#subjective frame

Albert Tucker  and Joy Hester

1 Albert Tucker In the Mirror: Self Portrait with Joy Hester (1939)  gelatin silver photograph 35.5x26.7cm

2 Albert Tucker Self Portrait (1984) watercolour and pastel on board 54.3x44cm

3 Albert Tucker Portrait of Joy Hester c1983

4 Joy Hester Mother and Child (1955) brush and ink on paper 75.4x55cm

5 Joy Hester Blue and Yellow Face (1947-48) brush and ink on paper 31.7x25.1cm

6 Albert Tucker Self Portrait (1992) black felt pen on paper  27.6 x 37.5cm

A    portrait.gov.au      Albert Tucker AO (1914–1999) was one of the strongest Australian painters of the twentieth century. His expressionistic style of painting was formed during the wartime years, when the city of Melbourne took on a strange and unreal atmosphere. His first major series of paintings, collectively titled Images of Modern Evil, was painted between 1945 and 1947. Throughout the 1950s Tucker lived in Europe and the United States, where he refined and extended his subjects, concentrating on Australian myths, which he saw as central to the definition of national identity. Although best known as a painter, Tucker was an enthusiastic photographer, who took many of the now-familiar photographs of Melbourne’s artistic circles of the 1940s. In this one, the artist appears with his first wife, Joy Hester, who shared with him a vigorous and deeply felt approach to making art.

B  portrait.gov.au         Joy Hester (1920–1960) was the only female member of the group of artists known as the Angry Penguins, which included Tucker, Sidney Nolan and Arthur Boyd. During her lifetime Hester’s contribution was overshadowed by those of her male contemporaries, but her work is now widely acknowledged, especially her drawings, which are characterised by intense imagery and ability to convey states of mind and emotions. Hester’s life was beset by sadness. Diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease at the age of twenty-seven, she left Tucker for a fellow artist, Gray Smith, leaving her son, Sweeney, with her friends John and Sunday Reed. Despite her prognosis, she had two children with Smith, and continued to work through the thirteen years until her death at the age of forty. A dramatic documentary film about Hester, The Good Looker, was made in 1995 and there were separate major exhibitions of her work at the Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra in 2001.

1, 3, 4   Tracey Emin (born 1963, UK)  Distance of Your Heart   cast bronze, 60 pieces

A     www.cityartsydney.com.au/artwork        As my artwork I would like to make a counter site in Sydney for the young, the old, the backpackers, the tourists and the businessmen and women; somewhere else they can have their image taken to send back to the loved ones that they miss, that conveys the feelings of distance and homesickness. Tracey Emin, 2014

At the city’s northern end on Bridge and Grosvenor streets and through the refurbished Kent Street underpass, The Distance of Your Heart will be made up of many delicate handmade bronze bird sculptures, designed by acclaimed British artist Tracey Emin. The bird sculptures will perch on poles, above doorways and on awnings, enticing walkers along the thoroughfare.

Emin describes her work for Sydney as, ‘simple, straightforward and accessible to everybody’. The work which will be handmade by Emin will exist on a human scale and is the opposite of monumental and overpowering.In conceiving of a work for Sydney, Emin wanted to address Australia’s distance from the rest of the world. The question she asked herself was, ‘How does one express the feeling of loneliness without words?’ Her answer was, in the form of a bird – lonely, modest in scale in the way birds are, and thoughtful-looking.

Emin intends to have the words “With your thoughts in my mind, the distance of your heart” inscribed on a large bronze plinth in Macquarie Place. On top of the plinth she will have just a lone small bird. She sees this as a place to be photographed, to let the people you love know you are missing them. The artist observes that in today’s age of technology it is easy to send an image of where you are and what you are doing but it is very hard to send a message of how you are actually feeling.

Emin chose Macquarie Place because this is the site of the Obelisk of Distances designed by Francis Greenway from which the distance to various locations in New South Wales are measured, along the earliest roads developed in the colony. She saw this as “…the perfect site to measure the distance of my heart” Like a treasure hunt comprised of scattered elements to create an experience associated with the thrill of discovery, Emin’s work of art is assured to be one both adults and children will love.

WATCH https://www.cityartsydney.com.au/artwork/the-distance-of-your-heart/

READ https://osullivanconservation.com.au/the-distance-of-your-heart-tracey-emin-city-of-sydney/

B    traceyeminstudio.com     The City of Sydney has announced that it will commission a new public artwork by Tracey Emin.

