Ellie Taylor
An investigation examining the impact of popular culture on fine art practise
“Everyone needs a fantasy” Warhol
Introduction
Since the 1950s artists from Andy Warhol to Richard Hamilton have questioned society's obsession with popular culture and music. In this personal study I have decided to examine the impact of popular culture on fine art. As a huge music fan and I will start this project investigating the iconic images of David Bowie. I having researched images from David Bowie's career, I have picked the most famous and iconic photo of him. These photos then turned into graffiti when he died and he was more of a music legend. When my mother was younger, she collected a lot of David Bowie memorabilia, she was a big fan and he was an influential part of her life. Music and popular culture is indeed a huge influence over much of our contemporary lives, this is why I have decided to examine the impact of popular music on fine art practise in this personal study and my own practical work.
“My memories of music”, was an idea that originated from my own obsession of music. I have been to numerous concerts and they have all been truly influential. Therefore, I wanted to link a music theme to my art. I have started with my concert photos that I have taken throughout my years of concert going. My favourite concert has been one by the rap artist Macklemore. This is the concert I have focused on for my 1st idea because I was so close to the stage and met him after the show, I got great photos from this concert as well and wanted to make them into a piece of artwork. Taking these photos further I wanted to turn them into merchandise as I have collected a lot of merchandise from all the concerts that I have been too such as tops, posters, wristbands and guitar plecs. When I made the shirt, I wanted it to link to the Macklemore concert as much as possible so I got the friend who came with me to the concert to wear the merchandise. By this music artist starting his singing career in the 2000s I then decided to look in depth of all the other music that has become a part of people's lives. Rather than representing someone's physical features or attributes, I am interested in capturing an intense and insightful representation of an individual's passion by examining the music that inspires their life. In this personal study i will use Brian Duffys photographs of David Bowie as the catalyst for a pop cultural revolution, and argue that without these images we would not have the diverse and forward thinking music and subcultures that we have today.
Pop art culture and movement
In the 1950s post war Britain was a country of depression and poverty. This then lead to the up rise in pop culture when Andy Warhol bring around block colour to rehabilitate the societies. If Andy Warhol didn't bring the pop culture to the planet there would be no lightning bolt as it's an iconic strong publish. Warhol's work made the world question the fine art that hangs in its art galleries and institutes. Indeed without popular icons, movie stars and pop music Warhol would not have a muse. Whilst I visited the Tate gallery in London I was struck by how Warhol captured these icons from his contemporary society. Elevating their fame and worshiping them in a way that an Artist from the renaissance may have worshiped an image of the mother and child. I want to capture in my fine art practise the artist who I worship and believe that by using Brian Duffy’s photographs of David Bowie I will be able to analyse the impact of music and culture on fine art.
An analysis of Brian Duffy's photographs of David Bowie for his Aladdin Sane album
Duffy, who died in 2010, is known for his fashion and advertising photography of the 50s, 60s and 70s and his work with David Bowie on the albums Aladdin Sane, Lodger and Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). Along with David Bailey and Terence Donovan, Duffy was part of the 'Terrible Trio' seen as defining and capturing the London of the 'Swinging Sixties', moving models from studios and elevating successful photographers to celebrity status.
“Brian Duffy defined the image of the 1960s, and was as famous as the stars he photographed. Together with David Bailey and Terence Donovan, he is recognized as one of the innovators of “documentary” fashion photography, a style which revolutionized fashion imagery and furthermore the fashion industry.”
“Duffy’s most famous photograph dates from the 1970s and is the iconic and revolutionary cover of David Bowie’s album Aladdin Sane, a shot that became the defining look of Bowie’s long career, and has been referred to as the Mona Lisa of pop. The photographer and the rock star collaborated on four other projects: Ziggy Stardust, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) and Lodger. They worked together during the pivotal years of Bowie’s career; when the king of glam was assuming and discarding extraordinary personas, Duffy was capturing them all.”
Brian Duffy was a famous star in the 1960s for his photographs. With a wide range of photographs
Brian Duffy became a famous photographer after he shot the Aladdin saner for one of many David Bowie's albums covers. I like how he has took numerous shots before he got the correct image that he published onto the album cover, he got Bowie to move his head to different directions this was to show the structure of the face as he has a strong jawline and neck bones that construct the photos together. The facial expressions that he is pulling are serious to show off his personality or to show off his desire of music. The lighting on these photos are set to show the collar bone structure and to bring out more of the makeup to highlight he has makeup on this is to show the era Bowie was from 80s pop. The creative use of lighting accentuating his collarbones makes Bowie appear more effeminate before this photograph we would have been more used to seeing women collar bones and body in this way. By exposing Bowies collarbones and depicting him in this womanly way makes us question bowies sexuality and gender and the fact that bowie is such a popular icon it makes it easier for men and women to be gay and question gender stereotypes. In my own work I have used these images to question my own ideas of gender.
In the 80s a lot of music producers used makeup for their album cover, i think bowie was the creator of this and a lot of people idolised over the way his album came across to the nation, after Bowie used Pierre Laroche a lot of musicians through a craze over his work and this is when he Mick Jagger used the same artist as him to fit the category of pop and to become more of an idolising figure.
How Duffy's images have inspired contemporary pop culture
When David Bowie passed away a lot of bands were re-inspired by his music and took the pop theme into their own songs and changed their style of music. This is another reason why I have picked David Bowie to focus my work upon as my favourite band the 1975 changed their type of music to go through a pop stage and made their album more pop by adding more colour. Matty the main band member then went onto applying makeup to look and focus his band towards the look off David Bowie as he wore makeup through his albums and life career.
