Deconstructing the Grand Master Part III - Walter Richard Sickert

Many exhibits in the local gallery proved to be excellent candidates for deconstruction.

© the artist - Frank Helmuth Auerbach
photo credit: Kirklees Museums and Galleries

I looked at the possibility of adapting and deconstructing an Auerbach painting, very hard to distinguish what is was, and then it became clear.  It is based on one of Frank Helmuth Auerbach's girlfriends (at the time), whom he referred to as JYM.  I have later discovered from the BBC website (Your paintings)   at http://www.bbc.co.uk/ arts/yourpaintings/artists/ frank-helmuth-auerbach ) that JYM later became his wife.  Dr Ian Massey explained to me on out Gallery visit that Auerbach's paintings have a very strong recognizable style, this is owing to the heavy application of oil or acrylic paint and then by using a scraping technique with palette knives, much of the medium is concentrated in heaps on the canvas, little of it actually being removed... This leads to a finished result that is almost as much sculpture as painting.  Some of the works are so heavy with paint that they are exhibited flat rather than hung.

The painting in Kirklees Gallery's collection is one of a number of similar studies, "JYM seated"... I wondered if this could be adapted to show an alternative subject, I was thinking of a recent mythological superhero known as "The Thing" from Marvel Comics "The Incredibles"... The Aurbach image reminded me of the block type representation, together with earth colours, which in The Thing would be represented well by Yellow Ochre / Burnt Ochre.

The following painting by Walter Richard Sickert was also considered for deconstruction;

View of Margate - W.R. Sickert, 1930. Hudds. Gallery

Sickert was seen as an extremely important and influential contemporary artist in his day, (particularly in the 1930s when this painting was completed). his views that many traditional paintings were over-sentimental encouraged an opposing response in him to create art that took it's subjects from real life, in all it's misery and darkness. W.R. Sickert was a member of the Camden Town Group of artists, and his work provided much of the foundation of their genre.

Sickert spent time in Paris, I noted that he was influencial to another contemporary peer of the 1920s who was also a theatre scene painter, - one Vuillard. The french Impressionists paintings, being produced both at the time and prior to Sickert's visit, provided a strong influence to other contemporary British artists of that era.  It was believed for some time (as according to Alan Bennett) that Sickert called his group "The Camden Town Group" after the Camden Town murder of 1907, an event were a prostitute was murdered after her partner found out she was cheating on him.  He cut her throat whilst she was asleep, and then escaped the following morning.  The story was heavily reported and sensationalized in the press, that being similar to Jack the Ripper in some ways, although not linked.  Sickert was so enthralled by the story that he painted a series of four paintings depicting the murder scene and the murdered nude subject.

Walter Sickert, 1908 - The Camden Town Murder, originally titled, What Shall We Do for the Rent?

(Image from http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2001/dec/08/art.artsfeatures ) .  In this painting, Sickert was sticking to his view that nudes did not have to be portrayed in perfect poses and supporting his claim that paintings also had to deal with real life events.

I thought long and hard about representing a revised view of Walter Sickert's image of Ramsgate in 1930, shown above and how I could revise it, however I had also found a similar painting of Whitby Harbour, which was painted by Robert Henry Lee, in 1951.

I found this too contemporary and similar to Sickert's View of Ramsgate and abandoned the deconstruction.






Before leaving Sickert and after having been drawn in to the work of Sickert, I found another wonderfully expressive painting of an early nude scene, full of symbolism...

Walter Sickert (1860-1942)  The Rose Shoe, c. 1902-1905 Oil on canvas - Private collection,
 The Art Tribune. (See http://www.thearttribune.com/Walter-Sickert-The-Camden-Town.html)

 The symbolism contained in lots of works of art, especially prior to 1850s, carry many meanings that the casual observer may easily overlook.  What appear to be simple objects, such as a solitary slipper, a lap dog or a man handing a woman a dead bird for example, carry huge secret or hidden messages especially in the European / Dutch style. The examples given in this paragraph all suggest much more than the subtlety of the aesthetic.  A slipper on the floor suggests  that a woman in the painting is "available".  A lap dog in the picture is a symbol of the woman's fidelity. And a dead bird being handed to a woman is extremely suggestive, as the Dutch for bird is vogel, which also happens to be the same derivative word translation of  "phallus" .  Indeed, a old slang phrase for sex was "to bird" a woman.  (Nowadays, "giving the bird" is an obscene gesture of raising the middle finger, - now you can link the two more clearly!...)
The inclusion of such cryptic clues puts an entirely different connotation on the art work being viewed....