Titled The Distance of Your Heart the proposed work will be installed by 2017 and is part of a project to install contemporary artworks across the city centre. “The artworks … will cement Sydney’s reputation as a capital of culture and creativity,”  Sydney mayor Clover Moore said.

Comprised of 60 handmade sculptures of bronze birds that will be installed throughout the thoroughfare of Bridge Street, Grosvenor Street, and the Kent Street underpass. They will be perched on poles, above doorways and awnings, “enticing walkers along the thoroughfare”.

2    Francis Greenway (1777-1837) UK   Obelisk of Distances (1818) sandstone Macquarie Place, Sydney

cityofsydney.com.au/artwork    The Obelisk of Distances was erected in 1818 as an official starting point for measuring all the road distances in New South Wales, and it continues to perform this function today. Also known as the Macquarie Obelisk, it was erected by Governor Macquarie in what was then the geographic centre point of Sydney.

The monument was also the ‘symbolic peg’ indicating the furthest extent of the British Empire in the early 1800s. From a contemporary perspective it also reflects the process of superimposing European notions of time and space on the antipodean environment.

The Obelisk is apparently the earliest surviving monument in the colony, probably built by convict labour.

The monument it is a tall, tapering shaft of sandstone approximately six metres high on a rectangular base and pedestal. It is set below street level, approached on both sides by flights of steps, and surrounded by a ring of wrought iron railing.

The once prominent position of the Obelisk has been been eroded over time by the encroachment of roads. There was originally a surrounding wall which had design elements reflecting those on the Obelisk itself.

1 Giorgio de Chirico, born in Greece, lived and worked in Italy (1888-1978)   The Delights of the Poet (1912)    oil on canvas 69.5x86.3cm

2 study for an Italian Square (1913)  pen and ink and pencil on paper 37.9 x 31.7cm

Forming opinions about artworks.

less-informed opinions:     “it’s cool“      “the town square looks ugly”    “but it doesn’t look that real“      “my cousin is an artist, she doesn't do art that way“     “this engages me and it’s unique”     “in paintings anyone can just express themselves and there’s no art that's wrong”       “de Chirico is obviously a renowned artist“       “its art that’s uniquely interesting as he expresses himself“    “he creates masterpieces” ....

Building better-informed opinions using the Frames  (points of view about artworks)

Structural Frame

(symbolism & representation) 

(techniques for making art/ conventions of making art)

(visual qualities)

De Chirico constructed the architectural parts with two point perspective. The space has depth and is convincingly real.

The people in the mid-ground are smaller because they are further away and because the painter is more interested in showing us the buildings.

He painted the edges of the buildings and other objects using tonal modelling. These don’t look flat, but rounded or three dimensional.

The town square is in very strong light and shadow. This could represent the late afternoon or early morning. Maybe this is why there are so few people.

The painted sky is blended from dark blue at the top to  green and light yellow. It’s like the sky early in the day  or just before a wild storm. Yet it seems to be two o’clock!

The next year he made a sketch of a similar town square. Some objects are in the same places but the shadows have moved. He included the partial view of an old ship and a damaged sculpture.

Cultural Frame

(the time & place represented or suggested)

(symbolism & representation understood collectively by a group of people)

Giorgio de Chirico was a Greek painter who lived and worked in Italy. Many Italian towns have central squares or piazzas with fountains where people gather.

There’s a silhouetted steam-train in the background.  In the early twentieth century Italy was modernising and building its rail system. Trains were symbols of modern development.

The old buildings of Europe often have columns and arches. By including these de Chirico suggests to us the place we are seeing.

Subjective Frame

(personal or emotional responses)

(moods or feelings based on observation)

When Giorgio was little he had a favorite toy train set and could see the rail line from his front yard. His father was employed on the railways.

The strong shadow and light and the cold yellow are not beautiful but disturbing, like an electrical storm is coming.

The emptiness of the piazza seems to fit with this.

The colonnades and archways look and feel uninviting. We can’t see where they lead.

The painter has constructed an image more like a disturbing dream or memory than an accurate record of an actual place.

This week we've started to analyse George Orwell’s (Eric Blair!) essays as part of the Module B course, critical study of texts. To start off, we have to approach his essays from a subjective frame – to develop a personal response to the texts. My response will be focused upon these questions:

What do you feel when you first read the text?

What does the text remind you of?

What is the composer expressing in this text?

