Wednesday, March 9, 2011

In trying to pick an illustration to write about I was thinking about the fact that we now need to talk about the context of the pieces we find, the piece I ended up wanting to work with was this one, by Henry Darger. Henry Darger is particularly interesting in terms of context because he was so very reclusive, his work seemed to be for himself alone, rather than a particular audience, and he lacked a real background in art. Dargers work, though it may look a little dated because of the use of stylized magazine elements from his time, has an overall timeless and otherworldly feel to it. His lack of formal training In the arts led to a style that seems unconstrained by formal conventions, his compositions are often crowded, the colors are wild and the forms fantastic. His style, which is distinctive but not necessarily deliberate, is even perhaps ahead of its time, whether because of the influence of Darger or by chance there is a great deal of work done now that seems to echo his.

No comments:

Post a Comment