

Sometimes our conversations on the show can take unexpected turns in our Babies in Art Special, we discussed the issuing of doping in baby sports!

In our Fake and Forge it episode we investigated some dubious works that we found online

Banksy crops up from time to time in the show. In an art news episode Loving Vincent and Impersonating Banksy, we performed an Instagram conversation Banksy had about an unauthorised show.

In our Artists in Danger episode, we talked about an artist Chris Burden who shot himself in the name of Art

In our episode about the ever-playful Martin Creed, we discussed his work Lights going Off and On. We questioned if it is actually vandal proof?

Sometimes we recreate real and imagined artworks on the show, in this one we recreate a German Dada performance which is featured in Part 2 of our 3 part Dada special. Links to Dada Part 1 / Part 2 / Part3

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Friend of the show Paul steps in to cover for Tom in this show. We bring you talk of Banksy litigation, a new Koons sculpture and Paul’s thoughts on a Mirror work of art.

Banksy has opened a showroom in Croydon to promote the opening of his online Shop Gross domestic product. It will according to him be selling “impractical and offensive” merch. Such as Clocks with the famous Banksy rat on the face, welcome mats made from the life jackets of refugees

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  On display at the Bansky showroom
  

Banksy after getting advice from his legal team suggested he set up selling his own merch to avoid under EU law his trademark being used by another.

Jeff Koons has just unveiled his work called ‘Bouquet of Tulips’ in Paris. It was created as a homemage to the people killed in the 2015 attacks in France.

In this episode, we talk about the Art and Language Mirror work Untitled. It questions the reality that is presented by traditional painting. When you look at a painting you would see an artist’s vision, with the mirror piece you are seeing a reflection of reality.

Marcus the show has designed a cover for a great book of Flash Fiction written by Amanda Hodgson. Just click on the link to get it free!

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In this Art News episode we talk of Cats on the Underground, Private emails made public and stolen golden toilets!

All the adverts in a tube train station in Clapham tube station in London have been replaced with pictures of cats.

All adverts such as the ones you see up the escalator have been replaced with pictures of cats. This creative project is known as “The Citizens Advertising Takeover Service” (CATS). The creative collective behind this project is called Glimpse. In a statement from Glimpse, they said about the work “We hope it will help people think a bit differently about the world around them and get inspired to change things for the better.”

The cats featured are all rescue cats from the Cats Protection League and Battersea Dogs and Cats home.

You can learn more about the Glimpse project and other works here

As part of and work exhibited at the Venice Biennale Kenneth Goldsmith printed the 62,000 pages of Hillary  Clinton’s emails for his work art exhibition titled “HILLARY: The Hillary Clinton Emails”

Visitors were surprised to see Hillary Clinton, who turned up to read the emails for an hour, from reams of printed documents that sat on a desk that is a replica of one in the oval office.
The emails were hacked by Wikileaks and were published on the web. This leak was used by the Trump campaign in 2016 as a way to smear Hillary as she was running against him. The issue being, she had used on occasions a private email account for affairs of state.  

The curators of the exhibition said about the work that “the pile of papers is rather unimpressive, rebutting Trump’s efforts to make them monumental.” The work also questions issues of transparency, privacy, propaganda and democracy in the politics of the west.

A work by the artist Maurizio Cattelan has been stolen. It is an 18 Carat gold toilet and is called America created in 2018

It was stolen from a stately home Blenheim Palace, which is the birthplace of Winston Churchill in the UK. The burglary caused significant damage and flooding, this was because as the Toilet was plumbed in and fully functioning. Its value is approx $6million dollars $4.8 million pounds

In January last year, the work was offered to the White House for loan by the Guggenheim instead of the Van Gogh that was requested.

Many people questioned if the robbery was, in fact, a Cattelan Style stunt.
Maurizio Cattelan was quoted as saying “I promise I have an alibi for the night.”

America is a work we talked about in our Maurizio Cattelan special last year, which you can listen to here.

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Trash Art, Eco Rubbish and confused Cleaners!

Gavin Turk has made a series of works known as Trash Culture

This work is bronze cast of a polystyrene takeaway chip tray, the tray looks as though it has been crushed underfoot on the street. It is painted to look like a real one there is even the trace of a shoe print on it. Turk  also produced a series of Bronze cast Bin Bags such as 2004’s Dump a bronze cast of a used bin bag full of household waste

Link to large image

Tim Noble and Sue Webster are British artists, some of there most famous works are Shadow Sculptures. These incorporate diverse materials including household rubbish, scrap metal and taxidermy animals. By shining light onto these assemblages they cast realistic-looking silhouettes. The work dirty White Trash with Gulls is made from the rubbish accumulated over 6 months, by the artists. The work looks like a big pile of trash being picked over by a couple of seagulls on the hunt for some food. The work casts a shadow which shows the silhouette of the artists decadently sitting back to back, one enjoying a cigarette and other a glass of wine. This work brings together the world of abstract and representational art.