So... I’ll just jump right into it :)

The Sporting Spirit

For someone who seemed unfamiliar with sports (“someone else informs me” and “I was told by someone who was there”), Orwell had no problem with being upfront in conveying his opinion on the topic. He came off arrogant and quite frankly, he took quite a bigoted approach in his style of writing. I felt that for him to parallel nationalism with sports was a tad excessive. I mean, are sports always “mixed up with politics” or “a cause of group hatreds”? Why can’t we play for leisure? Also, I’m pretty sure not everyone plays sports as an outlet for one’s “sadistic impulses”. I didn’t enjoy his sarcastic tone either– “No doubt the controversy will continue to echo for years in the footnotes of history books.” At first, I felt uncomfortable with his thoughts on how he was “amazed when I hear people saying that sport creates goodwill between the nations” I mean, what about Christmas Truce during WW1? Probably not the best example, however, sport did bring the two sides together for a short period, and perhaps the reason for the prolonged war was their sense of patriotism or their desire to fulfil orders. Nonetheless, Orwell’s approach seemed quite cynical. Although upon consideration, I realised that I had to factor in the time it was written and his personal context. With this is mind, I've become quite indecisive on my opinion of this text.

Good Bad Books

I found Orwell’s approach on defining a ’good bad book’ quite interesting, in which he defines it as “the kind of book with no literary pretensions, but which remains readable when more serious productions have perished.” My lack of knowledge on the books he has listed has left my quite confused. Also, he was rather critical when examining the books he mentioned, and his comment “if American books can be included” came off as rude to me. However, I did enjoy how he noted that the fact that one can be moved by a book that one’s intellect simply refuses to take seriously – is a reminder that art is not the same as cerebration. I also liked how he ended his essay by acknowledging that he knows of no strict literary test which would indicate which books are more superior, which gave a more humble impression.

Why I Write

I really enjoyed this essay. It explored ideas that I could relate to – such as the feeling of being lonely, isolated and under-valued. When Orwell mentioned Blake’s ‘Tiger, tiger’ it just reminded me of The Mentalist. I liked how he took us through his personal journey in progressing his writing style and reasons for writing. What interested me was Orwell’s mention of carrying out a literary exercise of making up continuous stories about himself, like a diary existing only in his mind. I tend to find myself doing that more than I’d like… except I’m sure Orwell’s level of articulacy was much greater than mine, even when simply narrating a story in his own mind – and in no way would I want to compare myself to him. I could also relate to how he felt he seemed to be making an almost involuntary effort to reflect the same meticulous descriptive style of writing as the writers he had admired. I find it most difficult to write anything without feeling like an illiterate fool, or as if I’m simply throwing a bunch of unorganised thoughts onto a page and making no sense whatsoever. I was pleased to see that he factored in the composer’s context when assessing their motive, which reminded me of my history extension lessons. However, I wasn't a huge fan of how he attempted to categorise the different motives for writing – that being sheer egoism, aesthetic enthusiasm, historical impulse, and political purpose. I’m getting mixed feeling on this approach. It’s admirable to attempt to do such a thing, but I feel that to confine writing, as an art, to such simplistic motives belittles it in a way.

Notes on Nationalism

My gosh, this essay took forever to read and analyse. Whilst the progress was quite tedious, the content was actually really interesting. I probably feel this was because it links in with the topics I study in one of my favourite classes, modern history. It was interesting to see how Orwell attempted to explain nationalism to his audience, as it a term that apparently has no definition universally accepted. Orwell used a range of historical examples, of which some were intended to shock. His comparison of nationalism to communism was interesting in the sense that he states that they’re essentially the same – how these ideologies renders the believers to turn a blind eye towards their faults or inaccuracies. I liked the part where Orwell says “every nationalist is haunted by the belief that the past can be altered” which reminded me of Stalin’s actions in rewriting history books during his period, to the point of removing certain people from images. I found it hilarious how he wrote this essay for a specific audience, the intelligentsia, which he would later spend the whole time criticising, which also further illustrated how opinionated he really is. In the beginning, Orwell seemed quite exaggerated, harsh, and presumptuous. However, he does explain towards the end that it was inevitable, as he was attempting to isolate and identify tendencies which exist universally and pervert our thinking… which I don’t really understand the meaning of (oops). At the end of the essay, I liked his summary of how hints of nationalistic factors are in all of us, and that it is possible to struggle against them through a moral effort and making allowance for the inevitable bias. My favourite part was when he noted that “you cannot get rid of those feelings simply by taking thought” but that the “emotional urges which are inescapable… should be able to exist side by side with an acceptance of reality.” which I think is a great piece of advice everyone should follow.

  Unfortunately, I'm too tired to continue writing responses to the other two essays. I'll finish that off tomorrow. Sleep is more important.