P – it’s the sixteenth letter of our alphabet. It is the symbol for the chemical element phosphorus. In music, it means “quiet,” short for “piano.” As a visual symbol, it’s believed to have begun as an almost-ellipse, eye shape in Ancient Egypt.
It may be the “eighth least frequently used in the English alphabet,” but there is no shortage of ideas for the Art Alphabet…
P
1. An Art Term (perspective): Tube Shelter Perspective by Henry Moore (1898-1986)
Perspective has the enormous task of making flat images appear as if it shows relative distance & size of objects depicted; in other words, it has to make two dimensions appear to be three. Henry Moore’s spooky piece shows people sheltering underground from the bombs dropping on London in the tubes. He made several pictures depicting sheltering people after visiting the tube lines in 1940. Not only does he trick us into believing the perspective, he convinces us of the darkness through use of colour & the ghostly details of the figures. We understand these are people experiencing fear, loss & dread as well as – they hoped – temporary homelessness.
2. A Bird (parrot): Study of a Parrot by George Cole (1810-1883)
This fine fellow calls to mind Fabritius’s much earlier goldfinch in terms of his chained & captured existence, but it seems a parrot is easier to domesticate. Happier too it would seem, since his feathers are in good condition & he seems well fed. As well as animal paintings, Cole specialised in landscapes & was self-taught as an artist. He is also said to have memorised the works of William Shakespeare. If true, it shows an impressive commitment to achieving whatever he set his mind to.
3. A Medium (panel): A Young Lady Aged 21, Possibly Helena Snakenborg, later Marchioness of Northampton by Unknown Artist (1569)
There was a time when canvas hadn’t been invented & up until then, as an artist you’d probably paint on wooden panels. If you didn’t want it to crack, you’d have to prepare it & that was very fiddly & took ages, with layers of treatment having to be applied. You could also paint onto walls of course, but that came with its own special difficulties. You could also stick bits of vellum onto a panel to make it last longer but again, more work. You can see why canvas took off.
4. An Art Genre (Participatory Art): Made in India by Tania Bruguera (b. 1968)
We looked at the work of Roelof Louw in a previous blog regarding Participatory art. It’s when the spectator is encouraged to “add” to the art by changing it or removing something & can’t exist without their participation. As regards art activist Tania Bruguera, “In her work Surplus Value, participants were asked to wait in line & then randomly selected into those who could enter the work & others who were submitted to lie detector tests, in order to highlight the problems of immigration.”
5. A Group (Pictures Generation): Untitled Film Still #23 by Cindy Sherman (b. 1954)
Likely lumped together after an exhibition of the same name & featuring their work, the Pictures Generation denoted a number of American artists examining our connection with mainstream culture & mass media in the early 1970s.
6. An Animal (panther): Woman & Panther (Salome & the Panther) by Gustave Moreau (1826-1898)
This painting is also known as Salome & the Panther, which imbues it with a whole other set of associations. It must surely be a sketch (if it’s indeed by Moreau), as his more famous works are perfectly-rendered Symbolist masterpieces.
7. A Colour (purple): Caprice in Purple & Gold: the Golden Screen by James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
Whistler was a genius. I’ve merely hinted at it before, but there, I’ve said it. The model here is Joanna Hiffernan, his girlfriend from Ireland who posed frequently for Whistler as well as Gustave Courbet. The atmosphere in this painting is gentle & quiet, but there is so much going on. & all that purple fabric draws your eye up to Joanna’s face. All around is visual excitement – the art on the screen, the images she’s looking at, the flowers in the corner, the various colours & patterns on her clothing. It shouldn’t work towards making it such a serene scene, but as I say, Whistler was a genius.
8. A Plant (petunia): Purple Petunias by Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986)
You get two Ps for the price of one with O’Keeffe’s typically bold, nevertheless beautiful up-close florals. I like this quote by O’Keeffe on the subject of flowers in general: “Nobody sees a flower, really, it is so small. We haven't time - & to see takes time like to have a friend takes time. If I could paint the flower exactly as I see it no one would see what I see because I would paint it small like the flower is small. So I said to myself - I'll paint what I see - what the flower is to me but I'll paint it big & they will be surprised into taking time to look at it - I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers. ...Well, I made you take time to look at what I saw & when you took time to really notice my flower you hung all your own associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if I think & see what you think & see of the flower - & I don't."
9. An Art Element (pattern): Willow Bough by William Morris (1834-1896)
One of the giants of pattern-making in art, Morris contributed hugely to the development of textile production & made a career of eschewing industrial methods for hand-crafted work. He predated many modern home-making theories & philosophies by suggesting, “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”
10. An Artist (Polke): Alice in Wonderland by Sigmar Polke (1941-2010)
Sigmar escaped his native East Germany to the West at the end of WWII. His life in art began as an apprentice in stained glass & after studying art became a painter & photographer. He was broadly experimental in both disciplines in the 60s, experimenting with different media, materials & liquid chemicals to create new & abstract effects. He was working in a post-war era where many artists struggled to either make sense of the horrors they’d experienced or lashed out, rejecting traditional methods, norms or materials. Polke’s works have sold for millions at auction, even in his lifetime.
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