The Dark Art

I am aware that this is not strictly design post but even inspiration counts so I have decided to make a blog about two of my favourite artists that do a bit of a dark, fantasy art that I have stumbled across.

 The Dark Art

H R Giger 

Hans Rudi Giger was a Swiss surrealist painter, sculptor, set designer and the famous creator of 'Alien'. His work plays mainly with the concept of robotics and bio-mechanics by which, in this context, I mean combining the parts of human body with technology. This concept is most likely based on the fact that Giger's father was a pharmacist who did not believe that Art could be a profitable field and forced Giger into studying pharmacy when he was younger. Yet, according to Wikipedia, he moved in 1962 to Zürich, where he studied Architecture and industrial design at the School of Applied Arts until 1970. 

In many ways is Giger's style different from other artists. One of the main thing that fascinates me is the fact that (although he started with ink and oil paints which he eventually returned to) he was using predominantly airbrush to create his paintings. If you have never heard of airbrush and don't know how it is used, I strongly recommend to watch this video.

His most famous painting that inspired Alien is called Necronom IV and also won Giger an Oscar looks like this:

Giger also worked on a design for Brian Herbet's cult scifi novel 'Dune' that was supposed to be directed by Jodorowsky and then by David Lynch. Eventually, Lynch has started working on the Dune using only a rough sketch of Giger's design but as Giger stated in one of his books, he wished to work with Lynch and admired his work, especially Eraserhead. 

One of my favourite facts about Giger is that one of his sweethearts was a Swiss stage actress called Li Tobler. Her and Giger had the most romantic relationship. They both used to live together in the attics of condemned houses and using drugs. Eventually, their relationship became open mainly from Li's side and she even left Giger for a short period of time to move to San Francisco with her new boyfriend. After a month, she's returned, disappointed and depressed and shortly after that, she decided to commit a suicide. Li was the model of Giger's most famous series of paintings.

  

Zdzisław Beksiński

It is so hard to choose the greatest pictures of Zdzisław Beksiński, an artist who inspired me to write this whole article. He is particularly interesting considering the fact that he never studied any Art whatsoever and even refused to visit any exhibition or museums. He also claimed never to be influenced by any cinema or literature. 

Beksiński was born in Poland in 1929 where he also studied Architecture. After short period of time when he worked in that field, he realized that job was not for him and decided to make a living out of his biggest interest - painting. Using mainly oil paint on his own, homemade boards, he started creating artwork that was, according to his own words in 'Baroque' or 'Gothic' manner. 

In general, Beksiński's art can be divided into two periods which first of them (as described on Wikipedia) is more utopian realism with expressionistic colour and second with more abstract style. Oddly enough, Beksiński have always refused to give any explanation on his art (although he once mentioned that he does not see his art as too depressing, sometimes even more humorous than anything else) and he's also decided to not name any of his paintings. Once, he burned some of his pieces in his backyard, claiming that it was either too personal or not perfect enough to be shown to the public.

Appropriation of one of his paintings - 'The Beksiński's Cross' has been used at the famous festival Burning man.

In terms of personal life, Beksiński had to go through one of the most devastating events - surviving his own child as his son commit suicide. He himself was murdered in 2005 by a teenager after he refused to lend him money. He was found in his flat with 17 stabs in his body.

Pick Me Up Graphics Art festival

In terms of Graphic Design and Art festivals, London is certainly of the best places to be. With its London Art Fair, Serpentine Gallery pavilions, The London Design Festival and Pick Me Up it is the city of never-ending possibilities and inspiration. I strongly recommend following all of those on social media (preferably Twitter) to not miss anything or another tip is to follow Eye Magazine's events on this address: http://www.eyemagazine.com/events.

PICK ME UP

Dates:  23 April – 4 May 2015
Open: Daily 10am-6pm, late night Wednesdays & Thursdays until 10pm
Address:  Embankment Galleries, Somerset House, Strand, London, WC2R 1LA
Admission: £10, concessions £8, Festival pass £17.50

It is now the #6th year of Pick Me Up festival that connects all the young designers and illustrators under the roof of Somerset house.

The queue that I have had to go through made me realize how popular Graphic Design and Illustration have become over the past years and it was both terrifying (in terms of competition) and exciting (in terms of appreciation) to see interactions of artists and visitors. The whole event consists from an exhibition on the lower floor and workshops and talks on the upper floor.

My first steps lead me upstairs, so I have been browsing around little, slightly overpriced, shops of which some had truly amazing pieces of design. My favourite one were tarot cards with different typography on each one of them.

 But otherwise, I was a bit disappointed. Yes, there was loads of cats for cat lovers, loads of 'hipster design' with deers, foxes and triangles but this all had lost its excitement for me. On the other hand, I understand that if a small company wants to push through and make a name, it simply has to satisfy the demand of the market and I have to say, there was a lot of people around all the cashier's stools.

I don't want to complain too much though and I have to admit, there was certainly a part that I have enjoyed very much which was the workshops. There was a huge variety of them, you had an option to take a photo of yourself and then adjust it with colourful pens and scratches, lots of printmaking combined with typography workshops and also one that I have spent the most time playing with - scratch art. A workshop surrounded by black walls with a table in the middle and people peaking behind the shoulders of the ones sitting at it was called #blickscratchart and provided the possibility to take a piece of black paper and a plastic stick with a sharp end. As you were scratching the black bit off, the colours of rainbow appeared, giving your message a very funky and eye catching mood. I did have a go with my logo:

When I tried to find out about the technique used on this paper, I was told that the studio simply bought those scratch papers on Amazon which was a slight disappointment. They also told me thought that it is possible to make at home - simply just take wax crayons and paint your base layer and then paint with black acrylic over them.

One last photo from the upstairs is a print by Pocko that actually made me giggle out loud.

 The downstairs exhibition was quite small nevertheless there were some interesting things to look at. The only thing I have lacked was the consistency, something that would bond those pieces together. There was an example of beautiful 3D printed dinosaur figures by Jack Cunningham...

...papercraft by Hattie Newman...

 ...sketches by Zoe Taylor...

and probably the most memorable and striking illustration by French artist Thomas Lamadieu.

All in all, it was great to see what is trendy and new at the moment and get some new inspiration. I am also thinking about attending one of the talks as there was none going on at the time of my visit.