AO1 Artists and Designers

Michelangelo

Subjects, themes and issue

Michelangelo was a renaissance painter and sculptor best known and documented for his work within the 16th century. Even though Michelangelo was arguably in favor of his work as an architect and sculpting, his work on the scenes of genesis and the last resistance on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel in Rome has arguable influenced western art the most over the recent years. Michelangelo’s first love was sculpting, by 1508 the artistic community of Rome felt pressured and threatened by his talent that they devised a plot to discredit Michelangelo’s work. The subjects covered by Michelangelo derive from historic images depicting religious or popular thought where a unique insight into how the artist worked and thought is portrayed . They are beautiful artworks in their own right but also provide a crucial link between his work as a sculptor, painter and architect. His artistic achievements set him in a class apart from his contemporaries; after the death of his main rival Raphael in 1520, he was to dominate the Roman art world for more than four decades. His primary focus as an artist was commonly the male body, and his drawings chart his relentless search to find poses that would most eloquently express the emotional and spiritual state of his subjects.

Movements & styles

One of Michelangelo’s most famous artworks that is arguably the world most famous statue is the statue of David. Michelangelo breaks away from the traditional style of representing David for this period in time. He decided not to present us with the winner ( between David and Goliath ) as Michelangelo masterfully presents the essence of youth and a sense of power within the statue. Both the qualities of passionate strength and wrath are reflected within the statue of David for all to see. Michelangelo's last paintings were frescos of the Cappella Paolina just beside the Sistine Chapel, completed in 1550, when he was 75 years old the conversion of Paul and The crucifixion of st.peter. Michelangelo's crowning achievement, however, was architectural. In 1537-39, he received commission to reshape Campidoglio, the top of Rome's Capitoline Hill, into a squire. Although not completed until long after his death, the project was carried out essentially as he had designed it. In 1546, Michelangelo was appointed architect to St. Peter's. The cathedral was constructed according to Donato Bramante’s plan, but Michelangelo became ultimately responsible for its dome and the altar end of the building on the exterior.

Context of work

Michelangelo's reputation stands very high in modern times, as it did in his own age. Michelangelo went out of favour for a time, (specifically in the 17th century), on account of a general preference for the works of Raphael, Correggio and Titian; but with the early Romantics in England, and the return to the Gothic, he started to make an impressive return. In the 20th century the unfinished, unresolved creations of the great master evoked especially great interest, maybe because in the 20th century “the aesthetic focus becomes not simply the created art object, but the inextricable relationship of the artist's personality and his work.

Materials and processes

Michelangelo decided to paint with traditional techniques instead of creating new or implementing complex painting techniques. Michelangelo’s love of sculpture comes through in his paintings as you view the well-defined bodies in his works. His use of the human form made a great impression on contemporaries and future generations of artists. Regardless of his attitude towards painting, Michelangelo became one of the most influential artists of the High Renaissance period. Events and trends Though Michelangelo had a low opinion of painting and declared that he was not a painter, (even going so far as to sign letters), “Michelangelo, the Sculptor,” painted two of the most important and magnificent works in Western Art. Summoned to Rome by the Pope Michelangelo reluctantly undertook the gigantic task of painting parts of the Sistine chapel. Ironically the scenes of genesis on the ceiling and the last judgement on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Rome are some of his best known works of art.

Banksy:

Subjects, themes and issues

Banksy is known as the anonymous British graffiti artist, political activist, film director and painter. His street art and epigrams combine irreverent dark humor with graffiti done in a distinctive stenciling technique. Such artistic works of political and social commentary have been featured on streets, walls, and bridges of cities throughout the world. Known for his contempt for the government in labeling graffiti as vandalism, Banksy displays his art on public surfaces such as walls and even going as far as to build physical prop pieces. Banksy does not sell photos of street graffiti directly himself; however, art auctioneers have been known to attempt to sell his street art on location and leave the problem of its removal in the hands of the winning bidder. Banksy's first film, Exit through the Gift Shop, billed as "the world's first street art disaster movie", made its debut at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. The film was released in the UK on 5 March 2010. Just recently In January 2011, Banksy was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary for the film.

