Modern Art is Rubbish

In this Episode of Extra Rubbish, Marcus and Tom sit in the garden and discuss Virtual Reality and Art. On this website you can see links to videos showing the Apps discussed on this episode. ModernArtisRubbish.com

You can listen to the track played on the show by listening on spotify

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For this first Extra Rubbish we went to a group exhibition called Pop, it featured the Artist Tboy. You can follow Tboy on his Instagram page here Tboy Studio (@artbytboy) • Instagram photos and videos

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In 2007 a work was created by Damien Hirst called “For the Love of God” It was a platinum cast of a human skull, covered with 8,601 diamonds, on the forehead was a large Pear Shaped Diamond. The Teeth were the Original teeth from the Skull. The Work cost around £12,000,000 pounds to produce, a figure which was debated by some Jewelers. The title originated from something Hirst’s Mother once said to him “For the love of God, what are you going to do next?” when he told her of his next art idea.

Initially it was announced that the work sold for £50 million to an anonymous consortium apparently for cash leaving no paper trail. It now turns out that Damien Hirst was part of the consortium It and that the sale never actually happened 

The work is like the Momento Mori (remember you must die) paintings of the past. It is a work about wealth, the contemporary art market and the transitory nature of life.  “I thought what was the maximum you can put against death, and diamonds came to mind” Hirst said about this work.

The painting The Ambassadors – 1533 was created by Hans Holbein the younger. He was an artist famous in Tudor times who painted a lot of famous portraits, most notably  that of Henry VIII. Holbein was a German Painter born in  who spent part of his artistic career in England.

The painting made in 1533 is a life size portrait of two friends.  On the left side of the painting is Jean de Dinteville, the then French ambassador to England in 1533, on the right is his friend Georges de Selve. 1533 was a time when England under the reign of HenryVII was splitting from the Catholic church to become a protestant country. It was a time of great tension between England and Catholic France. This Mysterious portrait seems to allude to this.The two men are dressed in  fine clothes. They are on either side of a table  which has two shelves. The Top one has celestial heavenly objects. A Globe of the heavens and various  various scientific objects. Both men had interest  in the sciences and astronomy. On the lower shelf there is a globe of the world and musical instruments and books. There is also a lute with a broken string, perhaps referencing the tensions between the Catholic and protestant churches. There is also a hymn book that has lutheran songs, One is “come holy ghost” and the other is the “Ten commandments” (something all christian faiths had in common) Perhaps this is a call for christian unity?

You can see the work in close up detail on this link on the Google Arts page

Now hidden in plain sight right across the bottom centre of the painting is a strange distorted shape, once thought to have been fishbone. It actually is a skull that can only be seen if you stand to the right hand side of the picture. This kind of illusion had been popular since renaissance time. The skull in this picture is to remind the viewer that we all will die. This reminds the viewer that whilst the people featured in the portrait,  may like expensive clothes and objects, they are  also aware of the fleeting nature of life. One final mystery in this picture is the cross hidden in the top of the picture, reminding the viewing of salvation through Christ.

Created in 1997 by the Mexican Artist Gabriel Orozco the work “Black Kites” is a real human skull covered in chequered  black and white geometric shapes. It brings together organic and abstract geometries. Orozco described the work as “an experiment with graphite on bone… The thing is a contradiction, really: a 2D grid superimposed on a 3D object. One element is precise and geometric, the other is uneven and organic. The two are not resolved”.

He called this kind of work  “Skull”pture as a play on words. He created the work slowly over several weeks, whilst convalescing with a collapsed lung. The work is about themes of Life Death, Time and the fleeting nature of existence.

This mask was found in Mexico in the AZTEC period of history

It is a polished, painted Mosaic ,with eyes in its head. It has straps attached to it, and was probably worn for ceremonial purposes. The mask is believed to be that of a god called Tezcatlipoca “Smoking Mirror” According to legend he and his brother created the sky and the earth from the two halves of a beast. As well creation duties, he also watched over the dead

Steven Gregory is a South African Born artist. Who covers skulls in precious materials such as malachite, pearl or lapis lazuli. His work is in the same tradition as the Aztec Mask. They have realistic eyes. Putting eyes into the skull creates a dialogue between the viewer and the object. 

You can read more about Steven Gregory Skulls in this Daily Art Magazine Article

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In this Episode we talk about art that influenced music and music that influenced art, plus some art news stories.

