Modern Art is Rubbish

Today we talk about Smashing Picassos, Toilets for the People and how Banksy came to the rescue

Nipon Foundation a Japanese Foundation have just started a project for to design toilets for locations in Japan. Due to be completed soon. They are an organisation that work to make society better through many diverse projects. Such as agricultural projects in Africa and Disaster recovery support. You can find out more about the Tokyo Toilet project and the Nipon Foundation on the following link.

A man has been sentenced over the criminal Damage of a Picasso Painting 1944 Bust of a Woman worth 20million. 20 year old Shakeel Massey a Spanish Architecture student . in December 2019 he walked into to Tate modern gallery. Punched the painting a few times, breaking the protective glass. Before pulling it off the wall and chucking it on the the ground. He told the police his actions were an art performance The Judge sentenced him to 18 months in prison, the Judge in summing up said that Masseys act were just a publicity attempt to “seek notoriety and a five minutes of fame. To repair the work will take over $350,000 a year and a half to repair

A man has been jailed after punching a £20m Picasso painting and ripping it from the wall at the Tate Modern art gallery in London https://t.co/c2RCcF8i9d pic.twitter.com/wtsR9Ku58L

In 2010 a women accidentally fell onto a 1904 canvas by Picasso called the actor, causing damage to the lower right part of the canvas

Also Steve Wynn unfortunately had 2 Picassos that suffered damaged one that we discussed on an earlier podcast episode here and a painting that was due for auction in 2018 called Le Marin. Allegedly it was damage by a decorators pole causing an estimated $20 million dollars of damage

Banksy has purchased for £860,000 an old French navy boat, and had it converted to a boat to rescue migrants. It is called the Louise Michel and is painted pink and on the side is the iconic image of the girl with the balloon but instead of a heart shaped balloon she is depicted throwing a heart shaped life preserver. You can follow the Louis e Michel on their twitter account https://twitter.com/MVLouiseMichel

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In todays podcast we talk about Eco Branding, costly masks and Snapping Statues.

Art Advisor Miller Gaffney suing Rudy Giuliani for more than $15000
2019 he appraised his fine and decorative art and personal property. Apparently Giuliani had no knowledge of such bill.

A graphic design company has re imagined, famous company logo’s in a way that would use less ink. This would have a better environmental impact and save money for the company. You can learn more about the company Ecobranding-design.com on their link

An Austrian man has been caught on film, snapping the toe of of a sculpture. He was reclining on the reclining work to get a photo of himself when he broke the toe. The sculpture is a plaster cast, made by Antonio Canova of his 1804 Marble sculpture called “Paolina Borghese as Venu Victrix” Pauline Bonaparte as Venus Victoria.

In 2013 an American tourist, snapped the finger off a statue attributed to the Florentine 14th and 15th century Sculptor Giovanni d’Ambrogio

Isaac Levy Yvel company has received an order for a rather expensive mask. It is a Gold diamond encrusted mask made with over 3600 diamonds and will cost around $1.5million

You can check out Tom’s new track Recording Sources (released 18th Sept) and you can check out his other music on Spotify

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In this episode we look at the story behind the the CIA secretly funding art at the height of the cold war.

American Abstract Expression was a very free and Avant Guarde Artform. This was in great contrast to the State controlled Soviet Artform of Socialist Realism.

Socialist Realist Art

American Abstract Expressionism

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This show we bring you Pigeon art, Clowns, Banksy on the Tube and more Statue Controversy! Also talk of a possible artistic rivalry between Bristol and London?

In the podcast we mentioned “The Artist Taxi” driver.

Hell is Empty All the Clowns are Here Link in Bio

A post shared by Mark McGowan (@the_artist_taxidriver) on Jul 20, 2020 at 4:51am PDT

We mentioned an advert by Coke from the 1960’s

Banksy has sneaked onto a tube train to spray paint images of Rats playing with face masks, and he also sprayed the words Banksy in big letters on the back of the tube train. He made a video of it for his Instagram which you can see on the link below.

. . If you don’t mask – you don’t get.

A post shared by Banksy (@banksy) on Jul 14, 2020 at 6:30am PDT

During a black lives mater protest a statue of a slave trader was pulled down and thrown into a river in Bristol. The Artist Mark Quinn has created a statue of a Black Lives Mater Protestor and placed it (without prior permission on the empty plinth) . It was removed within a few days by the council.

Also this week we have been looking at the art of JR CHUO. Inspired by Japanese cut outs. JR CHUO is an artist who works mainly with paper. His striking work is really intricate and original. You Can check out his work on the Saatchi web site here and on his Instagram

You can hear Tom’s music on this Link on Spotify mar

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In this episode we look at recent art stories including an imagined world where controversial statues have been long since buried. Also we talk about red dotted slave owners, and another botched restoration.

For this piece the artist dug out a grave. It was in the shape of a shadow cast by a captain cook statue. The artist wanted to imagine a world were controversial statues like Cook’s were already dead and buried.