Movements and styles

Some believe that his stencilled graffiti provides a voice for those living in urban environments that could not otherwise express themselves, and that his work is also something which improves the aesthetic quality of urban surroundings; many others disagree, asserting that his work is simple vandalism (a claim made by at least Peter Gibson, spokesperson for Keep Britain Tidy), or that his (apparently left wing) beliefs are not shared by the majority of the inhabitants of the environments that he graffitis. This political purpose behind his vandalism is reminiscent of the Ad Jammers or subvertising movement, who deface corporate advertising to change the intended message and hijack the advert. Banksy does, however, also do paid work for charities (e.g., Greenpeace) as well as demanding up to £25,000 for canvases. It has also been alleged [citation needed] and denied [citation needed] that Banksy has done work with corporations such as Puma. This has led to him being accused of being a sell-out and a careerist by other artists and activists. Due to the shroud of secrecy surrounding his real identity and his subversive character; Banksy has achieved somewhat of a cult following from some of the younger age group within the stencilling community.

Stencil on the waterline of The Thekla, an entertainment boat in central Bristol.

Context of work

Banksy’s work embodies everything I like about art and nothing I dislike about it. His art is accessible rather than elitist, since he does it on the street; it has a powerful political message that’s conveyed with a sense of humor, which certainly makes the bitter pill easier to swallow; it’s pleasing to look at, because it’s technically very strong but not overly complex and intimidating; and he pulls it off in such a way that its presence in its context communicates not only his message but his dedication to effecting the change he promotes in that message, whether he’s defying Israeli hegemony by painting the separation wall in Palestine or bypassing the elitist review board of a museum by hanging his work himself. Materials and processes Banksy’s talents aren’t limited to paint and the occasional pencil drawing. He has been responsible for a number of social commentaries involving replacing hundreds of Paris Hilton CDs with CDs of his own creation. He has sneaked his own work into several art museums, including a prehistoric-looking piece at the British Museum which the museum decided to add to their own permanent collection. Just as controversial as his methods is Banksy’s take on the art world at large. He has been known to deride other artists for their self-importance and “inferior” art forms. He has even taken on the people who buy his art. Following a 2006 Sotheby’s auction of several of his works, he produced an illustration of an auction on his official website featuring the words “I can’t believe you morons actually buy this sh*t.” He is a vocal opponent of the organized art world, though he now produces some work that is more conventional than his street art roots.

Events and trends

Stencils are traditionally hand drawn or printed onto sheets of acetate or card, before being cut out by hand. Because of the secretive nature of Banksy's work and identity, it is uncertain what techniques he uses to generate the images in his stencils, though it is assumed he uses computers for some images due to the photocopy nature of much of his work. He mentions in his book, wall of piece, that as he was starting to do graffiti, he was always too slow and was either caught or could never finish the art in the one sitting. So he devised a series of intricate stencils to minimize time and overlapping of the colour.

The ability to capture a unique and

visually imagiantive piece of artwork

is something that Banksy excels in

more of Banksy's artwork

Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch was an expressionist painter and printmaker from Oslo Norway. He was regarded as the pioneer of the amazing Expressionist movement. His art work from the late 1800′s is the most well known, but his later work is gradually attracting more attention and is a worldwide inspiration.

Subjects, themes and issues

Above: Edvard munch

Edvard Munch’s paintings had extremely powerfulmeanings, influences and motives. The way that he expressed himself through his artwork was/is unique from the artistic world’s perspective. The pain that Edvard dealt with was unlike most due to deaths within his family and other life changes, however he put it to good use in my eyes. I find Edcard Much fascinating in many ways. My personal favourite painting he has ever done would be, The Scream. The inspiration found within the creation and completion shows how a true artist has made his mark on the world due to his expression within the painting.

Movements and styles

Edvard Munch’s art was extremely personalized and he did little teaching.Edvard Much’s “private” symbolism was far more personal than that of other Symbolist painters such as Gustave Moreau and James Ensor. Edvard Munch was not only was his country's greatest artist, but also played a vital role in the development of German expressionism. His work often included the symbolic portrayal of such themes as misery, sickness, and death. “The cry”, probably his most familiar painting, is typical in its anguished expression of isolation and fear.

Context of work

"The Scream" is often described as the first expressionistic picture, and is the most extreme example of Munch's "soul paintings." The facial expression depends to a large degree on the painting's dynamics, the colours and lines. The scene of the painting and particularly the foreground figure are grotesquely distorted and rendered in colours that are not taken from external reality. Coming as it does from Munch's own "inner hell", the painting visualizes a desperate aspect of anxiety and fear. The percussiveness of the motif behind the painting shows that it also speaks to our day and age.

