Babel Britain wins £10,000 Threadneedle Visitors Choice Award 2018 for Emily Allchurch

Babel Britain (After Verhaecht) by Emily Allchurch

As I predicted, when I saw the Selected Artwork for The Columbia Threadneedle Prize 2018 Emily Allchurch has won a prize!

This is MY TIP for A PRIZE - because there is an explicit nod to art history, it's clever and technically much more than proficient, uses contemporary visual art media and provides an intelligent comment on contemporary society. It's a contemporary figurative artwork with a BIG 'C'.
Selected artists for Columbia Threadneedle Prize Exhibition 2018

When the Threadneedle Prize Exhibition opened to the public at the Mall Galleries, visitors to the 2018 Exhibition were asked to vote for the artwork they liked the best.

After the exhibition closed and all the votes had been counted, it was announced that ‘Babel Britain (after Verhaecht) 2017’ won the £10,000 prize. 

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you take a look at the larger image on the Threadneedle Prize website where you can zoom into the image

I actually found it very difficult to photograph it in the exhibition because it looked its best and most natural when you stood right in front of it.

I was quite perturbed after I saw what happened to it in this photo!

Closer in was better but still not quite right

I later found I hadn't had my camera on the best setting for what is essentially a digital photo collage as a transparency on a bespoke LED lightbox.

Nevertheless it is an extremely impressive artwork - and hopefully kicks into touch the notion that digital art software cannot produce good art.  It certainly lends a whole new meaning to the phrase "art from photos"!

My feeling is that visitors both appreciated the huge amount of effort that had gone into producing this artwork - but also its topicality and implied message within contemporary society - particularly in London post Grenfell.

About the Tower of Babel by Tobias Verhaecht

There are various online explanations of the story behind the Tower of Babel. The one by the Oxford Biblical Studies Online is perhaps one of the best.  Essentially it is a story which explains why God created people speaking different languages who did not understand one another (aka "the confusion of tongues")

Various artists have painted their own version of the Tower of Babel over the years.

Tobias Verhaecht (1561-1631) was a Flemish artist who painted several versions of the Tower of Babel. Here are just a couple of them.

Personally I prefer the version by Pieter Brueghel in Vienna.

The Tower of Babel by Pieter Brughel
Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien Austria

ARCHIVE - The First 10 Years of the Threadneedle Prize

Posts on this blog about the first decade of the Threadneedle Prize.

2018 Threadneedle Prize

• Columbia Threadneedle Prize returns
• The Columbia Threadneedle Prize 2018 - Call for Entries
• Selected artists for Columbia Threadneedle Prize Exhibition 2018
• Ana Schmidt wins Threadneedle Prize 2018
• Review: The Columbia Threadneedle Prize 10th Exhibition

2016 Threadneedle Prize

• The Columbia Threadneedle Prize - Call for Entries
• Selected Artists - The Columbia Threadneedle Prize 2016
• The Columbia Threadneedle Prize 2016: Shortlisted Artists
• Lewis Hazelwood-Horner wins £20000 Threadneedle Prize 2016
• Threadneedle Exhibition 2016 - my favourites

2014 Threadneedle Prize

• Review: Threadneedle Prize Exhibition 2014
• Tina Jenkins wins Threadneedle Prize 2014
• Threadneedle Prize 2014 - The Shortlist
• The Threadneedle Prize 2014 - what's changed and how to enter

2013 Threadneedle Prize

• Clare McCormack and Lisa Wright win Threadneedle Prize 2013
• Threadneedle Prize 2013 Exhibition - Review
• Threadneedle Prize 2013 - Shortlist announced
• One month left to enter £30000 Threadneedle Prize
• Threadneedle Prize 2013 - Selected Artists

2012 Threadneedle Prize

• Call for Entries for £30000 Threadneedle Prize 2012
• Threadneedle Prize 2012: Analysis of entries
• Threadneedle Prize 2012: names of selected artists
• Threadneedle Prize 2012 - Exhibition now Online
• Threadneedle Prize 2012 - Shortlisted Artists
• Review: Threadneedle Prize Exhibition 2012
• Threadneedle Prize 2012: The Making a Mark Select Six - An alternative shortlist for the Threadneedle Prize 2012. 
• Threadneedle Prize 2012 - the Award Winners - Ben Greener wins Threadneedle Prize 2012. Robert Truscott wins People's Choice Award 2012. 

