Guy Denning and Elizabeth Peyton
Guy Denning was born in Somerset, England in 1965. He is a
self-taught drawer and painter now based in France. He started drawing as a
child and painting as a child, but had no luck being accepted into art programs
for college. In 1980 he discovered the music of bands like CRASS The Dead
Kennedys, and Poison Girls, and from then associated himself with the “second
wave of punk” and began working with street art. His work was criticized by art
schools that he applied to for being to figurative and his political statements
were too literal, but despite these comments Denning continued to move his art
in his own direction, being inspired by graffiti and “Stencil text aesthetic.”
His drawing typically depicts portraits or human figures and is mostly done in Black and white charcoal on toned paper and other
toned found materials. His work is very emotionally charged due to the intense
high light and shadow he used to produce his art as well as speed you can feel
in his lines. In the way he lays down his charcoal gives his work a sense of
movement.
Elizabeth Peyton is an American based artist living in New York
City. Also born in 1965, Peyton is known for her work in portraits, both
drawing and painting celebrities, her boyfriends, fellow artists, and, very
early on in her career, European nobility. She studied art at the School of
Visual Arts in New York City. When drawing, she uses various art mediums,
graphite, watercolor, colored pencil, and pastel, like the examples I’ve
included below. Her use of color is reminiscent of post-impressionist art like
works by Cezanne and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Like Denning, her art work has
an expressionistic quality, you can nearly see each stroke she made
individually within her work, and the way she uses color to portray highlight
and shadow is fascinating.
Sites Used:
ReplyDeletehttps://guydenning.org/
https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/Elizabeth-Peyton
I really enjoyed reading the history of Guy Denning like the genre of music he listened to and how that played into his creation of art. I also appreciate the political statements he makes in his artwork. As you have mentioned, you can see the intense emotions of the people in the portraits as the highlights and shadows are quite intense. I enjoy the "stencil text aesthetic" he has and how the figures are on toned paper and toned materials. My favorite work in particular is the man on the train, reading a newspaper. It looks very realistic and has a sense of movement with the strokes he makes. I also enjoy the subtle touch of color in the way he chose the letters.
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ReplyDeleteIn Guy Denning's work I really like how that the found paper that he used in the second piece became a part of the piece. You can see the lines in the cardboard coming through which does not look out of place in the image. To me those look-like lines on the wall of a train or a bus that the man could be riding on. Especially with the way that he kept those two lines beneath the man pure white, it looks like you are looking at him through a window. In the third piece the composition is really amazing, and it has to do with the way that he used the paper that he drew on. By whiting out the area where the woman’s head appears it puts her in a place but extending her neck down into an area that is just the toned paper and making the rest of her disappear it is like she is walking into frame. That she is coming into focus in a mirror with all of that white as reflective surface.
In Elizabeth Peyton’s work the use of color is fascinating. In both the first and third pieces the black paper gives these pieces a very different feeling than you would get if it had been done on a light paper. The overall tone of both pieces shifts to a very intimate feeling. In the portrait piece the use of color in the woman’s face adds to the heaviness of the piece. Though she used bright colors they don’t make the piece light in tone. The heavy shading around the eye does a lot of the work in making this piece feel sad.