Edvard Munch's 'the scream' created between 1893-1910.

Materials and processes

Edvard Munch’s Process of creating paintings has always been very similar. The way Edvard masterfully portrays and captures emotion is consistent within his entire portfolio of work. Even though most only know of his most famous work such as “ the scream” is expression and take on painting has influenced many artists since his death in the 20th century. Edvard uses similar materials to most other artists within his work; however he gains a more prestigious reputation within the world of art due to the emotion found within his work. This emotion has been captured to the highest standard whilst also propelling Munch to a high level within the artist world. His work still continues to inspire many as his effort to portray human emotion is key to his work as this is done masterfully.

Events and trends

Unlike many artists, Munch's work has adapted throughout his lifetime as his progression from Naturalism to impressionalism has enabled Munch to create masterpieces that have influenced other artists work (such as myself). Edvard differs from many artists in this sense of individuality and variation within his work even within his early artist years.Even though some of his first pieces of work are reminiscent of Manet's (19th century painter ) most of his other pieces reflects his passion of painting and being able to precisely capture the world that we see and feel around us. I particularly like how Edvard Munch is symbolic throughout his entire collection of work as his clear artistic style refelcts his attitude upon how he sees the common culture and society. Munch continued to produce art that employed a variety of brush stroke techniques and colour palettes as he later struggled to define his style. One feeling that I get from this particular artist is that I believe he was someone who, throughout his entire artistic life, struggled to categorise himself and his art. I believe that this enabled him to create more elaborate and meaningful pieces of art due to his dedication to produce art that was different to that seen since that particular period of time. As Munch's work was shaped around his feeling and attitudes that faced him throughout his entire life (the scream was created within Munch's mid life crisis) he was able to 'capture the moment' with symbolism and in a different way than that of previous artists work. Even though, stylistically Munch was influenced by post-impressionists Munch chose to depict a state of mind than that of reality. I believe this seperated Munch from most artists, especially those of his time and of those previous as he was understandibly one of the key trend setters of modern attitudes and a key influence of 21st century art.

How I can use this artists work

I chose this particular artist for a variety of reasons, one of which was due to Munch's work being inspirational and influencial within my own creations and work that I produce for this project. I have found that Munchs work conveys a variety of meaning and expression that draws a large audience from across the world which would in some way be able to benefit that of my own work for the present and future of my animation course. There are some paintings of Munch's that I feel that I am able to use as inspirations within my own work as the compositions and style captured within several key paintings (such as "the sick child" - 1885) attract me and have inspired me to produce work that appeals to a vast audience, which is interesting and appealing to the eye. Overall ,I believe that Edvard Munch's work can be influential to myself in a variety of ways due to the artistic vision reflected within his work as it undoubtedly captures feelings, reality, emotion and his state of mind.

Jack Kirby

A Detailed investigation of Jack Kirby

The famous narrative artist Jack Kirby was born on August 28th, 1917. Jack was the son of Austrian immigrants,he grew up in the less than hospitable Lower East Side of New York City. At an early age, it became apparent that Jack had a natural ability for drawing people, various objects and animals. Within 1939, Jack Kirby left his job in which he was working on the Popeye cartoons along with the syndicated newspaper strips, as he decided to collaborate with a another artist, that being Jos Simon as they both joined the fast growing art medium of comic books. Their partnership lasted the better part of two decades as Jos and Jack created some of the most well known characters within the comic books world.
it wasn't until 1961 that Jack Kirby truly began to lay the foundations of what was to become his legacy. Jack Kirby created, co- created, and revamped such characters as Captain America, the fantastic four ,the hulk and the x-men. In 1970, Jack Kirby returned to DC Comics in which he continued to enforce his influence over the production of characters in various comic books like new gods , our fighting forces, forever people, Kamandi and mister miracle.
Due to falling severely ill Jack Kirby retired for good in 1987, he unfortunately passed away on February 6th, 1994. In the 1960s,It was Stan Lee who gave the nickname, 'the King' to Jack Kirby, and the name stuck, even to this day. Whenever this name is repeated within the comic book world everyone knows that it is in reference to that of Jack Kirby. His art has gained interest in recent years, even before his passing, as his comic book art and effective narrative story telling through imagery has made Jack Kirby and icon figure within the comic book industry.

