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Saturday, September 2, 2023
Quinten Crisp
The final David Hockney drawing in our series is also the earliest chronologically.
Quentin Crisp posed for it in 1960, and the style is quite a contrast to Hockney's later work.
Minimalist art was created in the US in the 60's. It is an extreme type of abstract art usually depicted through simple shapes and hard edges. It supposedly exposes the essence of the forms and materials used. As an art movement it was important for challenging preconceived notions of what art is and could be. I would not call these drawings minimalist. The Hockney drawings are best called "line drawings" or "continuous line drawings" in which the artist uses one line to create the drawing. In reality, many artists sketch the model with multiple lines to get the "right" shape, which is more about the pose, than the model. Tracing paper is placed over the multiple lines sketch to copy the "right" lines and then this is copied or transposed onto paper ( if drawing) or canvas ( if painting). The end result is that the drawing looks simple - you don't see the hours of learning or effort to achieve the end result. Picasso said that simplicity is a reward not a starting point.
The artist Peter Samuelson who was shown on this blog in early August does the same thing with his drawings and paintings. He is a good example of applying the line drawing technique to his paintings.
Could we describe most of these works as minimalist?
ReplyDeleteSee Thomas' comment below.
DeleteMinimalist art was created in the US in the 60's. It is an extreme type of abstract art usually depicted through simple shapes and hard edges. It supposedly exposes the essence of the forms and materials used. As an art movement it was important for challenging preconceived notions of what art is and could be. I would not call these drawings minimalist. The Hockney drawings are best called "line drawings" or "continuous line drawings" in which the artist uses one line to create the drawing. In reality, many artists sketch the model with multiple lines to get the "right" shape, which is more about the pose, than the model. Tracing paper is placed over the multiple lines sketch to copy the "right" lines and then this is copied or transposed onto paper ( if drawing) or canvas ( if painting). The end result is that the drawing looks simple - you don't see the hours of learning or effort to achieve the end result. Picasso said that simplicity is a reward not a starting point.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Thomas, for both comments. I love the Picasso quote!
DeleteThe artist Peter Samuelson who was shown on this blog in early August does the same thing with his drawings and paintings. He is a good example of applying the line drawing technique to his paintings.
ReplyDeleteThanks again for another great series. I can’t say enough how much we appreciate all your work to bring these to us.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, and thanks for the kind words.
Delete