tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19151341.post3975298275143412539..comments2024-03-16T16:12:13.296+00:00Comments on some LANDSCAPES: The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East YorkshirePliniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529481330530614513noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19151341.post-43071281075912919902012-03-11T20:56:18.869+00:002012-03-11T20:56:18.869+00:00"Are there artists of their generation that h..."Are there artists of their generation that have reduced the scale of their work instead?"<br /><br />That's an interesting question. I can't think of any,though I only really follow photographers. Thomas Joshua Cooper was once known as the "small and dark prints" photographer, but in recent years his work has got much larger. Ditto Jem Southam. The trend definitely seems towards gigantism.<br /><br />It may be the galleries who demand this -- perhaps the thinking is that "size = serious". Or perhaps it's a case of "because we can", now that large-scale digital printers enable enormous enlargements from large-format negatives that would previously have been contact-printed.<br /><br />I admire Hockney's productivity and commitment to the creative life. His urge to provoke and his desire never to stand still, whilst remaining recognisably the same artist (the Hockney "line" is inimitable) are deeply admirable, too.<br /><br />MikeMike C.https://www.blogger.com/profile/11279776665185060446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19151341.post-88109931476536394362012-03-11T12:14:05.704+00:002012-03-11T12:14:05.704+00:00OK, just to clarify, as I've now been asked wh...OK, just to clarify, as I've now been asked whose comment I deleted. It was my <i>own</i> first attempt at the comment above. In trying to edit it I managed to delete it. I then put it in again but I can see that it's still not quite what I intended and has lost the link to the Ian Jack article, which you can read <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/mar/09/ian-jack-hockney-blossoms" rel="nofollow">here</a>. Anyway, the key thing I've learned is not to attempt to add a quick comment with external links to this blog whilst being distracted by an insistent five year old!Pliniushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06529481330530614513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19151341.post-7912872195252349532012-03-11T07:37:28.594+00:002012-03-11T07:37:28.594+00:00Thanks. Only just realising you can't edit th...Thanks. Only just realising you can't edit these comments after posting them - I was attempting to correct a spelling error. What I was trying to say was this:<br /><br />It's an exhibition full of interesting talking points. I didn't mention Hockney's hawthorn blossoms, for example, which some critics have found more interesting than his views of paths and roads through trees: surreal and slightly sinister in their outlandish scale (Ian Jack wrote a whole article about them on Friday). I make some observations in my post on the question of scale and it's obviously something Hockney is interested in. His iPad sketches were designed to be enlarged so he 'identified all the adjustments of colour and form - and most importantly, of mark - required to allow for the change of scale and medium'. I noted on my way out that The Royal Academy has also found it possible to reproduce his landscapes at different scales on a wide range of merchandise...<br /><br />Going to exhibitions that show recent work by older artists, I'm often struck by how the scale of their work has increased and this doesn't always seem to be for the best - for me, Howard Hodgkin's abstract memories seem suited to a more intimate scale, for example. Sometimes the message has expanded along with the medium - Hamish Fulton's recent billboard scale has been used to signal more political points (<a href="http://www.turnercontemporary.org/exhibitions/hamish-fulton" rel="nofollow">'Chinese Economy / Tibetan Justice...'</a>). But Fulton also makes large works on more modest subjects, like a six day walk in southern England (modest for Fulton - this would seem quite epic to some of us). In the case of Hockney too, you get to see the sublime and the intimate: the monumental valley of Yosemite and a Yorkshire hawthorn hedge painted on a grand scale. Are there artists of their generation that have reduced the scale of their work instead? I see that Michael Heizer is still <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jTmGdFVrQqV4Jt-i2Mod8r4YgmRA?docId=b87d274f41914b1493480c7183126be7" rel="nofollow">"moving around</a> huge chunks of California, but it would be a rather pleasant surprise to learn instead that he's been concentrating in recent years on some kind of intimate rockery.Pliniushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06529481330530614513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19151341.post-85923258087875570912012-03-11T07:29:45.018+00:002012-03-11T07:29:45.018+00:00This comment has been removed by the author.Pliniushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06529481330530614513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19151341.post-22176235133862654662012-03-10T10:37:27.048+00:002012-03-10T10:37:27.048+00:00"having stopped worrying about the quality of..."having stopped worrying about the quality of individual works and begun to view it more as a set of huge installations documenting a kind of postmodern performance of painting en plein air"<br /><br />Absolutely spot on, Plinius.<br /><br />We are being PR'd into submission by an overwhelming emphasis on process. There seem to be a dozen documentaries and interviews out there, all telling the same story. In the same words, too ("Eye, hand, and heart..." Yes, yes, thank you David, we've heard that one already).<br /><br />I like his story though, and it seems well-illustrated.<br /><br />MikeMike C.https://www.blogger.com/profile/11279776665185060446noreply@blogger.com