Documentarian Allen Parsa has used a famous American art work to make us look differently at an event. The painting he used was a copy of John Trumbull’s 1818 painting called Declaration of independence 
It depicts a  five-man drafting committee presenting a draft of the Declaration of independence to Congress. . This signing of the document represented the United States gaining freedom the 13 British colonies.  

This Freedom was not however was not passed down to the slaves. To highlight this issue Parsa has created a work in which he placed red dots on every person in the painting who is believed to have been involved in slavery.

A copy of the painting The Immaculate Conception of El Escorial by 17th century Spanish artist Esteban Murillo. Has been ruined in a botched restoration attempt by a furniture restorer hired by the owner. Although the painting was a copy of the original it was believed to have been made by the Spanish master.

Tom from the Show has new Song out you can listen to it on the link below. (Artwork by Sam Weldon)

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In this episode we talk about the art of the black square. Dating back surprisingly to the 17th century.

This work was created to represent the darkness before creation

In 1882 Paul Bilhaud (French poet and dramatist) exhibited an all black painting named “Combat de nègres dans un tunnel (Negroes fighting in a tunnel) – Contemporary audiences at the time would have seen this as “humour”, though viewed through our modern eyes this is racist.

His friend Alphonse Allais released three works inspired by Bilhaud piece using several colours 

• Communion of Anaemic Girls in the Snow‘. 1883
• Apoplectic apoplectic Cardinals Harvesting Tomatoes by the Shores of the Red Sea‘. 1884

When this work was displayed in 1915 it created quite a stir. It was known as the zero point of art. It was the first work to be purely about itself.

The Artist Mike Parr in 2018 spent three days under a street. Living in a box under the street for 72 hours . The artist would not be visible to anyone buried under the road.

Gilliian Carnegie creates works on black canvas of subjects, this one is of trees.

Tom from the show has a new single Starsplitter out Now you can listen to it here!

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In this podcast we look at the life of the Victorian Dandy Artist Aubrey Beardsley (1872 – 1898) . Controversial , insanely talented and dead at 25.

Drawn in 1898 This is an incredibly confident and masterful work when he created when he was just 19…  This illustration was based on a scene in the Wagner Opera Sigfried. The image is beautifully intricate with great contrasting blocks of black and and spaces of  white. The lines are fine in the foreground and in the background this was a style that was very original. This is a great example of his earlier work that was full of detail

In 1893 Beardsley got the commission to illustrate the Oscar Wilde one act Play Salome. His work is not a Literal translation of the text but was inspired by it.

His fame and celebrity now firmly established. He suggested to his publisher that he would like to create a quarterly publication showing contemporary art and literature, featuring some of the leading writers and artists of the time. The art would not illustrate the literature, and the literature would not reflect the art. The title he chose was the Yellow Book. This was deliberate, French books containing naughty content were sold in yellow wrappers. It was an instant hit and sold over 5000 copies of the first edition

Beardsley style was constantly developing, the work below shows a more ornamental French influence that was creeping into his design work.

Beardsley was asked to illustrate the the Bawdy Ancient Greek comedy Lysistrata. He was very influenced by the explicit erotic designs on ancient Greek Vases.

• The Toliet of Lampito
• Lysistrata defending the Acropolis

Tom from the show has a new single Starsplitter out Now you can listen to it here!

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In this podcast we are talking about Ganja Art Dogs, A Picasso Lottery and 50 cent inspired artwork

In Italy a woman has won a painting by Picasso in a raffle. The painting is called Nature Mort and is  valued at a million euros  the ticket was given as a gift to the winner. The raffle is was to raise money for a charity providing water for villagers in Madagascar and Cameroon. The raffle raised about 5.1m euros tickets were 100 euros. The painting is a still life of  a glass of absinthe and a newspaper on the table. The painting has flat planes and the canvas is rectangular in shape.

Les Femmes des d ‘Alger (Version 0) was painted by Picasso in 1955 and sold for 179.4 million dollars in 2015. From 1954 to 1955 Picasso painted 15 works called Les Femmes d ‘Alger (Women of Algiers) they were labelled A to O. They were inspired by a painting called “Women of Algiers in their Apartment” which was painted in 1834 by Eugene Delacroix. The painting shows Algerian concubines smoking opium and hashish in there harem. This series was in part a tribute to his rival and friend Matisse who was inspired by Delacroix, he died a few weeks before Picasso started his series. You can see more about the Auction on the Christies site.

In a novel way to get round Marijuana rules. A Gallery in Washington is getting their Alaskan Klee Kai dog to create original art. When a customer purchases a K9 Artwork they gift Marijuana as a token of their appreciation with every original work. You can see more pictures and details on the story on this Artnet Article.

50 cent has been getting upset about art recently. Lushsux is an  artist who lives and works in Melbourne. He has been painting large portraits outdoors showing 50 cent as other famous celebrities and politicians like Donald Trump and Oprah Winfrey. 50 Cent apparently did not appreciate these tributes and posted on his social media. ‘Man look at this s**t, TF is wrong with this guy he won’t stop.”