2011 Threadneedle Prize

• Threadneedle Prize 2011 - a new selection process
• Shortlist for Threadneedle Prize 2011 dominated ...
• Threadneedle Prize: The Making a Mark Select ...
• Review: Threadneedle Prize Exhibition 2011
• Henriette Simson wins Threadneedle Prize 2011

2010 Threadneedle Prize

• Patricia Cain wins £25,000 Threadneedle Prize 2010
• Threadneedle - just another art prize in 2010?
• Shortlist for £25000 Threadneedle Prize 2010 announced
• Threadneedle Prize 2010 Exhibition opens today
• My Threadneedle Prize shortlist

2009 Threadneedle Prize

• Sheila Wallis wins £25,000 Threadneedle Prize 2009

2008 Threadneedle Prize

• Nina Murdoch wins the Threadneedle Figurative Prize 2008 - which I picked out as the winner at the press preview and was the very first person to cast the "people's vote" for the winner!

Plagiarise at your peril - the Luc Tuymans case

Luc Tuymans was found guilty of plagiarism by a Belgian Court last week. This post examines:

• the facts and reporting of the case
• the copying of photographs by artists; and 
• the use of 'parody' as an exception from the law on copyright in the European Union
• the importance of country in relation to copyright
• a key issue relating to freedom of expression and appropriation art; and 
• an upcoming exhibition by Luc Tuymans in London.

The Tuymans Case 

the article in a Belgian newspaper
De Morgen about the case

Luc Tuymens has been found guilty of plagiarism. 

The Belgian painter is prominent in the contemporary art world (Tate, MOMA, David Zwirmer). He was taken to court by a female photographer Katrijn Van Giel.

• He had very clearly used her 2010 photograph of politician Jean-Marie Dedecker as a reference for a painting completed in 2011 - A Belgian Politician (2011) - without her consent and without a licence.
• He lost his case at the civil court in Antwerp. 
• The Belgian daily, De Morgen, reports that a fine of €500,000 (£384,000 / $580,000) was identified. What's not entirely clear (translation issues!) is whether this relates to any more ‘reproductions’ of Van Giel’s work or whether it relates to whether and where the painting can be exhibited and, consequently, the legal and geographical boundaries of this judgement.  
• I don't know what sort of award if any award was made to Ms van Giel for the infringement of her copyright. My understanding is that the current state of play is that there is to be a further ruling on whether Tuymans owes Van Giel damages for the plagiarism.  I understand she was asking for an award of $50,000 damages.
• The painting in question was bought by the American art collector Eric Lefkofsky and can now only be seen online within the context of the many news reports of this case.
• An appeal against the decision is planned by the artist according to newspaper reports.

Coverage in the press

There have been quite a few articles as a result - but I think some of them are missing the point.

• New York Times | Arts Beat - Belgian Artist’s Painting Infringes Upon Photographer’s Work, Court Rules - a fair summary in my view

Her lawyer, Dieter Delarue, said that after she discovered the portrait in a catalog she tried for more than a year to discuss it with the artist, who never responded to letters. “When you are a movie producer, if you want to make something based on a book, you contact the author,” Mr. Delarue said. “It’s not so difficult. All artists do that except that Mr. Tuymans feels that this five-minute phone call somehow limits his freedom of expression.” New York Times

• The Guardian - Why Belgium's plagiarism verdict on Luc Tuymans is beyond parody Adrian Searle thinks this is the result is wrong.
• Hyperallergic - Luc Tuymans Found Guilty of Plagiarism for Painting Photo of Politician
• The Art Newspaper - Tuymans found guilty in copyright case involving political portrait
• artnetnews - Luc Tuymans Convicted of Plagiarism
• a-n - Luc Tuymans found guilty of plagiarism for painting of politician
• Peta Pixel (a leading photography blog) - Renowned Belgian Painter Convicted of Plagiarism After Basing His Portrait on a Photo
• De Morgen (Belgian newspaper) - Luc Tuymans veroordeeld wegens plagiaat met Dedecker-foto

The court furthermore considered that Tuymans in bad faith had acted as he himself had stated earlier that the photo of Van Giel was a strong image, which he did not have to change much on. De Morgen

This is the article in the specialist plagiarism blog PlagiarismToday - Artist Luc Tuymans Loses Plagiarism Case, Raises Questions

The overall conclusion is that

• Tuymans clearly used the photograph but did not have permission to do so - and would not enter into any dialogue with the photographer
• the court was very clear that his legal argument of 'parody' had no merit, 
• not all commentators agree with the court - but might well be arguing from an artistic perspective rather than a legal one
• this case might not be over - there is to be an appeal
• It might come to represent important case law for other photographers in the EU taking similar action in similar circumstances.

