Christmas Card for CELT Colleagues

Even Steve Bull gets a gig.

Becher and Becher

Hochofenköpfe, 1963-95

Whilst talking to Lee about Charles Sheeler the other day we came round in the conversation to Becher and Becher the husband and wife duo photography-combo. Their representations of different industrial buildings and structures in a very stark, clean fashion without any distraction from human presence or “event” was what made us take the jump from Sheeler to Becher and Becher. To ensure the consistency of the representation so that the viewer wouldn’t even be able to discern what the weather was like as even a sunny day can create too much of a dramatic effect they only photographed on overcast days. This level of consistency becomes incredible when a whole collection is viewed, there is something about the monotonous photographs that carries a very raw power and really conveys a good idea of what that particular typology is. The photos are more like objective documents of a specimen in a scientific laboratory, they plainly show what the focus is so that others can interpret and learn from them in their own way. The photographer hasn’t dictated what the viewer should take from the photograph.

Sheeler and Becher and Becher both portray industrial structures and whilst their works by the very nature make no comment on what they feel about the subject of their work, it never the less reflects some of the concerns that these structures cause; alienation, banality, brutal ugliness, industrially damaged landscapes etc. They also reflect the exciting drama of this purely functional and efficient machine landscapes. Sheeler was commissioned by Ford to take photographs of the River Rouge plant, the pride of the industrial world and Becher and Becher’s work highlighted the need to preserve many of the disused industrial structures they were documenting. I quite enjoy not being told what I should think even though or possibly because I have been brought up a Catholic. Perhaps this is why I enjoy the work of these three/two artists, or perhaps it is just because they are AWESOME.

Gas Tanks, 1983-92

Pitheads, 1974

Water Towers, 1980

Charles Sheeler

American Landscape, 1930
oil on canvas

Ford Plant, River Rouge, Canal with Salvage Ship, 1927
gelatin silver print

Watching a documentary on American Modern Art aired on BBC4 a couple of weeks ago I became aware of Charles Sheeler for the first time and have subsequently become greatly enthused with his body of work. I was going to say bordering on obsessed but I’m not there yet…yet. My obsessions lie with Tame Valley at the moment and I hope that maybe I can bring the two together. What I like about Sheeler’s work is how it is most definitely landscape, with the focus often on the man-made intrusions without making them seem alien to the landscape. Often the subject of the painting is a warehouse, or a goods yard, or the rear end of a tenement block, not exactly picturesque scenes and certainly not the sort of place your average middle class art gallery patron would associate with. And yet these are some of the most fundamental elements of the city and without them the city would fail to function. This is something Alan Berger talks about in Drosscapes which I am beginning to realise as time goes by is one of the more influential books I’ve read since leaving university. In it he talks about the tourism industry and how postcards of cities generally show a civic centre, some grandiose piece of architecture, people enjoying themselves, maybe a skyline or a pleasant landscape within the city but rarely show any of the everyday elements that allow that city to exist. The drab workers houses, the sewage treatment plant, the warehouses of industry, the inside of an admin office etc. rarely feature.



New England Irrelevancies, 1953
oil on canvas

Classic Landscape, 1931
oil on canvas

Ballet Mechanique, 1931
Conté crayon on paper

In the paintings of Sheeler direct human presence is almost totally removed creating the sense of a monolithic romantic natural presence…or it does to me anyway but I’m no art critic. I also like the high realism without really being hyper-detailed, his paintings are crisp, clean and clear and that gives it “reality” without really looking “photographic.” Sheeler became a professional photographer but often used his commissioned photographs as the basis for his own paintings in many different media. His work became part of the early 20th-century abstract movement, Precisionism;

“a style noted for clean-cut, severe-seeming lines, simple forms, large areas of flat color, smooth finishes and the conveying of a general sense of good order and precision. Often the subjects were architectural or industrial and usually devoid of human reference.”

I like how he revisited the same scene over and over using different media each time capturing a different atmosphere within the piece. This is especially powerful in the paintings he did using stills from his film “Manhatta” that he worked on with Paul Strand in 1921. I like this version of Manhatta as the minimal techno soundtrack doesn’t sync at all with the footage yet is strangely befitting conceptually to the footage being shown…although it might just be that I have made that connection in my head after seeing his Detroit works.



New York, Park Row Building, 1920
gelatin silver print



Skyscrapers, 1922
oil on canvas



New York , 1920
graphite on cream Japanese vellum

I hope that I might be able to start a little series of work based on the Tame Valley utilising the same working methods as Sheeler. The lengthy visit to an area not normally frequented by people who don’t have to be there, the photographic documentation of powerful scenes followed by the experimental trial and error representation using clean no nonsense artistic styles, almost painting by numbers regurgitation but always seeking to capture a different atmosphere felt from my experiential memory of the site. Watch this Space…probably a lot of space and hot air before anything happens…but watch it.

Criss-Crossed Conveyors, River Rouge Plant, Ford Motor Company, 1927
Gelatin silver print

Church Street El, 1920
oil on canvas

Architectural Cadences, 1954
Screenprint

Gene Krupa

I've always appreciated Gene Krupa, just found this awesome video of him playing, love the lighting.

Exciting

Concrete Wall

I get really excited when I see what can be done with concrete, not necessarily always at things that I particularly even like but just its sheer potential and then robust solidness when that potential is realised. There is something reassuringly real about concrete. Came across this project the other day in Architecture Today and got well excited, could make such a cool retaining wall or a bench or something like that.

This blog was taken from
http://heartlandscw.blogspot.com/2010/11/crushed-wall-sample-unveiled.html
dated from  18/11/2010

Artist Walter Jack is working on the art commission that will lead visitors in to Heartlands from Pool Village in to the main site.

The 24 metre long Crushed Wall will be 2.8 metres at its highest point and 1 metre at its lowest. Walter's Crushed Wall is inspired by Cornish geology, a sample can be seen in the above photograph. Local concrete works Ladds, are involved as the wall will be cast in concrete. A rubber mould will be used to cast the wall, which will create the crumples and wavy effect of the structure.

Posted by Heartlands Cornwall at 12:31