How does Jack Kirby Tell a story - developing my idea
One of the most important factors for any narrative artist is to be able to successfully tell a story effectively within an arranged set of images within a comic book. Jack Kirby produced some of the finest collections of images found within the industry as his ability to tell a story through characters body language and visual presence is something only a limited amount of people can do near the standard set by Jack Kirby. Kirby effectively deploys his own styles and clear technique in order to create a real sense of atmosphere and narrative within the comic sequences.
Jacks ability to express fear, anger and various other emotions within a still image is something that made Jack Kirby the legendary figure within the comic book industry that he is still known for today. Jack tells the story innovatively and imaginatively without the need for captions or words. Even though these were often used to help narrate, Jacks artistic sensibility enabled his work to be characterised and shaped around the idea of portraying human emotion and human life within his work. Most of his work can be related to this focus as the characters within the comics are effectively positioned in order to reflect the characters attitude and emotions.


How does Jack Kirby deploy various techniques such as shading and use of colour to benefit his work

Jacks ability to reflect a specific atmosphere and variety of emotion within a comic book is something only a handful of professionals have the ability to do. Jacks use of composition is effective in creating atmosphere and emotion with narrative comic books. The use of colour enabled Jack Kirby to portray a specific characters personality, style and the characters abilities within the comic as his detailed and imaginative designs paved the way for other artists to gain an insight into how narrative could be expressed through imagery.
Jack Kirby imaginatively deployed colour within his work in order to effectively capture the audience. Kirby’s work stands out from the rest as his use of colour creatively captures the atmosphere in which the story is set and brings the characters and location alive. Even without computer technology Kirby was still able to Print imaginative ,coloured scenes for the comics where upon he deployed a variety of techniques that he had picked up throughout his career and life.

How can I apply Jacks techniques and style within my own work

As the main objective for this particular unit is to produce a story based solely on images that reflect the narrative of the chosen myth, it is important to gain knowledge of how to effectively do so from investigating into other narrative artists work. The reason I specifically chose Jack Kirby to investigate was due to his creative ability on paper in order to produce visually stunning artwork in the form of comic books. The way in which Jack Kirby narrates through imagery is something that I wish to apply to my own narrative story. The way in which Jack applies colour to produce a sense of atmosphere is something that I can apply within my own work, after observing a variety of Jack Kirby’s work it definitely has inspired and shaped my ideas for how I shall produce a sequence of images that narrate themselves.
In order to successfully produce a sequence of narrative images it is important for me as an artist to replicate methods used by other narrative artists like Jack Kirby. His stylization of the characters and various backgrounds within the comics have definitely inspired and altered my decisions for how I wish to narrate the story of “ the woman and the bell of Miidera” through images. As visualisation is an important factor to assess it is equally important for my frames to be laid out appropriately. After examining Jack Kirby’s artwork within the comics I believe that I am able to apply similar techniques to my own work in order to visually narrate the story without the help of text. Thanks to the investigations into Jack Kirby’s work I believe that I have understood how to effectively narrate imagery as this new knowledge will enable me to effectively produce a detailed set of images and designs for such work as the story of “ the woman and the bell of Miidera” in a professional and creative manner.

John Salvatore

A detailed investigation of John Salvatore
John Salvatore Romita, was born on August 17, 1956. John is an American comic book artist that is best known for his extensive work for Marvel Comics from the 1970s to the 2000s. John Salvatore Romita actually began his career at Marvel UK, doing sketches for covers of various reprints. Romita’s American debut was with that of a six page story entitled "Chaos at the Coffee Bean!" in The Amazing Spider-Man annual #11 (1977). Romita's gained popularity due to his work on Iron Man with the writer David Michelinie and artist Bob Layton which began in 1978. In the early 1980s, John had his first regular run on the Amazing Spider-Man series and also was the artist for the launch of the Dazzler series. I particularly like John’s attention to detail as he masterfully and imaginatively tries to explore a range of artistic techniques in order to visually express emotion and a specific atmosphere. Another aspect of John Romita’s narrative artistry in which I admire is the way he deploys a balance of colour within his work. John attracts the target audience of the comic books as the artwork inside is captivating and visually appealing, especially to the specific age range. This is something that I can definitely take into account whilst producing my narrative set of images, as the effects of stylizing and uniquely designing a set of images to a high standard is something I wish to accomplish.