The rapper seemed even more enraged when he saw the picture of him as Taylor Swift (Swifty Cent) ‘Swifty cent, I’d like to hit this MF right in the back of his head while he doing this s**t.’. Unfortunately although not a serious instruction. it appears someone may have got ideas.  3 weeks later after the statement was made, the  graffiti artist was hit in the back of the head, putting  him in hospital

50 cent was upset to hear about the attack as he posted a get well message. The artist does not blame him for the attack though.

You can see Lushsux Instagram here

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In this episode we go down the Rabbit Hole of art news. Talking about Alice in Wonderland and a man who spends his days sitting in an art gallery!

A work that started in 2011 is still continuing today. The Belgian artist Wim Delvoye had his artwork tattooed onto the back of a guy named Tim. It has a religious flavour and features the virgin Mary and Mexican style decorated skull. Completed in 2008 it was sold for 150,000 euros of which Tim took a third. When Tim dies the worked will be removed from his body and stretched on a canvas. But for now as part of the contract he is required to sit in Galleries at least 3 times a year. Tim has sat in galleries around the world. The piece of performance art is called Tim Alone and is currently on at the Museum of Old and New Art in Tasmania, Australia. Despite the gallery being closed Tim is still sitting in the gallery. You can listen to an interview with Tim here

Hail Marina Abromvich

Apparently one of our favourites Marina Abrovmitch has been accused of devil worship many people on the internet have accused of Satanism. Basically it was announced by Christies early on this year that in Collaboration with Microsoft. The work involving her work this life, would be experienced on mixed reality headsets. Microsoft released the video on YouTube. It caused apparently a lot of stir getting over 24000 thumbs down.

New York Police have prevented an attempt to blow up and Alice in wonderland statue. Located in central park in New York. Which is a large Bronze statue that shows Alice sitting atop of a mushroom along with the Cheshire cat. On either side of her is the Mad Hatter and the White Rabbit checking his pocket watch. It was built by the American sculptor Jose de creft 1959. 30 year old Kevin Fallon was arrested mid april allegedly he sent a text to his friends and family stating he wanted to blow up the statue. allegedly he threatened his father an ex-girlfriend and his father — sending photos of a pipe bomb and ammunition along with the threat advising them “look both ways before the cross the street.”also wanted to blow up a loved one with a wrist watched attached to an explosive device.

In the podcast we also talked about some of the Illustrations for Alice in Wonderland.

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Marcus from the show talked about his artwork “The Significant Insignificant” , it was created in 2013 7 years before the toilet roll crisis of 2020. The work was about the transformative nature of art taking something insignificant and making it significant. It was also a comment about the misplaced value we place on things.

Art does not stop whilst in lockdown of course. Damien Hirst has created a downloadable rainbow, this is to show support for the NHS. Anyone can download it for free. Called the Butterfly Rainbow it is filled with images of butterfly wings. He will also be producing a limited series of prints, that will be sold to raise funds for the NHS. He created this work as he wanted to pay tribute to the NHS staff. You find out more and download the work here

I wanted to do something to pay tribute to the wonderful work NHS staff are doing in hospitals around the country. The rainbow is a sign of hope and I think it’s brilliant that parents and children are creating their own version and putting them up in the windows of their homes. If you want to download and print this one then the link is in my bio. I’ll be selling it as a limited edition print to raise money for the NHS too and I’ll give out the details soon.

A post shared by Damien Hirst (@damienhirst) on Apr 20, 2020 at 3:41am PDT

It seems that Banksy much to the disappointment of his wife, has been doing artwork at home. Turning his bathroom into a giant canvas. He has painted rats causing untold lockdown chaos. The rebellious rats have no sense of social distancing. They are seen to to be creating havock….  One painted rat on the underside of the toilet seat is seen peeing everywhere but in the bowl. Another reckless rodent appears to have jumped onto the toothpaste sending the contents flying.

. . My wife hates it when I work from home.

A post shared by Banksy (@banksy) on Apr 15, 2020 at 10:45am PDT

During lockdown there have been a few new museums that have sprung up, some are very niche and exclusive. One London couple have set up a museum for their gerbils, They created a museum with benches and Gerbil inspired artworks such as a “Gerbil girl with the pearl earing” and a screaming gerbil doing in the style of the Munch painting The Scream. It is even comes complete with a “do not chew sign”. You can read more and see images on the Artnet article here

Inspired by this someone in America has up a gallery for her Guinea pig called the Piggenheim ( a name inspired by the New York Gallery the Guggenheim). The pictures hang on the owners skirting board. It features guinea pig versions of paintings by famous artists such as Roy Lichtenstein and Magritte.

Street artists in Vancouver have been collaborating with the local authorities to paint covid inspired artworks. Artsts have been asked to paint street art, that is in part a mural and kind of public service anoucement. One by the street artist Smokey Devil shows a man with his baseball cap on backwards, he is coughing and has the covid virus all around him. The work features virus facts on it and advice such as “wash your hands 10 times a day please stop touching yo face, It may seem surreal but it is not.” You can read more and see images on the Art Newspaper

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