Art Portfolio Project: Artist Research

In this post, I will start by making a research on some Pop art artist for my Art Portfolio project. This is so I can consume the elements of their work and apply them into my project as a inspiration of my project. 

Who by Peter Blake (2019)
Source: Waddington Custot

The first artist that I am going to research is Peter Blake, one of the famous Pop art artist. One of his piece of work is "Who" (Above) album cover for the band called "The Who". I can see that his album cover here is full of random icon and random artist or celebrity. According to Snoad (2019),  Blake's album cover design for "Who" is featuring varied mixture of cultural icons like Muhammad Ali, in a colourful grid of references. There is some pop icons like plus sign and star sign. The border also is in colourful art. These icons is supposedly to cover the subjects including the Grenfell Tower fire, musical theft, spirituality, reincarnation, the power of memory and ‘an old rock star that has lost his marbles’.(Waddington Custot, 2019). I should consider use these elements on my own album cover like using an icon and a picture of an artist. I initially thinking of making myself look like an artist. The collage style here is very interesting, mostly more into grid than collage. The colour combination also correspond to each colour make the album very attractive.

Coca cola (Tutto) by Mario Schifano (1972)
Source: WikiArt

Next, the artist that I am going to research is Mario Schifano. According to Artnet, Mario Schifano is an artist from Italy and known for his Postmodern collages combining advertising imagery, wrapping paper and painted elements. Mario Schifano work also related to popular culture of art history, featuring like brand logos and or kitsch recurring motifs in the elements of Pop Art. (Artnet, no date) His art of work is the reason that I am going to make a research and I will try to extract the elements of what he applied on his work and make it as my inspiration of my Art Portfolio project. 

His work titled Coca cola (Tutto) here featuring a really big and popular brand that well known to the public as a soda drink that is Coca Cola. During his era, he making a commerce art of Coca Cola is very challenging as he actually in romantic ideals of painting era. (Christies, 2020) His work engaged with political signs and he integrate typical symbols of the modern urban landscape into his work. Christies (2020) claim that, Mario Schifano work assembled of ideograms that conveyed the meaning through language and symbols, in the same time, judgment on US marketeering spreading globally like Coca Cola the corporations owned by American. Here I can see that Mario Schifano art work is very related to popular brands and turn it into Pop art. He also add a little elements to his art and not merely plain copy and paste Pop art. I might use a popular brands and consider the ideas and movement behind it to apply it in my project.

The Hunchback of Aomori Prefecture by Tadanori Yokoo (1967)
Source: Artnet

Then, The Hunchback of Aomori Prefecture is very intriguing pop art by Tadanori Yokoo. From my first impression, the colour that he use is very aesthetically vintage style, however the visual is mysterious that got me asking what the point of it and what is the message hidden behind it. According to Poster Auctions (2024),  the story of this poster is about a servant of a woman who was raped by her master and was forced to abandon her baby has survived to become the last of the master's family. After read this that made realize what is the purpose of the woman inside the poster. Also, she become obsessively seducing all the young men she met and torment them for sake of her vengeance (Poster Auctions International, Inc., n.d.). This poster has a really dark meaning behind it that to some point that I understand this is how the artist Tadanori Yokoo trying to spread the message through pop art poster. From this research, I comprehend that pop art can be either dark and humorous. Typically, pop art can be advert like something tragic, satire, humor or even something propaganda.

One Nation Indivisible 911 by Jerry W. McDaniel (2011)

Last but not least, artist that I am going to look forward as my catalyst inspiration of my project in Jerry W. McDaniel. One of his pop art artwork named "One Nation Indivisible 911" is a paintings of a memorial tragedy that happened in America that shook the world that is the 9/11 tragedy. From that paintings, we can see the colour is very coherent with each other is it resemble the colour of the United States of America flag. Although, we can see he put a collapsing of two buildings as the foreground and that is the main message of this paint. Inside the abstract of the buildings is another flags of another nations. That was inserted because 911memorial.org (n.d.) claim that the President of America that time which is President George Bush made a statement "America has been attacked!" and the Daily News reported that 85 different nationalities was shook to this tragedy. For this reason there are different kind of national flags inside the abstract of the World Trade Center building. In the bottom of the paintings too, I can see a word that trying to express something. I found that the reason of the acronyms NYFD and NYPD are in the lower part of the painting is to express that the fact Fire Department and the Police Department could reach, the 20th floor. (911memorial.org, n.d.) Now this paintings is at the Museum of American Illustration as a memorial. This pop art paintings is an art as a symbolic painting. There are lots of hidden message that the artist trying to express with just a paintings. 

As a conclusion, I realize that pop art is an art of something that very popular either it is dark or good, celebrity and even a iconic logo. Pop art can be very diverse and every one of them must have a meanings hidden. This is research has encourage me and develop my ideas and it help me understanding how should pop art be and this is crucial for my projects to assure that I will achieve a good quality outcome.

Reference:

Snoad, L. (2019). Peter Blake creates artwork for new album by The Who – the band’s first in 13 years. [online] www.itsnicethat.com. Available at: https://www.itsnicethat.com/news/peter-blake-the-who-graphic-design-130919. [Date accessed: 23 April 2024]

Waddington Custot. (2019). Peter Blake designs artwork for new album by The Who. [online] Available at: https://www.waddingtoncustot.com/news/205/ [Accessed 23 Apr. 2024].

Artnet.com. (2024). Available at: https://www.artnet.com/artists/mario-schifano/ [Accessed 27 Apr. 2024].

Christies(2020). Mario Schifano (1934-1998) , Coca-Cola | Christie’s. [online] Available at: https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-4987283 [Accessed 27 Apr. 2024].

Poster Auctions International, Inc. (n.d.). The Hunchback of Aomori Prefecture. 1967. [online] Available at: https://auctions.posterauctions.com/lots/view/1-8MJSVE/the-hunchback-of-aomori-prefecture-1967 [Accessed 8 May 2024].

911memorial.org. (n.d.). 911 - One nation indivisible | National September 11 Memorial & Museum. [online] Available at: https://911memorial.org/node/91131 [Accessed 8 May 2024].