How does John deploy techniques to produce techniques such as lighting/shade and colour within his work
John Salvatore Romita expresses characters emotions and attitude through the use of colour and lighting within each selected frame. Romita captures human emotion and realisation even within a comic book as his artwork speaks for itself. The use of colour enables the characters within the comic books to express and portray their emotions and the atmosphere that they are seen in as John’s style is deeply influenced by the ability to produce self realism and a true sense of characterisation within his work that he produces. I particularly like how Romita’s work uses lighting and shade for a variety of reasons. One of these is how he can differentiate time, place and atmosphere by deploying a variety of techniques in order to adjust the shading and overall image within each selected frame.


How does John Salvatore Romita tell a story through his art
John Romita’s artistic capabilities allow him to express and ultimately “ tell a story” through visual imagery. Romita’s Visual interpretations of fear, warmth, happiness and other various human emotions are expressed to the highest standard in terms of actively appealing to the typical audience that read the comics he helps produce. As the narratives within these fantasy comics are fictional and unique, it is difficult for an artist to realistically capture these superhero‘s portraying humanistic emotions. What John Romita does however is capture this element perfectly as his skills are effective in being able to tell a story through visual imagery? John Romita’s expressive use of colour and characterisation enables the narrative of the comic to flow; this skill is something which only a limited amount of artists can achieve. I particular like how Romita’s work is able to tell a story through high quality visual imagery . The techniques needed to deploy and effectively capture the atmosphere has enabled John Romita to become a well known figure within this industry as he is able to effectively tell a story professionally and effectively.

How can i apply John Salvatore Romita’s Techniques and style within my own work
After examining and investigating into his artwork within the comic book industry I believe that I can adapt and deploy several techniques and methods that Romita uses in order to benefit my work and produce a collection of sequenced visual images that are able to effectively tell the story of my myth (“the woman and the bell of miidera”. The way in which John Salvatore Romita effectively narratives the story through visual images is something that I believe I can apply to that of my own work. The methods of being able to structure and layout frames in a way that makes the audience aware of the location and emotions of the characters is something that I am particularly fond of within John’s artwork. I believe that after exploring this particular artist I am able to apply his methods to that of my own work as his professional finish and influence of his unique style is an effective way in which to narrate and tell my story. Romita’s use of colour is something that attracts me to his artwork. The way in which John expresses the characters through the use of colour enables the images to narrate themselves as his use of imagery and colour enables the narrative to be distinct and easy to follow. I believe that his particular style and variety of techniques could benefit my own work as I wish to apply various skills and methods of telling a narrative through imagery that have been found through the investigation of John Romitas work. Overall, this attention to detail and thought into how to professionally layout and style my artwork will allow me to effectively narrative my myth.

A detailed investigation of
John Salvatore Romita, was born on August 17, 1956. John is an American comic book artist that is best known for his extensive work for Marvel Comics from the 1970s to the 2000s. John Salvatore Romita actually began his career at Marvel UK, doing sketches for covers of various reprints. Romita’s American debut was with that of a six page story entitled "Chaos at the Coffee Bean!" in The Amazing Spider-Man annual #11 (1977). Romita's gained popularity due to his work on Iron Man with the writer David Michelinie and artist Bob Layton which began in 1978. In the early 1980s, John had his first regular run on the Amazing Spider-Man series and also was the artist for the launch of the Dazzler series. I particularly like John’s attention to detail as he masterfully and imaginatively tries to explore a range of artistic techniques in order to visually express emotion and a specific atmosphere. Another aspect of John Romita’s narrative artistry in which I admire is the way he deploys a balance of colour within his work. John attracts the target audience of the comic books as the artwork inside is captivating and visually appealing, especially to the specific age range. This is something that I can definitely take into account whilst producing my narrative set of images, as the effects of stylizing and uniquely designing a set of images to a high standard is something I wish to accomplish.

How does... use lighting/shade and colour within his work
John Salvatore Romita expresses characters emotions and attitude through the use of colour and lighting within each selected frame. Romita captures human emotion and realisation even within a comic book as his artwork speaks for itself. The use of colour enables the characters within the comic books to express and portray their emotions and the atmosphere that they are seen in as John’s style is deeply influenced by the ability to produce self realism and a true sense of characterisation within his work that he produces. I particularly like how Romita’s work uses lighting and shade for a variety of reasons. One of these is how he can differentiate time, place and atmosphere by deploying a variety of techniques in order to adjust the shading and overall image within each selected frame.