Last November there was a house clearance sale in Massachusetts of an old Drawing for $30. That now may actually be by the German Master Albrecht Dürer (1471 – 1528) and could be worth millions. The family who owned it thought it was a reproduction made in the 20th century. It was in the collection of the Architect Jean Paul Carlhan. Apparently one of the daughters joked about the buyer wanting to buy the “Durer” . It is believed to be a preliminary study of the virgin with a Multitude of Animals. The seller has received an advance of $100,000.

Mary is holding the Christ child be he is not interested in all the animal stuff. He is just interested in his earthly dad Joseph whom he is pointing at him. Joseph is in the background and conversing with a stalk. There are many other animals, many are symbolic . There is a chained fox (which represents evil) Two owls in the picture are the forces of darkness, they are looking a bit forlorn and are skulking around a hollow tree stump, perhaps because of Jesus being born.

A man has appeared in court and received a 14 month suspended prison sentence for trying to destroy a famous Banksy work valued at 500,000 pounds. I was due to be taken away from the town in which it was created to be sold. In November the man broke into the building housing the work with the intention of spraying over the work so it would not leave his town. Apparently he was heard to say “It’s the only thing in port Talbot and they are taking it away”In 2018 Banksy sprayed the work on two adjoining walls of a garage. On one side is the image of a dumpster on fire sending ash into the air and on the other  a young boy dressed for winter, has his arms outstretched, tongue out, excited as they think the falling ash is snow.

BBC art news ran a story about a Bedford Art club held in a Cafe. The main idea is that music is played whilst participants are free to create whatever artworks in response. Usually music is a quiet background in art sessions. In these art classes an eclectic collection of music is played. Many had not experienced painting and focusing on music at the same time. 

Throughout history artists have been influenced by art. Famously The American abstract painter Jackson Pollock a big Jazz Fan and would sometimes listen to jazz whilst creating his so called action paintings.

Some artists even sought to represent music in their paintings; one famous one was by the Dutch Artist Piet Mondrian. During World War 2 he fled from Europe to New York .Influenced by the New York regimented Streets. He created the work Broadway Boogie-Woogie (1942) He captured the rhythm and jazz sounds and feel of New York represented on a canvas.

There have been many Paintings that have influenced Musicians too

Viva La Vida the 2008 song and album by ColdPlay was influenced by the Painting by Frida Kahlo of the same name. It is a painting of sliced Watermelons with a segment in the front that has the words “Viva La Vida” inscribed into it. The melons represent the richness of life and the fleeting nature of life, the melons will only be sweet and ripe to eat for a short period of time. She finished it 6 days before she died.  Chris Martin in an interview alluded to the paintings and Kahlo’s influence on him. Chris Martin stating “She went through a lot of pain, of course, and then she started a big painting in her house that said ‘Viva la Vida’, I just loved the boldness of it.” Frida famously suffered from Polio and had suffered serious spinal injuries as result of a tram crash. The albums artwork and the bands imagery was actually that of a painting by Eugene Delacroix “Liberty Leading the People” 1830. This was a painting relating to the Revolution that took place in July of 1830.

The song is about Vincent Van Gogh and opens with the Lyrics “Starry Starry Night” it is about the Tortured misunderstood genius Van Gogh. The Famous picture with its rich blues and yellows and swirling stars was a view from the asylum where he had admitted himself after cutting his ear off.

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In this Episode we talk about Angels in Art and Men on pillars!

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This episode brings you empty art, ancient art and shredded art!

There was a portrait of Nigel Farage that was shown in the Royal Academy summer show 2018 it was valued at £25,000 and was painted by David Griffiths (a very popular welsh portrait painting). I has been revealed in he was offered by a businessman from the Netherlands to buy it, so that he can destroy it. If you really want to see a portrait of Nigel Farage here is the link to it.

Love in the Bin has sold for 16.8 million the guide price was 4 – 6 million

Jens Haaning agreed with the Kunsten Museum to in Denmark to recreate an earlier work. The work would have seen two big picture frames filled with the equivalent of $84,000. This represented the average salaries of a Dane and a Austrian side by side. However the artist sent the Museum, nothing but the empty frames. Haaning had decided to keep the work for himself in the name of art. The new piece was called Take the Money and run. You can read more about the story on the CNN website. Here is the link to the Kunsten Museum

A pair of carved stone ornaments that look a bit like mini sphynx’s  have sold for more than 195000 pounds 265000 dollars. They were bought for a few 100 pounds at an auction 15 years ago, they were thought to be repros from the 1700s.  They sat in a garden in Sudbury Suffolk for about 15 years. It turns out that they are actually original Ancient Egyptian ones.

