Workshop contemporary artist

[LCR]

Here is the translation of one of the files of the Center Georges Pompidou, devoted mutations artist's studio in the second half of XX - beginning of XXI centuries.
I found it interesting that text.

For centuries, the artist's studio, be it known to us according to the memoirs of contemporaries, or by the images of the artist himself, truly reflect the nature of the works created in it. One of the most famous - the workshop Rieter-Paul Rubens, the team of his apprentices and magnificent paintings, which hung on its walls, gives a complete picture of the tvorcheskosm potential of the artist and his extraordinary productivity. Brushes Gustave Courbet painting belongs to the "Artist's Workshop", exhibited at the World Exhibition in 1855 and became the embodiment of realism in painting, in which he wanted to portray "miralnuyu and physical history" of his workshop. In October 1954 he wrote Champfleury: "This is - our society, its elite, its poor, its middle class. In short, it is - my vision of society with its interests and passions. The world comes to me, that I have portrayed.

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In the 20 th century workshop where work by Henri Matisse and Picasso show different periods of their creativity. For example, the floating laundry Picasso linked to Cubism, a shop on the Boulevard Gransee-Augustin - with the works of large format. Number of Matisse at the Hotel Regina "immediately calls to mind his cut-out work in gouache.

Workshop enables the viewer to penetrate the mysterious world of creativity: discovering a place creating works of masters, he seemed to become an accomplice of the intimate life of the artist and his works.
Some contemporary artists are doing etogt public interest in the wings of creativity theme of his works, they include him in his artistic position. Thus, the "Factory of Andy Warhol, photos of which are widely known, is a full component of the myth that the artist has created around his personality. Robert Philly opened the shop is always closed-shop, Marcel Brudters put the reconstruction of an apartment where he works, thus turning the shop in decor, inseparable from the stereotype of the artist.
Such theatricalization workshop led to the fact that it has ceased to be a place where there are works of art, and became the subject of reflection on the conditions of the emergence of \ art. Workshop "conceptualize."

When the artist becomes a vehicle ... workshop is a factory

«Factory of Andy Warhol

Located in a former industrial area east of 47 th Street New York, a workshop, in which Warhol was settled in 1963, reflects not only the creative process of the artist, but his personality. In the attic, completely - down to the toilet - papered with silver-impregnated paper with fragments of mirrors, collectors, gallery owners and museum staff met with the artist's inner circle who came from underground culture - drug addicts, transvestites and prostitutes, suddenly become famous.

In his book, "Hyper-Star: Andy Warhol, his world, his films" Stephen Koch wrote: "Factory" is inverted the traditional role of the cultural underground: subterranean microcosm mocked the secular society, which is looked on with admiration, illuminating the "Factory" rays of his curiosity. Representatives of the external world became part of the performance. In the "Factory" everyone knew that the subject of attention. Thus came the awareness itself, theatrical and sparkling ...».

Thus, Warhol's studio is not only a place of manufacture of his work. Through his associates, it contributes to the creation of his reputation.

Portraits of Warhol: mechanized creativity

A series of portraits of Mao was created by Warhol after he moved to another loft in the western part of Union Square. After a young actress made an attempt to kill him, he completely reorganized his workshop.

"Factory" was open to all, in the new premises allowed very few. Interior of the new workshop was very strict: waxed floors, huge windows, luxurious furniture - this room was like at the office of the enterprise rather than on the artist's studio.
Warhol narrowed the circle of its employees, but its method of work remained the same: the subjectivity of the artist recedes into the background, important only to the problem.

In their search for ways to blur the boundary between the original and copy, Warhol began to paint a portrait of Mao, stiliziruya features of his face. Then, according to his instructions, one of his assistants made a series of 300 copies of each of which was made with the previous one.
Examining the results, Warhol remarked that his Copy center machine equipped with a protective system against falsification of documents, this system was that each successive copy has risen by a fraction of a percent. Thus, the machine changed the face of Mao, which with the increase of circulation became more abstract. Thus was obtained a series of three hundred unique copies in the establishment where the machine replaced the artist.
This was the crowning work of the creative process, typical for Warhol from the very beginning of his activities - his first works were created either by using stamps and stencils, or on-line coloring sessions, in which each of the participants - friends of the artist - impose only one color. Since 1962, he was drawn to the technique of industrial screen printing, used them to create portraits of Marilyn.
To create custom portraits after 1968, he first makes Polaroids model, crop and process them, and then increased and was about to transfer to the screen printing. This transfer was carried out as an assistant, which is painting the colored zone portrait - skin, hair, eyes, clothing.

from the "factory" to "Office»

Usovershensovovanie this method took almost a professional structure, which transformed the studio into a factory. Thus, the new "Factory" virtually ceased to be a place of celebration. This was facilitated by the fact that Warhol became more and more work with film. After 1974 and the new move, hudolzhnik asked the staff at the reception, answering phone calls, speak no "Factory" and "Office".

