Event Review

SURFACE TENSION : The Art of EUAN MACLEOD 1991 – 2009

Little Snowman 2009

Have you been going to national art gallery before? This is the first time the writer went to the national gallery in National Trust S.H. Ervin Gallery on Watson road near The Rocks. There is one first major touring exhibition of work in there, by an artist who is considered to be the one of the finest painters of his generation. This exhibition will travel to six venues across New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, so for the writers it is some kind of great opportunity

to be able to attend the elite exhibition like this one. For the first time the writers saw the advertisement through the internet, this event was chosen to replace the event that the writer choose before. When the writers search in Sydney event on 2010, she found this exhibition about the artist that she never known before and suddenly feel interesting in his art because, on the advertising they put one of famous painting from this artist Euan Macleod named “Little Snowman”. Even though this advertisement is very simple but the picture totally make the writer curious about what message that this painter want to deliver to the audience.

When the writer saw the a

dvertisement on the internet, writer known that this event is for art collector, elite people, and people who enjoy art especially painting and the target market for this exhibition are for old people which age is around 30-70 and some student which age is around <>und city, and that’s why this event not free either. In this exhibition itself, on the first step to the exhibition hall, it feel like this exhibition is very luxurious and the visitors are they who love paintings and want to collect it. Not all of the visitors buy the masterpiece form this artist artwork, but form the writer analyze, this event is for high class people, some of visitor they planning to buy and som

e of them already become a collector of Euan’s artwork.

This exhibition was organized by Visions of Australia and got the financial support from Commonwealth Government program, Tweed River Art Gallery as the support for the catalogue and S.H. Ervin Gallery as the place where this exhibition was held. In this exhibition, there is another artist named Conrad Martens who exhibit his worked as well, but this artist we can said as a senior painters. Conrad Martens already passed away for long time ago but his worked still admired by many visitor including the writer which is hasn’t known about what Sydney look a like in many years ago. Conrad Martens has a different style with Euan Macleod in the way he delivered his idea in paint the landscapes. Both of this painters take the s

ame theme which is they used landscape as the object in their painting. But Conrad Martens used naturalism as his style to draw and paint the landscapes, and most of his art used water colors, and drawing pencil and pen. The writer very enjoy on his painting because we can see Sydney landscapes long long time ago. Some of the visitors especially the old person very enjoy on Conrad Martens’ art work. They feel like they did the nostalgia to when Sydney not as modern as present. But the main focus in this exhibition still Euan Macleod masterpiece.

This event was runni

ng about one and a half month which is held from 12th November 2010 until 19th December 2010 in which is the writer already told before, National Trust S.H. Ervin Gallery and start from 11am till 5pm, every Tuesday until Sunday and closed every Monday and public holiday. In this gallery, they annually organized some exhibition like this, which is show some great artist worked. This exhibition is not a free one, and they got a different price for every type visitors. For adult it cost : $7, for children: free, for senior and student (concession): $5, and members of National Trust cost: $4.

Euan Macleod at Glen Helen,West MacDonnell Rangers,2006

His name is Euan Macleod. He’s born in New Zealand and moved to Sydney in 1981. His works most of it explore the human figure which is mixed with Australian and New Zealand landscape and that become his trade mark and perhaps we can said as his unique style. If we take a look to his artwork, most of it seems like Impressionist abst

ract style rough brush, impasto technique and feels like its just like unfinished artwork. But if we take a look further to his artwork, we can find some interesting figures, which is transparency and visitors can be amazed with how Euan put that figures and mixed it with the landscape background. Audience must take a look deeper if they want to enjoy Euan artwork. Even though his artwork look abstract but some part we can see the shapes clearly like when he paint the mountain, trees and all stuff. Some paintings reefers to his relationship between

his father who already passed away, some paintings he want to show his affection about nature.

Euan Macleod

If the writers take a look again, this exhibition is very interesting and can be count as a successful event. Even though the organizer only put not to many advertisement which is like writer told before that they only put on internet but

the visitors in there was so many. Even you can find another student from other school who come to see this exhibition. But unfortunately we can not take a picture for the exhibition itself, so that’s a bit disappointing because writer can not share the situation and how cool the painting. But if we want to remember or have some souvenir for our self or even for someone who we cares, we can buy the catalogue which is cost $15. Writer’s suggestion, it could be better if the catalogue is included entrance fee. In writer’s opinion, this exhibition could make visitors include the writer feel amazed, maybe on the first time for someone who really don’t know or don’t like the artist style will think that this artwork looks spooky but if you take a look a bit deeper, it will make you feel “wow” especially if you take a look the meaning behind the painting itself.

The writer have some favorite artwork form this artist. For the writer this is the first time writer saw some unique style in painting with rough brush but its got some pressure on it like Impressionism style which is make the result for the painting become look abstract. That’s why the writer got some favorite artwo

rk in here. The one which is make the writer amazed is the figure which is appear in every artwork that Euan made. There is one of the painting that really make writer loves his artwork. The title is “Two in boat (one standing) (2007)”. This art work tells about family myths and death, it shows the two figures in a small wooden boat. One figure is stand up and the size smaller than the one who sit in the boat and holding a Rowe. From the first writer saw this artwork, the writers already feel that this artwork is like relationship about father and child. Because if we take a look to this artwork, we can feel the guy in the boat seems like someone or a guy who older than the one who standup, but that’s it, writer cannot understand the meaning behind that. After writer read about the artist comment which is said “ ….death is something that’s part of all the mythology – it has a reality a lot of us have to deal with. Watching someone loosing their mind is quite horrifying…. – The relationship with my father is a difficult one. A lot of the paintings seem to be about looking at that relationship…- the two figures in the boat is a way of thinking about that relationship. I didn’t like boating at that time – and he was a great sailor. “ source: S

urface Tension: the art of Euan Macleod 1991- 2009 curated by :Gavin Wilson. (Taken from the booklet exhibition.)