More than 45,000 years ago, an ancient artist scrawled a detailed image of a wild pig on a cave wall in Indonesia. Researchers now believe it’s the world’s oldest cave painting. It was painted in red and purplish pigment made from pulverized ochre a natural clay earth pigment.

Marcus from the show as well as doing the artwork for every episode, he has designed the cover for a new book of you can buy it for only .99p!

You can hear the new song from OB Tom Below

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In this episode Tom and Marcus talk Ancient Architecture, eye popping flower art and art that messes with DNA!

You can learn more about this artist on his website here and you can follow his Instagram here

This episode we are talking about the artist Eduardo Kac

You can see images of Alba the Rabbit here

The artist Eduardo creates Art that interfaces with life. He explains more about his work on this Ted Talk

You can see more work on his website

You can check out Tom’s new tune on the Spotify link below

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In this Episode we talk about a Nirvana Baby Lawsuit, Fake Banksy NFT a Bob Ross Doc and restored Vermeer

On the episode we talked about the artist Spencer Elden who is suing the record company and all those involved in producing the Album cover for the 1990s hit Album Nevermind by the Band Nirvana

Banksy’s website was a hacked and scammers pretended that Banksy was selling an NFT. An Anonymous person paid over $336,000 dollars for it. The hackers have now given back the money apart from a 5000 dollar fee. You can read more on the BBC website about the story

In the show we talk about the new Bob Ross Documentary on Netflix

Part of a Vermeer painting previously thought to be of blank wall, has now been revealed to have had a painting of cupid on the wall all along.

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In this episode we talked about Banksy’s holiday, A pepe the frog documentary that Marcus watched and our featured artwork is by Guido Van der Werve

Banksy Everywhere

Just when you think we don’t have enough Banksy they have been popping up everywhere. There has been a slew of new alleged Banksy works. One at the Merrivale Model Village in Great Yarmouth. Which is miniature cottage with a horse in it. You can see more images and read about them on this BBC article One in Gorleston features a grabber machine like those from the arcades, on the wall. Another found in Lowerstoft is of Three children in a boat. It appears to be sinking as one of the children is bailing out water with a bucket.

You can see the video of Banky’s spraycation on this link

Another possible Banksy image has been discovered in the Essex town of Harwich. It has been placed behind Perspex and has a security guard to watch over it. However we think that it is really dodgy, the feet and hands are poorly executed and message of the artwork is confusing, so doubtful it is Banksy’s

Having watched a storyville documentary we talked about Pepe the Frog

You can see the various Pepe the frog Memes here on this google image search

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In this episode we feature of our favourites from the London Other Art show. Talk about a Hunter Biden exhibition, Kojo Marfo the butcher turned artist and Essex Boys and Girls relating to an exhibition by Michael Landy.

Marcus visited the Other art Fair in London, it was full of excellent and interesting artists. On the show Tom and him talked about a few of his favourite pics. Links to the Artist’s discussed are below.

You can see more about Dawn Beckles work on her website here

Learn more about this artist on her website here

Learn more about this artist on their website here

You can check out more of his work on the website here

You can check out more of her work on the website here

Hunter Biden the son of the President is to have his first one man show. His work is ranges from $75,000 to 500,000 an amazing price for a new artist. People are worried about the son of the president profiting from this connection. There is a concern that people may pay high prices and for the work in order to gain access or favour to the president. The gallery will not reveal the names of the people who bid for the works and reject offers that appear concerning to them Find out more on the Berges Gallery Website

Was a butcher from Ghana turned artist. His work includes faces with VitHe values cows they feature in his art. In a BBC article he said “The cow builds civilisations,” . “In Ghana we use them to plough the land and if you have two to three animals, you can get a beautiful woman to marry you. In parts of India they are treated as Gods.” You can see more and read more on the bbc article here.

Marcus visited and exhibition of Michael Landy at the First Site Gallery

Marcus went for a Run round the Historic town of Colchester, and visited the Firstsite Exhibition he and Tom Talked about in the podcast

You can see a link to the CIA and Art episode we talked about in the show

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