This evolution reflects the ambitions of Warhol, which he wrote in his autobiography, "Return my philosophy of A and B:" The art of business - is a stage to replace the art. I started as a commercial artist (Warhol is because of his profession in the 50's. He was one of the designer brands of shoes), I want to finish as an artist-commerce. The workshop was the office of the company Warhol ...

The workshop is exposed: a showcase of the museum

«Shop" Claes Oldenburg

Various workshops Warhol make it possible to imagine the life of the artist and his entourage, but they remain a private space in which you create the work. Even before the opening of the first "factory" was an experiment, when a few months Art Studio has become a public place: Claes Oldenburg have arranged a workshop in the premises of the store for a showcase. In our time, François Boiron, as if in memory of this experience, brings his studio directly to the museum, making it the subject of the exhibition and the process of creating the work, and at the same time - the result of this process.

In the early 20 th century Brancusi transformed his studio into a place vystaok, thus eliminating the boundary between the creation of works and their display. However, his sculptures retained the autonomy, the very space of the workshop served as the holder.

In the workshop Oldenburg - shop with a glass wall-showroom, located in the East Village on Manheettene, where he settled in December 1961, created the product are the same elements as the others. The presence of the artist, which passers moglm seen from the street, its a game of "shopkeeper", his works hanging on the walls "Stalls" - all helped create a global product. Workshop ceased to be a place in which to display works primarily exhibited herself.

product

Along with real objects on the walls "Stalls" hung works made of plaster or papier-mache - but both are intended for sale. In this room a reality intertwined with their images. Indeed, copies obihodnyzh items produced by artists on the site, but rather sent them to the idea of the goods, rather than create his illusion. They were placed in real space the shop, but they were not realistically implemented. Oldenburg created a flat and fragmented images, which were supposed to remind the advertising, and not real objects.
Among the items could be found and a copy of clothing and food products. Oldenburg manufactured potato flakes and candy, and handed them to plaster their visitors. The artist, who began his work with the happenings, walking among these subjects, he presented himself as if he was one of those things, destroying the border between the artist and his works, one might say, between zhivymmi beings and inanimate things.

In an interview published in the Journal of the Arts "in 1969, he said:" I am much better expressed themselves through the objects that are relevant to the person than the people themselves. " Thus, the "shop" has become a space in which people, food, clothing and other items have the same status: they are all parties to a consumer society. "

Art and Life

After this experience Oldenburg moved to a more conventional studio. Currently, he and his wife, Kuse van Bruggen, their assistants and tehniyachesky staff working in its own New York mansion, while continuing to merge art with life. In this house contains all the material which he may require: sculptures, drawings, miscellaneous items, notebooks, in which he writes down his ideas. His studio - is a kind of living museum.

Studio product-François Boiron

François Boiron (b. 1959) took another step towards the concept of the workshop as a public space - he established his workshop right in the museum. After receiving a proposal to set up his show, he just brought everything they needed for their creation - a stool, an easel, a box of paints, digital camera's computer - and created on the spot paintings, which depicted the museum, and other types of display in the museum work.
Thus, he continues to develop its practice quotes - recently, he wrote of Paris, including promotional poster known brands - which since the early 80's. connects it with the direction of "Svobozhnaya figuration. His paintings create a kind of imaginary museum, they gather in the fictitious space of the canvas paintings, alongside whom they hang out in real prostranstvve museum. So Boiron inspired by the works, exhibited in the museum, simultaneous including their work in their number. It creates a dialogue between the works, and we are present at this dialogue.

Creativity continuously shop is closed

Following the path initiated by Marcel Duchamp, avant-garde 60-ies. refuse artisan hand of the artist. In 1962, George Machunas, founder of the movement Fluxus ( "Devastation"), declared: "If a man could understand the specific world that surrounds him, as he feels the art, there would be no need either to art or to artists or in other neproduktivynyh elements. Fluxus movement encourages celebration of life, revealing the creative potential of everyone in everyday life ... Boyce chanting: "Every person - the artist." But if we accept the theorem that art is everywhere, we must admit that the artist is not engaged in certain specific activities in an isolated space. Henceforth, the artist leaves the studio and goes into the world.