After the writer read the comment then finally knows what the meaning behind this painting and it very touching, that’s the reason why this one become writers favorite. The painter want to show his relationship with his father who already passed away, he wants to show his loved for his father, and for the writer point of view, it works. That’s the reason why the writer amazed by the way this artist show or send his message through his paintings. Some of the painting, like “Lyttleton Harbour” he want to show how much he like the nature, how much he like the environment. On Lyttelton Harbour, Euan wants to show his childhood environtment, he wan

t to tell that our childhood is something that we can not escape. This is why writer become amazed, because its like we learn from the artist experience through his masterpiece.

Two in Boat (one standing) 2007

From this event the writer want to said that actually this event is very interesting and probably become a must see for they who likes art especially painting. But it doesn’t take any possibilities for someone who don’t know art and don’t like art much before, become interesting on it. The writer like how they organized this event because seems very organized for example if someone who want to buy they already put someone who in charged and all the staff looks professional it makes this exhibition look like high class one. Unfortunately just like the writers told before, that we can not allowed to take a picture, and they didn’t give you the booklet free, but if the writers take a look again that uncomfortable situation can be replaced because from here the writer can learn from the artist himself about family, nature, and childhood and know one technique that this artist used which is the result similar like impressionist but seems more roughly and the technique called “impasto”. The gallery also look nice and comfortable for visitors who want to look and they got café as well so this exhibition is a good experience for the writers to be memorized.

my POP art

this is my pop art work. I inspired by the way Andy Warhol style in pop art. He used bright colour in four portrait picture just like copy paste but change the colour in each picture.

In here i choose the aqua marine colour for the background to make the four picture can be seen clearly. i used a lot of red colour to show that the person in the picture is from china. For me red is identical with china.

POP ART

After dadaism, now we go further to another famous art movement, which is POP ART.
In here writer (me) want to share some information/ articles about what is pop art and who is the famous artists from this art movement and their masterpiece.

Popular Art or we known it as POP ART, is an art movement originated in England on 1950's and then spread to overseas to Unites States during 1960's. This art movement was marked by popular culture reflecting post-war society. I just found that this pop art term was first used by English critic, named Lawrence Alloway in 1958 because he saw that all post-war work was centered on consumerism and materialism and reject the abstract expressionism.

The term Pop art was first used by English critic, Lawrence Alloway in 1958 in an edition of Architectural Digest. He was describing all post-war work centered on consumerism and materialism, and that rejected the psychological allusions of Abstract Expressionism. An attempt to bring art back into American daily life, it rejected abstract painting because of its sophisticated and elite nature. Pop Art shattered the divide between the commercial arts and the fine arts. source: http://wwar.com/masters/movements/pop_art.html

this art movement style, influence the artist who did the picture or image for mass media, advertising, comics, and consumer product at that time.

POP ART has three major distinguishing characteristics:

Firstly,it is both figurative and realist,something that avant-garde had not been since its very beginnigs with Courbet's Realism

Firstly, it is both figurative and realist, something that avant-garde had not been since its very beginnings with Courbet's Realism.

Secondly, Pop was created in New York and London, and the world it looks out on is therefore the very special world of the great mid 20th century metropolis. Pop is routed in the urban environment. Not only that, but Pop looks at special aspects of that environment, aspects because of their associations and cultural level seemed at first impossible as subjects of art. These were: comics and picture magazines; advertisements and packaging of all kinds; the world of popular entertainment, including Hollywood movies, pop music and fair grounds, amusement arcades, radio, television and tabloid newspapers; consumer durables, especially perhaps refrigerators and automobiles; highways and gs stations; foods stuffs, especially hot dogs, ice cream and pie; and, last but not least, money.

Thirdly, pop artist deal with this subject matter in a very special way, on one hand they insist that the comic strip or soup can or whatever is simply a ‘motif', an excuse for a painting, like an apple in a still-life Cezanne. SOURCE: http://www.articlesbase.com/art-articles/characteristics-of-pop-art-2614051.html

if we wanna take a look at the pop art work from the famous artist, we can take a conclusion that characteristic pop art are bright and colorful. this movement was marked by clear lines, sharp paintwork and clear representations of symbols,objects and people from popular culture.

Pop artists also liked to satirize objects, sometimes enlarging those objects to gigantic porportions (see the giant spoon and cherry at the bottom of this page). Food was a common theme, but so were household objects such as chairs and toilets being made of squishy plastic instead of the materials you would normally expect.SOURCE : http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/popart/

if someone asked me who is the famous artist from POP ART I would say ANDY WARHOL, because he brought Pop Art to the public eye. He did the Coke bottles with screen prints technique, and then the famous Campbell's soup tins and film stars that all become the icon of the 20th century. But there is a lot of pop art artist, we can say Roy Lichtenstein,Jasper Johns, Eduardo Paolozzi, Roy Hamilton,RObert Rauschenberg and Claes Oldenburg.