In an interview, they told Matty that "Love Me" reminded me of David Bowie's "Fame," he nodded and replied that "Fame" had come out — wait for it — in 1975.” this then suggested that Matty linked his song to David Bowie's music as they came out in the genre his band was called so they all linked.
Connecting my ideas together, I focused on this piece of work as he has both used a similar way of presenting his idea across such as the facial expressions as there is an element of fun flowing through the art. The way I got my model to scream to show excitement, this is so she is reliving her favourite memories. Duffy’s photos produce a fun in taking the image as he's getting a worldwide legend to be his model and he creates a photo shoot of the album cover.
Creating more connections together, I have looked at why Duffy puts David on a plain white background this is so you aren't focused on what's going around him and you take interest towards the lightning bolt across his face. This is what I wanted to portray in my photo, to show the detail I have painted in the face and the top, as I want to make people aware of the t-shirt as it's the concert photos I have taken and melted onto a top to create the merchandise that relates to David Bowie's album cover as a lot of his merchandise has the Ziggy stardust sign on, merchandise I have seen with this image on has been bags t shirts posters and the most famous album cover. Another clean link is that they both have a feel of music through and they are both a memory of music. The Macklemore concerts was my greatest memory and David Bowie was a greatest memory for all his fans.
When David Bowie passed away there was a lot of his artwork illustrated around the world onto different buildings and in different ways, there was memorial sites for people to visit to publish their love for David. There was a famous illustration that got painted on a wall in Brixton, this was where David lived all his life and a lot of people paid their respects to the graffiti painting of him. From this main one a lot of artists expanded the one photo that was painted in Brixton to other parts of the country. This showed of how much of a music legend bowie was to a lot of the population including my mother. This photo of the Ziggy stardust was more published when he died and became a bigger icon to the nation. I visited the graffiti of him in Newcastle.
The reasoning behind why I have picked an iconic person from the 80s because a lot of people have heard of him and he is a symbol to music kind. I wanted to link graffiti into a piece of work and wanted to illustrate more of the lightning bolt as this is the main symbol of the album cover and showing the focus of my art work how simple one piece of art can become so big and well known. Therefore, I spray painted the sign over the full of the painting to show that this is the main icon of the photo. I wanted to create more a link to the graffiti as he has become an icon when he has died and this is the painting that everyone sees.
The impact of Duffy's photographs on my own fine art practise
Basing my artwork around a photographer I took photos to turn into paintings or drawings. I based all of my art work from an image and copied what was on the photo this is a comparison as Bowies work was from a photo. Thinking of where the idea came from with the lightning bolt I searched for reasoning and found that Pierre Laroche was the makeup artist who created the lightning bolt stripe and was the creator of glam rock. I wanted to link the makeup side into my art as he was a professional makeup artist who made famous bands album covers such as he went on to create Mick Jagger’s. I wanted to add someone who looked at art and I thought it was an interesting way to add it into my work, the person who created the symbol of Bowie.
Without Duffy’s images of Bowie I would argue that contemporary musicians would not have the freedom to express themselves in a way that challenges gender stereotypes and sexuality. Bands like the 1975 that have inspired my own fine art practise would not have the freedom to express themselves in a sexually ambiguous light. Duffy created strong images that empowered Bowie to express himself artistically. In my own fine art practice I have attempted to question how representations of gender stereo types and sexuality can empower and challenge society’s ideals.
In my first final piece I have studied concerts from the 2000s era this is because this era is when I had a taste for music. I have went to a lot of concerts in my time and wanted to show people how much I enjoy the time at a concert. My favourite concert was the one I based around for the first final piece I was very close to this music artist I attended, I composed a lot of great photos from this and wanted to illustrate them in my books. From all the concerts over the years I have collected a lot of merchandise I thought I could make my own merchandise from these items. When I made the t-shirt I want to use the person that came with me to the concert this is so you can see her emotions through her facial expression of her screaming I wanted to add this position in as it linked to the atmosphere around us.
Throughout my course work I wanted to keep to the same material that was inspired by Mike Draggas this is because I was fascinated by the way he painted people and faces this is because they were in so much detail and they looked like they were coming out the page I want to keep with my same material that is oil paints because this is the material he used throughout his work. For my next idea, I wanted to take it back to the era my parents were born and create a piece of what music inspired them this is because in my previous art that’s what music influences me today. I have taken a numerous number of photos that link to David bowie but want to show that there is a many photos out there of him and to get a photo I like the most to paint for my final piece. I want to show that a lot of celebrities now are painted on sides of building by street artists and I have found that these celebrities have died so it’s an iconic memorial. I want to show that when Bowie died that he had a lot of art work painted of him and want to add this into my work.
For my final piece, I wanted to take it back to the 70s this is because I went through stages of eras of music. I decided to go for a band not from the 70s but is called that era this was the 1975. I have looked at these as my final because they are my favourite band and I have been influenced by his words in songs to create a piece about him. This image and idea also links to the David Bowie idea as they both are pop artists but when bowie died the 1975 turned their music to pop. I think these ideas relate because my David bowie is someone reacting him and so is the painting that has been inspired by the 1975.
Bibliography
http://www.duffyphotographer.com/
www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-ca-ms-the-1975-20160228-story.html
ultimateclassicrock.com/david-bowie-pierre-laroche