«Center for Continuing Creativity»

Between 1965 and 1968. two artists belonging to the Fluxus movement, Robert Philly, formerly an economist at the UN, and George Brecht, a former chemist, have arranged a workshop in a shop in Villefranche-sur-Mer. This room, which became a symbol of their artistic credo, conceived, according to Philly, as "an international center for continuing creativity.
Philly has created its own dictionary, in which there is an article "The Mystery of continuous creation" indicating the way to deal with this new activity: "What would you not think nachinaytk think about something else. Whatever you do, begin to do something else. Continuous work refers to the world of continuous motion, which expresses the variability of life, in contrast to the frozen "art". Therefore, artists can never catch the Center of continuous creativity, they left him, they where the movement, where life. Therefore, this center is almost always closed, and the door hangs a plaque declaring that artists are sitting in a cafe on the corner.

Exhibition of continuous creativity

Creativity can not be isolated from the life, respectively, the results of that creativity can not be exhibited in a specially designed for this sanctuary. Criticism Philly art concepts affects permament museums, and galleries. In 1962 he created "The only gallery that has a right to suschestvovanik", which is nothing like his hat, filled with various objects, and that he walks through the city. A few months after the opening of the first gallery-hat he created a cardboard folder with the image of a hat-pot.
In this folder, he folded his photographs and documents about his previous actions, then there is a folder that was like a mini-retrospective of his work. He kept it in his freezer (which is why this action was called "Frozen Exhibition"), where she remained until 1972, then he frees her. Thus, Philly simvoliyacheski extended the life of its exhibitions. Unusual situation that created this "Frozen exhibition, invites the public to go see the exhibition of the artist in his freezer, very accurately expresses the principle of continuous creation.

is well made, badly made, not made ... - It does not matter

In 1968, Robert Philly closed the "Center for Continuing Creativity" and moved to Dusseldorf. At this time, he invented the "principle of equivalence". This conceptual innovation, supplementing the "continuous creation", has found its first incarnation in the manufacture of wooden yashichka for storage of red wool socks: socks, one series was associated with a high skill, the other - malovysokoprofessionalno, for the manufacture of the third was just announced, but onabyla not connected, so the cells of socks for the third series remained empty. And it became clear that the "principle ekvivatentnosti" consisted in the fact that well-made items are poorly made or not made.

In the framework of "continuous creation" making the subject less important than freedom, which manifests itself in the works. Anyone can indulge in creative activities, not being afraid to do bad. The artist has no more privileges creativity. He can only set an example by leaving his studio, to move towards peace.

lacks Workshop romantic aura

Workshop-decor Marcel Brudtersa

Artists leave the studio, preferring the life of art, they condemn the studio, as an element of artistic folklore, a symbol of the bohemian life. Marcel Brudters deprives it - like all other subjects related to art - symbolic value, which awarded her the myth of the genius creator. The workshop has become commonplace room.

Marcel Brudters - a figure "at the same time heroic and clever, sometimes clothed in the cloak of a romantic poet, but at the same time - a clever conjurer (David Curtin) cultivars paradox until raising it in the way of working. Throughout its de \ CONTRACT PERIOD he constantly criticizes art as an ideology and developing strategies to desacralised art. His goal, he said in 1974, in an interview, "to understand the fashion in iskusste and find her determination.

In the late 60's. He creates works, related to the installation, he calls them "patterns". One of them - the reconstruction of his apartment-studio in Brussels. Workshop presented as a premise, which gives the artistic value are in her subjects and vice versa. Hence, a workshop involved in the alchemy of art, and Brudters uses this feature to it.

Office of the artist-entrepreneur

«A small enterprise" Xavier Whelan

The avant-gardists decently compromised workshop and charm that she possesses in the eyes of the public, but this does not prevent them from having room to work. By carrying out desarkalizatsiyu traditional workshop, in which the artist exercised an almost mystical activity, a workshop again become a place of work, like any enterprise, and it is very logical, because apparently segodnshny painter-turned-entrepreneur.

The expansion of facilities in regard to production, documentation and communication, today the artist is forced to use the services of other professionals. For example, Thomas Hirschhorn is drawn to the professionals of cultural mediation, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster works with musicians, other artists work with architects, sound technicians, film professionals. Method of Xavier Whelan characteristic of contemporary artists. It uses photos of his workshop to disseminate and explain his work. In 2004, the catalog and the complimentary tickets to his show at the Pompidou Center has been reproduced one of these photographs.