Link to a large image

In 2001 the artist for his work Breakdown, destroyed everything he owned, even his car and passport. After making a list of 7,227 items he owned, he and a team of 12 assistants over the space of 2 weeks,  shredded and dismantled and crushed all of his possessions.

The site looked a bit like a factory floor, it was situated in a  temporary space on Londons Oxford street.  The piece was about consumerism and is about how the things we own define us.

Breakdown by Julian Stallabrass is licensed under CC BY 2.0

We met up with the Suffolk based artist Andy Greenacre, we talked to him about his Sand sculpture made by using discarded packing to create the shapes.

You can learn more about Andy Greenacre and his work on his website here

There have been times when cleaners have mistaken artworks for rubbish.

In 2004 a cleaner threw away part of a work by the artist Gustav Metzger. One part of his art installation was a bag of rubbish, there was a parameter on the floor which the bag was placed behind, the bag represented the fragility of art. The bag of rubbish was replaced, and for the rest of the exhibition, the work was  covered overnight and staff informed that the bag of rubbish was part of the artwork. The Artist Damien Hirst had a work binned accidentally too. In 2001 a cleaner tidied up a collection of beer bottles empty cigarette packets paint tubes old ashtrays. It was created to look like the chaos in an artist’s studio. In 1986 A work by Joseph Beuys “Untitled” Bathtub. It had a layer of Grease on it, the cleaner cleaned the bathtub clean.

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We bring you 2 art stories, one  featuring a Mystery Rembrandt and one is about a Flagrant Flag Flouting Artwork

Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara has been arrested because of a performance with a Cuban flag,

When he was arrested the artist had draped a Cuban flag over his shoulders as part of a thirty-day performance, titled Drapeau. This was a protest against a law passed this year designed to regulate how national symbols should be shown. The law states that people are not allowed to combine the flag with other symbols, to alter it at all,  use the flag in commerce or wear it. There is now a movement #LaBanderaEsDeTodos (The flag belongs to all) People post pictures of themselves with the flag online as a protest

The is a founder and part of the Museum of Dissidence. The Cuban state has many restrictive laws on speech, assembly and freedom of the press. Set up in 2016, the museum of Dissidence is a project that brings together people from Cuba and outside Cuba online. It specialises in public art projects and installations, these tend to be in the poorer districts of Havana. It seeks to become a cultural movement that contributes to bringing about a democratic change in the country.

Artwork

Cuba is full of graffiti of revolutionary figures such as Castro and Che Guevara, the “Museum” created murals depicting strange figures and faces some without mouths in reference to the restriction of free speech. In one work they staged a fake hanging of an artist outside a building the work was entitled another poet commits suicide, to reflect the many Cuban writers and artists that have committed suicide

Museum of Dissidence website

A painting bought for 500 Euros ($560) may be by Rembrandt which could raise about 30 million Euros

The painting is of Ecce Homo which translates to mean “behold the man”. It depicts the moment when Pontious Pilot presents Jesus in his crown of thorns after he has been flogged, this is just before he is due to be crucified.

Apparently, a Belgium businessman who is only known as MR Jo  10 years ago was in a bar in liege. Whilst there he got chatting to a stranger who was going through hard times. To help the stranger out Mr Jo agreed to buy a mystery old painting. For a few years, it just hung in his home, until a friend suggested that he get it looked at by an art expert.  According to a member of the Belgian Chamber of Art Experts, the work was an exceptional example of a painting by the Dutch master Rembrandt and could be worth millions. However, an anonymous expert has dismissed it a being a fake. Using dendrochronology, the wood used to support the canvas was dated as being between 1676 and 1699, which is after Rembrandt’s death. This, however, is not conclusive proof of it being a fake.  Many painters around the time bought canvas loose and used a larger strainer, whilst they paint the work. It is possible that the painting was attached to a newer support at a later date.

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In this we episode talk about the Neo Expressionist  and Titan of Painting Basquiat.

Born 1960 his dad was Haitian and an accountant and mother Puerto Rican. He loved drawing,  his mother encouraged  his drawing and his mother took him often took him to visit  museums 

In 1968 Basquiat was hit by a car and was hospitalised for a month, his mother gave him a copy of Grays Anatomy to read in hospital.

His parents split and he went to live with his father in Puerto Rican. His father was tough and Basquiat and his father would  clash, Basquiat did not like to be disciplined or told what to do 

Basquiat ran away a few times.  In 1978 he left home, his father gave him some money in the hope he would make a success of his life.

