The lecture today with Dexter Dalwood was certainly intriguing and gave me a lot to think about. He took us through his ‘artistic journey’ through the years. Originally in a punk rock band called The Cortinas, Dalwood experienced numerous styles of tackling a painting. It was also clear when the music background of his affected the works. However, what really hit me in the lecture were the following points:
- painting places that people hear about often but never seen (using imagination to fill that gap, one’s depiction of the place would never be the same to the next)
- making a collage using found images and painting it directly, while inventing new aspects
- quoting and referencing another artist’s work, e.g. ‘swimming pool’
- having research based connections, but not necessarily expecting the viewer to pick up
- depicting moment in TIME rather than just the place, ‘mythic, odd part of history that exists’
- history paintings, almost needing a grand scale
- ideology of brush strokes. freedom, gesture… what is a real style?
- ‘a person has 400 bad paintings in them, need to get them out of you’
- style might not change in time but your experiences shows through in some way
- ‘trying to find a language’ within paint
- went through a depressing stage in his life where he lied on the bed everyday, so he painted ceilings
- fantasy projections of real places he’s been to, painted from memory. place might be empty but theres so much more context behind it
- difference in music: making an album of the same theme, then moving onto the next abruptly
- growing up in england, viewing america as a fantasy space
- places painted from reading a paragraph of DESCRIPTION
- what photography can do to a painting and vice versa
- a collective thought and imagination of a place, a place that we all have access to in terms of information
- going back to reality and fantasy again, fantasy vs. reality
- his painting shown in movie, ironic bc the painting talks about hollywood.
- emotional use of color rather than depicting someone’s face directly
- what to paint and how to paint.
- ‘if you can’t hate things you can’t love things’
- is painting art? what’s the point of art? if something is failing, taking it to the knife and cutting it out instead of working away at it.
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| Dexter Dalwood @the saatchi gallery |