John Salvatore Romita (sourced from unit 17) - subjects , themes

John Romita’s artistic capabilities allow him to express and ultimately “ tell a story” through visual imagery. Romita’s Visual interpretations of fear, warmth, happiness and other various human emotions are expressed to the highest standard in terms of actively appealing to the typical audience that read the comics he helps produce. As the narratives within these fantasy comics are fictional and unique, it is difficult for an artist to realistically capture these superhero‘s portraying humanistic emotions. What John Romita does however is capture this element perfectly as his skills are effective in being able to tell a story through visual imagery? John Romita’s expressive use of colour and characterisation enables the narrative of the comic to flow; this skill is something which only a limited amount of artists can achieve. I particular like how Romita’s work is able to tell a story through high quality visual imagery . The techniques needed to deploy and effectively capture the atmosphere has enabled John Romita to become a well known figure within this industry as he is able to effectively tell a story professionally and effectively.

How can i apply John Salvatore Romita’s Techniques and style within my own work

After examining and investigating into his artwork within the comic book industry I believe that I can adapt and deploy several techniques and methods that Romita uses in order to benefit my work and produce a collection of sequenced visual images that are able to effectively tell the story of my myth (“the woman and the bell of miidera”. The way in which John Salvatore Romita effectively narratives the story through visual images is something that I believe I can apply to that of my own work. The methods of being able to structure and layout frames in a way that makes the audience aware of the location and emotions of the characters is something that I am particularly fond of within John’s artwork. I believe that after exploring this particular artist I am able to apply his methods to that of my own work as his professional finish and influence of his unique style is an effective way in which to narrate and tell my story. Romita’s use of colour is something that attracts me to his artwork. The way in which John expresses the characters through the use of colour enables the images to narrate themselves as his use of imagery and colour enables the narrative to be distinct and easy to follow. I believe that his particular style and variety of techniques could benefit my own work as I wish to apply various skills and methods of telling a narrative through imagery that have been found through the investigation of John Romitas work. Overall, this attention to detail and thought into how to professionally layout and style my artwork will allow me to effectively narrative my myth.

Artist : Anton Solomoukha , Photo painting

Alittle about Anton Solomoukha himself and how this could influence his work
Anton P. Solomoukha was born on November 2, 1945 in Kiev, Ukraine which was then part of the USSR. Solomoukha is a French artist and photographer of Ukraine , and also a foreign member of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts. Since the 1980’s, Solomoukha has specialized in narrative figuration. Since 2000 he has furthered his developed of photo projects to which he has gained world wide recognition. Anton Solomoukha is known as the inventor of a new form of expression within contemporary photography known as “Photo painting”. In it he associates the photographic image with intricate pictorial research along with using a variety of models for this particular form of art. After I had researched Anton I decided to explore in detail alittle more about Ukraine and France within the period in which he (Anton) grew up. I found it important to understand what events occurred as this could have ultimately shaped his attitude and inspiration along with the possibility that this affected his art. I had found a variety of “events” to which Anton’s culture could have possibly shaped his attitude and artistic style.
The main event in which I have found it important to note is the time where Anton was born, he was born just after world war II where Ukraine was in a soviet controlled position of cultural control as the countries once righteous and rich culture had been damaged by the Russians regime and power. As most were against this “ regime “ This in turn led to the repression of 1972 and cultural freedom of Ukraine. As Anton experienced both cultures at one point in his life he certainly gained a new means of expression as he was able to experiment with techniques of photography and paint in order to individualize himself from the rest.
A detailed explanation of the techniques used by Anton Solomoukha’s
Within Anton’s artwork many techniques are deployed in order to portray emotion and personality as his artwork portrays his attitudes and feelings that relate to current and previous issues and cultural aspects that have faced his life. Between the years of 1978 and 1980, Solomoukha began a period of experimentation of various techniques and types of aesthetic formulas. A risky decision of moving to America in 1978—1980 proved to be a decisive moment within Anton Solomoukha’s artistic career.
Since 2002, important projects in the painting of Solomoukha, like “Boxers”, “Mechanical Toys”, “the Myths and the Limits” and “Jazz” were characterized by his formal search for ways of expression through the opposition of different structures of thought and by Anton’s clear obsession for paradox within his art and way of creation. Solomoukha’s ideological, ethical and aesthetical positions were constructed under the influence of the French art critic Bernard Lamarche-Vadel and Michel Enrici. In search of new expressive means, Anton Solomoukha started to based his creations around more than often the technique and combination of primarily photography and also paint. In 1990, he got acquainted with Robert Doisneau to which his technique and development of photographic/photographic -paint pieces was established and a main feature of his work.
The first series; “The girl with the cup-and-ball” and “The Sex of Angels” are ultimately characterized by Anton’s choice of a closed space and a dark background. Anton uses mirrors, as ‘a complementary character’ for the construction of a subject, ironic or poetic, inspired by historical myths and also that of the biblical subjects. Anton’s obsession with these projects has evolved into a rejection of temporal social topics. Anton’s personal relationship with paint/painting is noticed and is apparent and was the principal theme of a series of photo compositions in the monumental style: “Little Red Riding Hood visits the Louvre”. Although these big square “panoramic” compositions are technically photographs, in reality they are visually projected and constructed as if they were painted pictures. “Photo-painting” has a role to play in the creation of a new contemporary art form of Anton’s.