An invitation for other photographers to inspect his back catalogue?

To my mind, the decision in this case in effect calls into question a considerable body of work created from an unlicensed use of a photograph - by Tuymans AND OTHERS.

Review - Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Photography Competition

I love the flower photographs selected for the brand new annual Georgia O'Keeffe Photography Competition.  Click the link to see a page devoted to works selected for the competition that have been awarded prizes or honourable mentions.

Georgia O'Keeffe Photography Competition - Flowers - Place Winners

The competition was inaugurated to celebrate the 125th year of Georgia O'Keeffe's birth. (see my earlier posts Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Photography Competition and Georgia O'Keeffe - 125th Birthday)

The theme for the 2012 competition paid homage to one of Georgia O'Keeffe's favourite subjects "Flowers" (see Georgia O'Keeffe's Flower Paintings)

Entry

• 3,830 images of flowers were submitted by 930 photographers, from 47 states and 17 countries.  

Prizewinners

You can see the prizewinners at the top of the page. It appears that not all prizewinners have a practice or portfolios which involve shooting flowers on a regular basis

Adult 1st Place Winner: Joanna Stoga, Dancing Tulips.  I've seen this Polish artist's x-ray photography work before - in the Nash Conservatory at Kew Gardens last April when she was displaying her work in the International Garden Photographer of the Year 2012 Exhibition (see won the Portfolio Award - see Kew Prints).

See my post International Garden Photographer of the Year 2011 at Kew Gardens

She also has had her work displayed in Vogue Magazine.

Joanne Stoga - 1st Place Portfolio Category
International Garden Photographer of the Year 2012 Exhibition
Kew Gardens
photograph by Katherine Tyrrell

Having seen her work before. I immediately recognised the winning work for this competition as an X-ray photograph - although I'm still not entirely clear about she takes these

Part of a 3 year long X-ray project named Qi, which express my fascination with plants and is dedicated to my favorite photographer Karl Blosfeld.Title refers to the energy Qi, that in traditional Chinese culture is an active principle forming part of any living thing. Qi is frequently translated as life energy. X-ray technique reveals not only a remarkable form and structure of plants, but also gives the possibility to feel this incredible energy. This picture is from the series

On this page she explains more about how she creates her work for her QI Portfolio - the winning image is #21 in her Qi portfolio on her website.

Adult 2nd Place Winner: Janet O'Neal, Datura 5 (I'm not entirely clear which website relates to this lady)

Adult 3rd Place Winner: Lisa Gamble, Dancing Garlic Flowers

Student (18-21) Winner: Zara Applestein, Yellow, Black, & White Flower

Student (Under 18) Winner: Hannah Mark, Tie-Dye

Honourable Mentions ( in alphabetical order).  links in the names are to the photographer's websites where you can see more of their work,

• Polly Chandle, Garlic Flower
• Audrey Derell, Spiral 
• Barbara DuBois, Awareness
• Lisa Gamble, Dancing Calla Lilies
• Meredith Hebden, Datura 
• Nancy McClure, Serpentesque
• Janet O'Neal, Datura 2 
• Janet O'Neal, Datura 4 
• Sandi Pfeifer, Alone
• Dan Shepherd, Floral Past Tense #3 
• Priscilla Smith, Night Blooming Cereus Blossom
• Carol Stanley, Intricate Beauty 
• Joanna Stoga, Zet Tulipsy 
• Stephen Strom, Datura Flower II 
• Stephen Strom, Primrose I
• Janice Tieken, Ephemeral Vision 
• Kimber Wallwork-Heineman, Petals

Selectors

The selection panel of judges were:

• Jennifer Schlesinger-Hanson, Director, VERVE Gallery of Photography; 
• Jackie M, Director of Education and Public Programs, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum; 
• Mary Anne Redding, Chair, Photography Department, Santa Fe University of Art and Design; 
• Joyce Tenneson, photographer; (do check out her photographs - they're wonderful ) and 
• Norman Vanamee, Editor-in-Chief, Garden Design Magazine

I'm unclear as to whether there is to be an exhibition or whether this is online only.

Link: About Georgia O'Keeffe - American Painter

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What computer skills do artists need?

Three questions for you:

1. Can you be a successful self-employed artist in today's art market without computer skills?
2. What computer skills does an artist need?
3. Which of your computer skills do you value most as an artist? (Tell me your top three if you like!)

I've still not got quite got the hang of my Apple Magic Trackpad!