That's what this says about the photos Christine oils, curator of the exhibition: "The dynamics of the group is fundamental. Xavier Whelan puts in the center of his work to date, the overriding question of relations between the work of the artist and the mode of production. He expresses his political choice - be a full participant in economic reality, which he combines with a choice to work in a group with their friends. " We are far from uorholovskoy model in which the artist-zvezdaodnovremenno assets and liabilities and all the time moving from creativity to his denial. Here we are dealing with this company, which takes into account the latest developments in the post-industrial society ".

How to collectively make a rhino?

Rhinoceros, which can be interpreted as a sculptural heir bestiarij, surprises by its color, material and precision parts.

Driven by the desire for objectivity, Xavier Velan manufactures all of its sculptures of the digital image using the software, which creates trehprostranstvennuyu model. He makes the layout, which then increases in the technical workshop. Workshop of the artist he needed to coordinate the phases of its activities.


Daniel Buren "Function Workshop" (excerpts from the book "Records", Vol 1)


Of all the facilities that serve the framework for the works of art, indeed, "make" their works of art (the church, gallery, museum ...), there is one, which never mentioned, it is never the subject of reflection, although it plays a crucial role . This is a studio artist.

The vast majority of workshop - this is a private room, which the artist is even more necessary than a gallery or museum. It is clear that the existence of the artist's studio is needed, therefore, it is preceded by the artist. As we shall see, a workshop is inextricably linked to galleries and museums. To challenge the value of galleries and museums, not touching the studio, leads to a false understanding of the situation. Hence, any reflection on the system of art must necessarily involve a rethinking of the role of the museum - the space in which show the artist and the role of the studio - the room in which this product is created, and one must realize that in today's artistic practice, they shackle creativity, and not favor him.

But what is the function of the workshop?

This - the space in which the product is born.

This is - a private room (in most cases), it can be a tower of ivory.

This is - creating a stable place objects, by definition, mobile.

It becomes clear that the place is very important, this - the first frame, the first boundary, from which will depend on everyone else.

Private room, a workshop is a place of experimentation, which can be judged only by the artist himself, as he alone decides whether to show for his workshop predelamy these or other works.

That private space makes it possible to implement other actions necessary for the work of galleries and museums. For example, it provides an opportunity hudozhesvennym critic and curator of the exhibition directors and employees of the museums to see and easy to select from available (and shown by the artist) works those that will be exhibited at a particular exhibition, in one way or the other collection, gallery. In this case, the workshop provides organizers of demonstrations convenience of choice - they can list their items for the exhibition (and not the exhibition of the artist! "But usually the artist, pleased by the fact that his work want to show the audience, the organizers reserves complete freedom) with the lowest risk. Thus, we can say that the workshop - this is in some sense and store, which, like clothing stores offering products, ready for display.

At the same time, the studio is the place in which the artist can invite critics and other specialists in the hope that their visit would help him work off a private room - a kind of artistic purgatory - to be shown in public (museum, gallery) and private (collection) paradise of art!

Consequently, the workshop plays a role in the first place, the place of creating works, and secondly - the waiting, and finally - if the artist is lucky - the place of distribution. In fact, in the workshop are sorted.

Workshop - a filter through which carried a double selection, first selects the artist himself, then - the organizers of exhibitions and art dealers, selektsioniruyuschie work, which will be shown to the public. Thus, the created work is moved from one store to another, so it is necessary that this work was mobile and easy to handle for those who decide to take it out of the shop, the place of its creation, to install it in a place where there is a promotional activity. Even when creating a work, it is ischrlirovannym from the world of reality. However, in this moment, and only at this time the product has its own reality. Subsequently, it was more removed from that reality, sometimes getting a different reality, which no one, including the artist himself, could not even conceive of, and which is often at variance with the product, but that suits the professionals from the art of extracting material benefits, and dominant ideology.

Consequently, the work is in its place only in the studio. From this follows the killing for him a contradiction: you move it from the workshop led to him dying, but if it remains in the shop, then die - of starvation - the risk of its creator! So between the product and the space where you can see the (museum, gallery, collection), extends the abyss, which becomes \ deeper. We do not notice this abyss, but her understanding (and eventually, sooner or later, but this awareness will come) will lead to the fact that 99%of works of art will go into oblivion. But until that system governing relations between the public, artists, historians, critics and ID, as well as the unanimous recognition of the museum (gallery) inevitable neutral space to show art successfully cloaked this abyss.

Illustration:

"Mao Warhol
"Clock" Oldenburg
"Hat" Philly
"Rhinoceros" Whelan
Workshop-enterprise Whelan

[Meister]

Thank you dear for the LCR as always interesting material)))

[prosto_valentina]

LCR, Thank you for the excellent description masterskih.Hotelos to know how you assess the artist's studio Gennady Goncharov (see "Charity Auction ..."