Milan Bauer’s website.
When I was in Prague I got the impression that the Czech Republic has a strong tradition of fantastical art. Maybe I just homed in on what I like, but Prague is the only place I’ve ever gone on a spending spree in an art gallery. There seemed to be an abundance of artists working in an oneiric/imaginative vein.
Concept scribble, style inspired by Alastair. Fonts: The King & Queen font, Ornamental Versals.
I was vaguely aware of the artist who went by the name ‘Alastair’ when I ran into his work agan recently — I say ‘again’ because a couple of pictures looked familiar — and presumably I knew the name because I had seen his work — but the vast majority were new to me. I can’t think why I didn’t look him up properly at first sight (was it before the Internet?) because, my god, they are very much my cup of absinthe.
‘Alastair’ was the nom-de-guerre of Hans Henning von Voigt. Though born of nobility, ‘Baron’ was a later addition to his name. As well as an artist, he was a pianist, composer, dancer, mime, poet, singer and translator. He claimed to be a changeling.
As Coilhouse (whence the above info) says, Aubrey Beardsley and Harry Clarke are obvious influences — sometimes very obvious — but I agree on the whole with the article writer that Alastair’s illustrations are distinctly his own.
Caresse Crosby recalled him thus: ‘He lived in a sort of Fall of usher House, you know, with bleak, hideous trees drooping around the doors and the windows… a blackamoor ushered us into a room where there was a black piano with a single candle burning on it. Soon Alastair himself appeared in the doorway in a white satin suit; he bowed, did a flying split and slid across the polished floor to stop at my feet, where he looked up and said, “Ah, Mrs. Crosby!” ‘
Links to his work here.
More work by the Czech artist who did the engraved hairscapes. I especially love the one below. It’s a lithograph called French Conversation, 1979, dedicted to Anne and Jacques Baruch, on whose Baruch Foundation website it and other works by Eastern and Central European artists can be found. I came across it first on Marcelo Gallegos’ Monsterism blog — well worth checking out for its eclectic collection of uncanny and fantastical art, including Gallegos’ own.
The copious but softened detail and the depth of the landscape appeal to me, as does the dreamy oddness of the towering bouquets, seemingly weightless, one without a bowl, looking as if it might slowly float away — it’s an image that suggests a whole world, and a story. (Cick for bigger size.)
It seemingly alludes to the Last Supper and the fête champêtre genre, and one can look at the bouquets as floral still-lives returned to nature, the outdoors-brought-indoors brought outdoors again — but while these are a few lines of thought to take as a sort of initial pamphlet guide into the landscape/garden, I think they are only suggestions; the picture transcends its allusions. I see it as an invitation to converse, explore, imagine, discover, and to experience mysteries. The woman might be a muse, a friend, a goddess, a lover, a guide, or an interesting stranger. We’re free to respond in our own way. It’s a generous picture, in the way that good conversation is generous.
It’s also a bit botheringly asymmetrical: my eye wants more landscape on the left, though my mind disagrees and says the asymmetry is a factor in the image’s eerie charm. (As far as I can tell, the woman is in the middle of the picture but not the middle of the table; the off-centre perspective of the table is subtle and I think my brain keeps auto-correcting it so that I don’t see exactly what’s there.)
Came across ceramic artist Sophie Woodrow’s work on Bunnylicious. Her figures appeal to me greatly, as does this from her artist statement: “Sophie’s sculptures are not visitors from other worlds, but the ‘might-have-beens’ of this world.” I find many of her pieces have a compelling innocence; others seem more fey and self-aware. Shaped like containers, they seem to invite us to speculate on or intuit what’s inside them.
She’s been a WIP for ages. Tricky because she’s so small and the wax is quite soft. I gave myself a deadline to finish her before I went away (back to Australia again for a few weeks soon), so she’s as good as I could make her in the time I had. I made some things carefully, like her feet, and kept a couple of irregularities on purpose (her ears). She has paws instead of hands. She’ll be cast and given a pale patina, as I’ve seen some pictures of whitish patinas that look lovely, and I’d like to see them ‘in the flesh’.
I want to try to come up some more adventurous imagery. Rosehead would be a good one to make. I’m not that good at thinking of new forms. I can do collage-y things, figures with mixed-up parts, but I tend to be rather literal in how I think of the parts themselves, and I’d like to break out of that and get a bit more expressive if I possibly can.
Sachiko Kodama & Minako Takeno: Protrude, Flow
Sachiko Kodama & Yasushi Miyajima: Morpho Tower / Two Standing Spirals
M. Lobjinski: Ferrofluid Sculpture
I’m so excited to have found The Cabinet of the Solar Plexus, a blog showcasing esoteric, mythic, fantastical and erotic art. The blog’s owner is also an artist.
The rococtopus (left) is still a gleam in the milkman’s eye. She’s going to be a human-headed octopus with a huge rococo wig in place of the mantle. (The wig isn’t there yet!) She was a little pixie girl bust, but I decided that was really too boring. The other head is one of Pan’s spares, which is going to be the head of a 3D model of one of my fetuses with stomach faces.
Test run moulded on wire spine:
The umbilical cord is coming out of the mouth and is going to anchor the fetus in something below that will serve as a base — maybe a placenta, or something weirder. At Stu’s suggestion the sculpture is going to go in a jar.
Wax off, wire adjusted, umbilical cord wired on, wax on:
Once I’m 100% sure the cord’s where I want it to be I might open the wax at the back and secure it with epoxy.
I’ve started fiddling with the face. I need to decide how young to make it look — really like a baby, or older.
(No, Pan isn’t finished yet. He’s at the annoying stage where I need to get fiddly things right, and can spend ages getting nowhere, so indulging in playing with a few other pieces.)
ETA: Actually, I’m not sure the cord’s going to be pourable.
His arms still need work, some of which might have to be done in the hard wax, and I need to settle on a style for the leg fur — it can get more abstract or more literal in places, but atm it’s a bit too diverse — and the hair needs to be better. And a few other things, but I think all of the really tricky stuff is done.
I need to think about where to go after this. I’ve got a few small pieces to finish up, but aside from those, what’s next? I like detail and a decorative quality, but I also like bold work like that of Dylan Lewis, and want to try working rougher, or mingling the rough and the smooth. I also want to improve my knowledge of anatomy. That seems vital, whatever style you’re making figures in (abstraction doesn’t really appeal to me). I’ve got a long list of things I want to make, but I’m especially fond of the blindfolded head with the hands, and think it could be an interesting image to explore. As an exercise, I might try working with that figure in a few different styles and poses.