How to do a reverse image search

There are two easy options for doing a reverse image search:

• Tineye
• Google Reverse Image Search

I guess most will be familiar with the former - but maybe not the latter?  The post summarises:

• what is a reverse image search
• why do a reverse image search
• how Tin Eye works
• how Google Reverse Image Search works
• a comparison of the results
• image privacy issues

It also highlights the results I got when doing a test search - using the "popular choice" image from an exhibition which had been highlighted on this blog.

makingamark - a daily photo

At the beginning of August I started a new blog - makingamark a daily photo - which focuses on my photography.  I'd greatly enjoyed uploading photographs to this blog while I was on holiday in France and readers seemed to enjoy them too - so I wondered how I could continue.

The fact of the matter is I take masses of photos - I now have many thousands of them archived on two Flickr accounts!  I rather suspect I'm far from unusual in terms of people who relate to visual images a lot.

Initially my photos were taken purely to record trips and for reference purposes.  A lot of them come from my travels around the UK, Europe and the USA.  (I've still to find an easy way of scanning photos from a past life so as to get the Asia/Australasia ones on as well.  Suggestions as to how to do this so I can convert the photos currently kept in shoeboxes are most welcome)

I then noticed that I was practising composition and design with a lot of the photos I was taking - and photography became a new way for me of exploring how to create an interesting  image.  It's a photographic sketchbook if you like.  That's when I got very interested in macros and started looking for subject matter which provided interesting structures and colours.

Then, as digital cards came along, I found I just really enjoyed taking photographs - and took more and more - and more.  It's not unusual now to arrive back from a day out with a couple of hundred photos to be processed.

So the new blog is about releasing some of my photos into the public arena - but the focus is much more about creating pictures rather than about taking photographs per se. Hence most photos come with a short comment about image-making or something I noticed when taking the photo.

Makingamark - A Daily Photo is about creating pictures rather than photography per se. It's all about the process of seeing, selecting and creating a personal visual identity.

My photographs are from the past and the present - from here and there - within the UK and abroad.

Each day a photo is uploaded to an alphabetical oriented post.

The process of taking thousands of photos of different subjects has helped me a a great deal in:
- defining the scope of what interests me visually
- tackling practical problems with picture-making
- working out what makes a good picture
- directing the focus of my art.

In order to provide some structure and discipline for the blog, I've adopted a routine of posting a photograph each day guided by a letter of the alphabet.  Tomorrow I will have completed two complete cycles of the alphabet and will be embarking on the third - and I've only missed one day so far!  The reason I'm keeping it up is because I'm finding it to be a fascinating learning process.

I'd be very happy for people to join me in posting with an alphabet routine to their own photo blog  if you're interested.  Drop me a line if you want to do something similar.

What I've noticed about my images

REVIEW: Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement

One of three major Art Exhibitions in London this Autumn is at the Royal Academy of Arts.  Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement opens this Saturday (17 September) and continues until 11 December.

Edgar Degas - The Dance Lesson, c. 1879
Oil on canvas 38 x 88 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington,
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1995.47.6
Image courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

This exhibition has assembled around 85 paintings, sculptures, pastels, drawings, prints and photographs by Degas - from public institutions and private collections in Europe and North America.

You can see ten images of works in the exhibition on the Royal Academy website.  

The artwork on display includes both celebrated and little-known works by Degas, including the sort of preparatory drawings which were never intended for either sale or exhibition.  Rather the latter were a way of Degas assembling a pictorial record over time of how the movement in ballet actually worked.

Also included in the exhibition are photographs by his contemporaries and examples of early film and a number of photographic records and artefacts normally found in a museum.

The exhibition aims to offer an insight into the process of how Degas viewed and recorded the movement of dance  and dancers in order to create pictures of movement in his drawings and paintings of dancers.   There have been a number of exhibitions of Degas and the Dance before - as one might expect - but none which have attempted to articulate its connection with photography and it's believed this exhibition is unique.

I went to see it on Tuesday and can certainly recommend it as an essential exhibition for all fans of Degas's art and anybody interested in the early development of photography and its connection with art. 

Fans of Degas should also note that this exhibition is not going to be travelling.  It's been four years in the making and is ONLY being held at the RA in London.  I guess because many of the pieces are drawings which conservationists prefer to see have limited exposure to light and air; many have also come from private collections - and in the case of one notable oil painting of a dancer being photographed in a studio - from the Pushkin Museum in Russia.

There's an awful lot to like about this exhibition.  There are some splendid paintings - including some on loan from other countries that we are not likely to see again in London in my lifetime.  The curators are to be congratulated for securing the works they have.  There's also some painstaking research which has contributed to a better understanding of how drawings and photographs connected through to some finished work.

