Babelgum Metropolis
Login | Sign up
Logout Facebook Connect
ProfileName |
theEYE: Gillian Ayres
expand

Babelgum

theEYE: Gillian Ayres

[ 26:22 ]
Gillian Ayres studied at Camberwell School of Art from 1946-50, before running the AIA Gallery with painter Henry Mundy whom she married. As a young artist in the 1950's, Ayres was closely involved with leading British abstract artists including Roger Hilton. Ayres was quick to respond to European tachism and American abstract expressionism, creating a body of work that placed her in the forefront of her generation. In the sixties she was the only woman artist to be represented in the important 'Situation' exhibitions, showing large paintings combining oil and paint that aimed for the sublime using very radial drip and pour techniques of action painting. Gillian Ayres defined her career by ranges of style and manner. In the sixties she created glamorous and decorative images in keeping with the hedonistic mood of that time. In the seventies Hans Hofmann inspired Ayres and returned back to an extreme and painterly extraction. Later in that decade Ayres moved back to oil painting and went on to develop her exclusive colourful style and has made an impressive mark on British art.
Show similar clips

Similar videos
| 10 videos
 
26:23
theEYE: Howard Hodgkin
Howard Hodgkin is one of the world's leading painters, whose art is admired both by critics and by a wide public. Beginning with a remembered experience, Hodgkin works on his seductive and complex paintings for long periods, characteristically producing richly coloured, sweeping compositions, which continue into the picture-frame itself. These paintings uniquely straddle representation and abstraction, at the same time as they demonstrate both an awareness of history and an understanding of art's potential today. Most recently, his interest in working in different scales, evident particularly in significantly larger paintings such as Americana and After Vuillard, demonstrates his concern to engage the viewer in new and challenging ways. In this interview, illustrated with many key paintings, Howard Hodgkin speaks with warmth and passion about how his methods, about his influences, about colour and composition, and about the fundamental importance of painting. "You need things to look at," he says simply, "things to affect your feelings, and your intelligence, and your heart."
25:47
theEYE: Gary Hume
Gary Hume makes beautiful paintings. His materials are household paints on aluminium surfaces and his subject's, he says, are "flora, fauna and portraits". The results are elegant, delicate, simple yet elusive and exquisite. Playing gloriously with colour and light, they are paintings of subtle tones, idiosyncratic clashes and insistent reflections.Interviewed in his studio, Gary Hume reflects on his work from the 1980s, when his Doors series won instant acclaim, to his latest creations. As so often, his new work balances recognisable images with abstraction. His people, like Kate (1996) and Michael (2001), are contemporary icons conjured up from bold shapes and strong planes of colour.Illustrated in this profile are many of Gary Hume's most notable paintings, specially filmed in exhibitions in London and Dublin, and in a major 2004 show in Bregenz, Austria. Also featured are the artist's rarely-seen drawings and, in contrasting settings, his deadpan sculpture Snowman (1997).
33:17
theEYE: Malcolm Morley
Malcolm Morley is one of the most significant and influential painters working today. Born in England but active in the United States since the late 1950s, Morley has developed an intensely individual vision embracing, but never determined by, autobiography, politics, psychoanalysis, myth, the visual culture of his time and the limitless potential of paint. Filmed as Morley works in his distinctive manner on a spectacular new canvas, this documentary features the artist's provocative reflections on his life, painting technique, influences and concerns. It also illustrates a wide range of his paintings from the earliest abstract works, through the painstakingly precise depictions of reproductions (on postcards, from travel brochures) of ships, contemporary scenes and Old Masters, to the catastrophe pictures of the 1970s. Paintings engaging with ancient cultures followed, and then works based on the cardboard cut-out aeroplane and boat kits which Morley has made since his youth. Most recently, he has returned to paintings of news photographs, exploring a striking and challenging new range of imagery.
05:01
Affordable Art in 2008
Continuing with our art coverage this autumn, we went down to Battersea Park to get the low down on the preview evening of the the Affordable Art Fair. Aptly named 'affordable' because you will not find a single piece over £3,000, and even then you'll probably find a lot selling for less, it means you’ll be hard pushed not to find something within your price bracket. For those who are looking for the next Banksy be sure to check out the Recent Graduates' Exhibition to gaze at a diverse spectrum of talent springing up from the UK's art schools. We interviewed gallery owners Rebecca Hossack and Alison Honour, The Fine Art Partnership gallerist Rebecca Eames, and artist-in-residence Charlotte Hardy. We also speculated the future of art as investment with Will Ramsay, the founder of the Affordable Art Fair. Tiffany Fairey of PhotoVoice talks about being the beneficiary charity for the preview night of the fair. We also mingled with the collectors and guests, asking them whether they thought art was a luxury or a necessity.
26:15
theEYE: Lisa Milroy
Lisa Milroy’s paintings are pleasurable and provocative, clear but complex, immediate and yet richly subtle. In 2001 many of her major works were brought together for an important exhibition at Tate Liverpool; this film, the first about her work, was made alongside that show. Her earliest works are depictions of everyday objects: shoes in serried ranks, collections of lightbulbs and household hardware. Later canvases explore the process of depicting images of people, blank facades of buildings, clichés of photographic landscapes. More recent work is looser and less apparently realist. Speaking about the development of her art from the early 1980s onwards, Lisa Milroy discusses how she uses the sensual and descriptive power of paint to express her unique ways of looking at the world. She reflects on the changes in her work; on the impact of Japan and its culture; on photography and time; and on the craft and process of painting.
26:06
theEYE: Julian Opie
"I often feel that trying to make something realistic is the one criteria I can feel fairly sure of. Another one I sometimes use is, would I like to have it in my room? And I occasionally use the idea, if God allowed you to show him one thing to judge you by, would this really be it?" Julian Opie's highly distinctive depictions of the modern world are created in an extraordinary variety of media. His bold portraits, subtle landscapes, unconventional wallpaper, playful sculptures of animals, buildings and cars, computer films and much more present simplified and iconic versions of the contemporary environment. In a richly-illustrated interview ranging from his cut-metal sculptures of the early 1980s to the cool minimalism of his cover art for the best of blur CD, Julian Opie reflects on his ways of working, on exposing art in unconventional surroundings, on his sense of the world around him, and on his use of computers which today allow him not to have to construct any of his artworks in the traditional way.
02:27
Affordable Art: Affordable Fair
Will Ramsay, the founder of the Affordable Art Fair is optimistic about this year’s fair. "We’ve had more tickets sales and enquiries than ever before."
05:30
Outsiders: Conor Harrington
Conor Harrington talks about being a graffiti artist in Ireland and how spray paint and oil paint can work together on the same canvas.

For more videos like this, visit: babelgum.com/outsiders
04:24
Eelus: The Colour Out of Space
RJ talks to Eelus before his first London show about his style, his heroes and the inspirations of Wigan.

For more videos from the RJ's Street Art London series, visit babelgum.com/rj

02:37
Souther Salazar, Artist :: 120 Seconds
Artist Souther Salazar describes what it was like to move to the rural town of Knights Ferry, California and finding the courage and inspiration to share his first zine by John Porcellino’s King-Cat Comics.
 

Recent posts

Street Art Central

            Street Art is the biggest global art movement in history. With over 100 shorts and features...

Read More »
 

Editor's picks

3 videos
Recession-Proof Home Makeovers

Four designers compete to create the most innovative living room, using IKEA products and their own creativity. Which one will win the chance to bring their plan to life?

  

My Playlists

Maximize Playlist

Create a new playlist
(you must login to create one)