He had a romantic view of fame in some he loved stars like Jimi Hendrix Janis Joplin. He himself wanted to be famous 

To make ends meet he would sell postcards collages and drawings using xerox photocopies. This was the first time he met Andy Warhol, he saw him in a restaurant and Warhol bought some

Around May 1978. Basquiat and a friend Al Diaz started writing soundbites and humorous phrases around New York. Many of them challenged the Art establishment. They signed the works with the signature SAMO ©.  SAMO stood for the “Same old Sh*t”

Examples included: “Origin of Cotton” or “SAMO as an end to playing art.

Samo became the talk of the new york art scene. Basquiat always wanting to be famous, 6 months later announced that he was Samo in the Village Voice, which was a   New York creative arts magazine. After this announcement, the words “Samo is dead” appeared around New York.

In 1979 he and friends form a band called grey an experimental band making noise music.

You can hear the music of Gray below

In 1980 Basquiat work was shown as part of a   group show called the “Times Square Show”, his work was very popular.

Early in 1981, Basquiat was given the opportunity to take part in a majorly important show at the PS1 gallery Called New York/New Wave. This launched his career. He was offered and did many one-man shows from then on.

In 1982 Basquiat was introduced to his idol, Andy Warhol. This deep friendship was often criticised by outsiders, Basquiat was accused of trying to latch onto Warhol’s fame and Andy Warhol (now less in favour) of trying to latch onto Basquiat’s street credibility. They went on to have a show together, the critics panned it. Disappointed Basquiat drifted apart from Warhol. In 1987 Warhol died during an operation in hospital

Throughout his adult life, Basquiat had used drugs, in particular, Heroin. Devastated at the death of his estranged friend, his usage increased. On the 12th of August 1988, Basquiat died aged 27 from an accidental Heroin overdose. 

Click for larger image

Detail showing “King Zulu”

Click for a larger image

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Art News Asphalt Accidents & Italian Art First MAIR36

In this short holiday episode we bring you 2 stories, one involving an Asphalt art Accident, and another about a curator who wants to set up his own satirical Art party!

Image from Stefagraffia on Instagram

In  Yekaterinburg, Russia, a major piece of street art has been partially covered by asphalt not long after it was completed. The work is a giant white and black cross on a red background. The main white centre of the cross is comprised of quotes in calligraphy by the Russian artist Kazimir Malevich.

The 6686 sq meter work took 20 volunteers 3 days to complete. A few days after it’s completion, a group of roadworkers turned up to repair the crossing covered by the graffiti. It perhaps did not occur to them that the work was meant to be there, and proceeded to pour asphalt onto the work. Eventually, the authorities stepped in to prevent any further damage. Luckily the area of damage was only about 10 – 15 square meters. There appears to have been some breakdown in communication, However, the mayor’s office blamed the careless workers for the mistake. The work will be restored.

In response to the rise of the far-right parties in Italy, Francesco Bonami who is a curator. Has formed a tongue in cheek Italian “Art First Party”. The party is called Exageramos

Bonami was thinking about what would happen if the art world “What if the art world starts to go bonkers?” In the same way that politicians like Trump and Salvani have been so successful because as he explained have “because they have no shame” and just “bullshit or exaggerate.”  His videos for EXAGERAMOS! Art party are on Instagram

It has the Slogan “Italian Art First”

Policies include: Activites include travelling around the country to look for illegal foreign sculpture remove them, catch the artists to sue them and put them in jail.   It will be forbidden to say any major Italian art such as Georgio Marandi is boring

“Curators, global and multi-cultured: the party is finished,” Bonami said in a video posted this week.

Prima L’ARTE ITALIANA @matteosalviniofficial @mauriziocattelan_fake @mauriziocattelan @museomaxxi #italianart #first #exageramos @labiennale @costantinodellagherardesca @paeasaggio @ilfoglio @davidallegranti @claudio.cerasa @larepubblica

A post shared by Bonami (@thebonamist) on Jul 16, 2019 at 1:15am PDT

Another law he proposes affects the Italian Art Bienalle. He states ” I’m going to sign a decree that won’t allow anybody to use the name ‘biennale’ outside Venice.” All the international exhibitors will be made to pay back rent to Italy for use of the pavilions since 1895. “We are not a holiday place. The biennale is not a place where you just go and take your room,” he says.

Another law he will only allow Italian artists to participate in the Bienalle. He “will forbid all the garbage contemporary art in galleries and museums.” “We will put in nice little boxes all the shitty art that comes from abroad and we send it back to their country,”   This does appear to be undertaken as a bit of fun.

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