My own opinion and critical analysis
I chose Anton for a particular range of reasons, to which I believe credit his work and have helped me within my own work to understand and look very closely at how artists and designers deploy their techniques within their artwork. After closely analysing Antons artwork and techniques ( from narrative figuration to photo painting) I believe his work stands alone in the contemporary field of the art world. His charismatic take on design and photo-painting work has defined Anton’s career as his raw passion and mixture of techniques are reflected within his Solomoukha’s work.
‘The photographic ‘paintings’ of his collection are (I believe) in some way theatrical and expressive of his own morality and subconscious state .The backgrounds tend to be dark, The foregrounds are also commonly filled by actors: characters from the streets of Paris interposed with naked models, animals and the elements of still life.. The theatrical tableaux style of Anton’s collection enable the artist to break from the traditional photographic image and create a paradoxical metaphysical space, I believe this visual composition is visually sound and interesting in terms of uniqueness with a rich meaningfulness. Even though his artwork stands mostly alone within the art world due to his unique portrayal of life and the human body I do believe this can be a negative thing in terms of feedback and others opinions. As many of Anton’s pieces are unsuitable for younger audiences due to the vast nudity included, this ultimately restricts the amount of people viewing his art work on a global scale. This however, I believe does not bother Anton and his art as for most artists it’s the art that is the true reason to which they continue to be artists themselves and the message they portray within their particular art rather than being within this field for popularity reasons.
Whilst I closely analyze Anton’s Techniques that he deploys I do believe that he may possibly loose the possibility to communicate his message as obviously as that of a full painting. Even though this can be seen as a negative aspect within his work I do not however see it this way. My reason for this is that in turn It ultimately allows spectators to have to look more closely to find the hidden symbolism and meaning within his work as it is not necessarily obvious throughout his work , this therefore makes for a more interesting and dynamic piece. I personally have gained a fondness for Anton’s art and his technique of combining two processes in order to create one effective style. Talking from an analytical perspective I do believe this piece may have flaws in terms of audience awareness, taking this into account however I still believe his concept and uniqueness has shaped the current art work and shall continue to do so effectively in the future.

How it inspires and develops my work
I have found that a common denominator starts to appear within Antons artwork. I believe that this combination is irony, satire and the astonishing ability to create settings in a scene even with various models from different periods in time,. All to which are intermingled. I believe that Anton has a large creative appetite. As I am fascinated and submerged in contemporary art, His visual interpretations of raw emotion and meaning is delivered in an effective manner to which I am greatly interested. I commend how Anton effectively uses two processes combined with great effect, as this in favour has shaped and inspired my own work and my future project as I can employ his style and techniques within my own work.

How can I use his work to develop my own effectively
After closely and critically analysing Anton Solomoukha’s I believe his techniques and processes can be used effectively within my current and future work. Anton’s subliminal messages within his art truly inspire me to do the same as I have learnt from analysing Anton closely that there are limitless ways in which we can express meaning, emotion and portray messages through art forms. I shall try to incorporate this newly researched technique within my own work within the future as the stylization and symbolism that can be captured as a result of working with this technique is parallel with that I aim to achieve within my own work/development work.