Ive Tepper

Maureen Doherty
Drawing III
September 21, 2018

Irvin Tepper
            IOn a basic formal level, Tepper created a set of drawings and porcelain sculptures of tea and coffee cups. The drawings stand-alone from the sculptural peace’s rather than being preliminary sketches, which is why this is a relevant discussion in the discord of drawing. The cups are done in black and white, usually in grids to be the most precise version of the real life object.

            Tepper studied under Ken Ferguson in the Kansas City Art Institute. The focus of Ferguson was the classic Japanese understanding of ceramics. The idea of purposeful imperfection was one that penetrates the art of Tepper to its core. Tepper chose to draw his first cup due to its crooked handle. When asked Tepper said, “The fact that the handle was put on crooked made it even greater to me, because it gave it the human element.”
Initially, the dialogue between the industrial design of ceramics and the handmade artesian art form played a key role in the creation of the cups. However, as time went on, Tepper started to pay a greater attention to the human experiences inanimate objects endure. One moment that defined this idea was Tepper’s belt. Tepper dieted and marked his progress by adding notches to his belt, quite literately. At the end of the experience, Tepper had a visual understanding of the past. This same concept started to become prevalent in the cups. “You know how people have a life, and they show the wear of their life on their face, or on their body. If you go to a place and have coffee or tea, or a drink, oftentimes people use that social event to interact and have a conversation. I was interested in the object that overheard that conversion and was part of that interaction.” As a result Tepper’s drawings are left with scribbles of conversation that the cup may have overheard over time.



Bibliography
Irvin Tepper, When Cups Speak, Life With The Cup: A 25 Year Survey . Natalie and James Thompson Art Gallery, 2002.
Images taken from Irvin Tepper’s website @ivetepper.com


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sebastian Kruger and Rob Gonsalves

Image
Sebastian Kruger is a German caricature and surreal artist who specializes in drawing and painting celebrities. I first learned of him through seeing his Keith Richards caricature on a Russian postcard my uncle found somewhere. He has created over 800 caricatures of various celebrites and musicians throughout his career. I was instantly drawn to his style especially in how he can show remarkable realism as well as complete distortions of his subjects. My personal favorite is the Keith Richards, because at first it can actually be mistaken for a photograph, until you realize that no one's jaw can bend like that. I find his work very humorous but also capturing a sense of truth to the characters he chooses. I love how he snapshots the actions of his pieces and faithfully depicts them in his own strange lens.  Rob Gonsalves was a Canadian artist who created optical illusions in his pieces. I chose him because his work is very unique and carries a very charming
Read more

Matthew Faulkner - Michael Kareken & Kelly Mclane

Image
This is a charcoal drawing on paper by the artist Michael Kareken out of Minneapolis. The reason behind why this drew my attention is because of the dark aesthetic. Everything is a silhouette, everything is an outline. The tornado itself isn't the focal point but it seems like the damage that it is causing is the focal point. The foliage swirling around from the ground provides all of the context that the viewer needs. This is another charcoal drawing by the same artist, called Bedroom Ceiling. There are two things here that caught my attention. First, the use of value. It seems like the value here is highly descriptive. The peak though is the ceiling itself, the scratches and the texturing used makes it easy for me to understand that that is supposed to be a ceiling. Secondly, I'm wondering if he used reduction when it came to bringing whites into the drawing. I have the same question for the tornado drawing. This drawing is called Bad Day for Meth Lab by
Read more

Francine Brady

Image
Francine Brady works in Maryland as an artist, specializing in painting. She uses acrylics as her main medium and likes to keep an air of mystery in her work. Francine majored in art at Hunter College in New York City during the 1960's when the Abstract Expressionist movement was going strong. She did postgraduate work at CW Post on Long Island, and after moving to Baltimore, took courses at Maryland Institute College of Art. Her paintings are known for their many bright colors. Her drawings on the other hand, are very simple. She usually only uses pen or graphite pencils. She also uses little amounts of shading and allows for a lot of the paper to show through her work. She’s often compared art to a puzzle that she has to figure out and describes having a “aha” moment during the process of each piece. She says she often does not know what the piece will become when she starts it.  I personally really like Francine’s drawings. Many of them are simple and focus on one subject. Sh
Read more