AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
Spray paint canvas splatter2/18/2024 PSWell, stenciling in-and-of-itself, which was a form of printmaking, was done on fabrics in the classical periods of Japan, and surely throughout different eras and cultures there were artists who took objects, applied pigment around them, and then removed the objects to create images and patterns. Spray techniques, or stenciling, seem to have been used continuously throughout history.ĪMCdWere there any precedents to the aerosol spray-can that were developed by artists to assist in making spray part of an artistic act? The impulse is so human it’s not mediated by some kind of process to make “art ” it is a simple affirmation: “This is me, I was here, I made this.” This was certainly a sentiment shared by Smith in all of his work. The form of a human hand appears to have been created by blowing pigment, a natural red ochre, either directly from the mouth or through a hollow bone, around the artist’s hand onto the cave wall. Handprints silhouetted by sprayed pigments, along with other painted images from around 30,000 BCE, have been found on cave walls in France and are among the earliest Paleolithic artworks. PSWell, I find it amazing that the earliest known examples of people making artwork from sprayed pigment are among the earliest known works of art. Smith was surely very happy to find a material that he could define for himself-not necessarily for anyone else-what that material meant and how it could be used.ĪMcdWhat are some of the earliest artistic representations that you have encountered, which were made using the act of spray? At that time, spray paint wasn’t an art material, so it didn’t come freighted with any kind of art history. It was an easy way to paint things, and, more important, fit perfectly with his innovative working process-moving art-making out of the studio and into the industrial context. Smith would have likely adopted this immediately-probably for its practical purpose. Abplanalp invented a clog-free nozzle that allowed spray paint to become commercially viable. As you mentioned, Seymour invented canned aerosol spray paint in 1949, but every time it was sprayed, the little nozzle would clog with dried paint. PETER STEVENSIt wasn’t until the early 1950s that spray paint became widely available. Why do you think he was drawn to this unconventional material? Surely it took a few years from the invention of spray paint to it being commercially available, so it seems that David Smith must have been one of the first artists to work with industrial spray paint as a medium. In 1957, David Smith began a group of works using commercial aerosol spray enamel. The exhibited works trace the medium’s diverse lineage, from Paul Klee’s early experiments in watercolor to David Smith’s Sprays (1957–65) to Lawrence Weiner’s performative TWO MINUTES OF SPRAY PAINT DIRECTLY UPON THE FLOOR FROM A STANDARD AEROSOL SPRAY CAN (1968) to Sterling Ruby’s recent spray paintings in a neon palette.ĪLISON MCDONALDIn 1949, Edward Seymour added paint to aerosol spray cans, which until then had been used primarily as a dispenser for insect repellent. This summer an extensive exhibition of paintings and sculptures that explore the myriad of ways that artists have employed the unique properties of spray paint is on view at Gagosian Britannia Street, London.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |