The drawing workshop on margins was really fascinating in the way Sarah was talking about different ways you could interpret the idea. I liked the margins of the page where the artist is unedited, truthful.. like a thought process spilled on the page. In writing and sketches/doodles.. it made me want to do more messy drawings in my sketchbook again, I haven’t touched it at all. I especially loved Samuel Palmer’s drawing on his nature walks, how he sort of divided the page up and covered every space. That’s how I like to work too. in my sketchbook when I used to take notes with pen I would not leave a space blank. squeezing in as many words as possible. There was an unprecedented pressure - but I enjoy the final product. I also liked what Sarah said about the drawing, squeezing in nature on that page, reducing its dimensions - which reminds me of what Susan Stewart said about the souvenir in On Longing - about the reduction of physical dimension. In How To Write About Contemporary art she said about drawing - drawing what you see not what you think you see. The same with writing. it is really simple but really hit me. no one else sees it this way; no one else can put it on paper the same way I do. So why would I want it to be something it is not? I might link drawing in again with the whole nature/culture idea - I was thinking a whole lot about installation and it would be really great, but drawing.. its so direct.. it’s so emotional ... and this perception is all about that. I’ll definitely investigate this further.
rough notes:
medieval marginalia, border, doodle.
Drawing as a method of research.
sketchbooks, 80% boring to look at... mostly text, dry. artist sketchbooks a lot of them get carved and sold. some examples from sketchbooks, artists maximising the page.
Paul sandby: text and writing margins in the text. drawing has been cut out. whatever paper he had available. ‘copper ore fossil impregnated with copper .. stone.. raphael..’ auction catalogue. bored and sketching. one of the founders of royal academy. idea of getting free space. what museums do to these objects, formal looking. creates new margins and borders. 2017 in collection, 18th century
Samuel Palmer , self taught. sketchbook worshipped William Blake, spirituality. connecting with nature. exploration of nature walks he talk. not intact. given by his son, but removed some pages. Filling every inch of the sketchbook, taking something, landscape and pushing into the space. at the back. Writing. creating margins and drawing within them.
-Helen maudsley. Australian artist. a lot in her margins, texture of her pen, working with titles - her margins. marks and textures it will make on the page. organised work but the margins aren’t.
William Blake. popular and unpopular in his time. different versions. hand printed relief etching. (even more sculptural. hand colouring it.) margins: text as being not as visually stimulating as image, makes them work together. revolutionary. visually and description. how the text is an extension of the image itself. preserved in acid free, Japanese glue (completely natural materials, mulberry tree) the artist thinking really strictly within the margins.
Vincent Van Gogh. the margin / plate itself. in prints in terms of ownership. his only etching in his life. moved back to Paris in 1890, near end of his life. March 1980. image of his doctor. Gachet. meloncholia. celebrity doctor, to celebrities. used art therapy for his patients. Yard of his home hospital. makes this etching right in front of him. Done very quickly. think about new things awkwardness of the space. Closeness of who he’s drawing m. gachet kept this plate private. he tries to speak. at the funeral but was overcome by emotions. closest to him. this little cat in the margins. why is here if he never, his son gave it. gachet wanted to secure his fathers name so dr gachets son have it, the cat is his stamp. nothing on the surface of a work is incidental. All things can be read. wellcome colllection has one too.
Rembrandt. signed and dated. 1628. miniature thing. why would you sign it. Tiny inscription: two written backwards didn’t do it right, one of his first prints. understanding Rembrandts printmaking practice. his mother. the top right mark, owners mark. studying little dots that may have been made by printmaker to differentiate. two of them.
Raphael. silvwrpoint (almost scratching onto metal) proper margin- heads. grotesque. abstract. early modernist caricatures. surrounded by ‘childlike’ drawings. he’s just playing with lines. see the truth of someone and not edited. age 11 professional painter 16. back: traditional beautiful lines.
James thornhill. Late 18th century. history painting. 1725.. around - all notes of what to watch out for, how they are going to interrogate this painting. it was night. changed arrival time. anticipated how he’s going to be critiqued. changed the kings outfit. how artists are on guard at the time.
Durer. back: also sketches working out ideas. cubic figures in studios. front: the arm is articulated in mannequin. didn’t sign it. 1755 in museum.
Kerry James-Marshall (contemporary) margin of society. African American . Companion piece to smiling black man. Cause no images in art. Rough woodcut. Meant to claim contradictions that we don’t normally see in art. 2017 in collection
-Aubrey Beardsley. queer artist. falls into this category. Worked with Oscar Wilde on this book. Two bookplates . Controversial at the time 1896. Written in French. when Wilde was going to be on trial for being gay and prison. liked his illustrations. decadent movement. Late 19th century movement. dark and drama. gruesome dark drama. major projects. story of John the Baptist, seduced. then beheaded. the plate is called the platonic lament. Beginning of okay, the relationship of John and one the servants who is a man. cradling him nude. very first time in western history very overt reference to same sex relationship. talked about in a time that it is illegal. Book illustrations were a sensation. but also what they fear. ideas of marginalia and representations of that in society. he drew and print . Not print maker
Rembrandt . Treating the printing plate as paper. first and second pull of the print. Cleaned up margins. sell. cleaning up a study sheet. working on subject of beggars in the street. probably title his whole career as beggars and old men. the Netherlands, critique beggars, as sinners, he was devout Christian and didn’t think this. Christ preaching to the poor one of his most famous prints. marginalised in society.
-kathe kollwite peasant/worker movement, sharpening her sive to work in the field. almost cutting her face, very intimate. sharpness of blade. both men and women took part in it. Celebrates women in art as backbone of society. Lived in times of nazis. Printmaker, margins of plate. different tones.
-the insane/mental hospital. something you don’t see quite often in art history. how are the people represented. do our contemporary eyes see it as acceptable. the two women, pay to get in like a freak show. The first print maker that is filled with detail - every single aspect of surface to tell the story. Wants people to unpack and take time . etching and engraving. people kept stealing his works, margin: invented by. achieve hatch marks in etching is remarkable.
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