However, being a major Degas fan and somebody who has studied him in some depth, I have to say that I was disappointed by some of the aspects of Degas's which are left undeveloped or omitted in terms of some of the conclusions being drawn. I'll elaborate as I continue with this review.

Painting from photos

This post is about painting from photos including photos taken by other people.

Over on Making A Mark Reviews - you can find a review of a new Ning site called Paint My Photo which is designed to create a pool of reference photos for people who want one to create art - and a community of artists who paint from photos.

Paint my Photo - Robyn Lovelock's Photos of Tasmania

Should you paint from other people's photos?

Now as many of my readers will know, I'm a huge advocate of developing your observational skills and working from real life when developing your art, whether it's a sketch a drawing or a painting, whether it's a landscape, a still life or a portrait.

However that's not to say I don't use photos on occasion!  However I mostly use them in conjunction with sketches I've done plus these days I always (that's ALWAYS!) use my own photos.

I also know that working from other people's photos could cause a spot of bother if you then want to enter your work in an art competition which is supposed to be about wholly original artwork - which means it's not original - it's a derivative work if it is wholly or mainly based on somebody else's photos taken by a photographer who conceived the subject and chose the lighting, colours, composition and crop etc etc.

See Making a Mark: AWS gold medal controversy - the final word for the conclusion of one debacle relating to working from another's photos and claiming the art as the artist's own.

What I do know is that many amateur painters and leisure artists - as well as some professional painters - do prefer to work from photos - and working from photos is a fact of life across the art world whether or not some artists acknowledge that they do it or not.

The issue for me is whether artists are working from photos AFTER they have:

• developed observational skills 
• learned how to draw
• developed a good understanding of what information is missing from a photo and how photos distort real life.

Otherwise it seems to me you can have people who think they are creating realistic art when the photo they're working from does not look like real life in the first place and they have no way of knowing that because they weren't there when it was taken.

That's quite apart from the questions of why would you create a painting which looks exactly like the photo you're working from - which is a whole other debate!

What I enjoy a lot are the challenges created by people like Karin Jurick (Different Strokes from Different Folks) and Bill Guffey (Virtual Paintout) which focus on everybody creating their own artwork from a digital image - whether that's a photograph or a view from Streetview.  Now that to me can have some very real value in terms of creating pictures which work and which do represent original style - albeit derived from somebody else's photo!

Three questions for YOU about painting from photos:

• Can you create art from somebody else's photo and make it your own?  What do you think?
• What would be your top tip to anybody wanting to use somebody else's reference photo to create a painting? 
• Who's your favourite artist who paints from photos?

[UPDATE: Somebody emailed me after I posted this, in a VERY "J'accuse!" way and quoted my "always" sentence back to me and included evidence that I'd created art from other people's photographs in the past - and referenced the photo and art in question.  I think I was expected to quiver and shake!  For the record the image in question came from a community project I led in a forum over five years ago - see Who hasn't had a bad hair day? which was all about learning how to draw hair in a fun context - using copyright free photos from a reference library. I explained that I had used other people's photos in the past - and had found them useful for specific learning purposes (a point which has been made by a number of people in the comments to this blog)  Also that my shorthand statement about 'always' unpacked for people who don't know me well and used in a current context meant "I ALWAYS use my own photos when creating serious art that I can, if I wish, make available for sale."  Unpacked still further - and for the record - I've never at any time exhibited and never sold any artwork created using other people's photos.  I no longer use other people's photos unless joining in on a community challenge for fun. 

I also explained how I'd learned from observation about all the sorts of problems which can arise and just how dull and flat drawings copied from other people's photos can look - if used without the three pointers I've highlighted above. 

I also revised my statement above as follows "these days I always (that's ALWAYS!) use my own photos." to make matters clearer for those who don't know me or follow this blog on a regular basis.

Since "J'accuse" doesn't seem to be in any way satisfied with my answers, would very much like to continue to split hairs in a troll like way (there appear to be no shades of grey in her world!) and is doubtless rubbishing both this post and me to anybody who will listen to her I thought I'd provide this update on the blog - without naming names.  I've probably contravening my own normal blogging etiquette with this so I might take this comment down - on the basis you should always ignore a troll - or edit it.

I puzzled why this issue was quite so important to her - until I found the answer on her website.  Exactly the same photograph of an angora goat that I had used appears to have also been used by her to create art to enter an exhibition in which she appears to have won a prize. C'est la vie!]