|
Robert Cottingham was born in Brooklyn in 1935, and is known for his paintings of neon signs and movie marquis. After serving in the military, Cottingham got his BFA at Pratt Institute. He began his art career as a director at Young and Rubicam, a advertising firm. Based on his background, Cottingham focusses on the intersection of art and commerce, hence his focus on signs. He projects images that he takes onto a surface and then sketches it in, filling out the value. This is then projected onto the canvas he paints the final piece on. While his work on surface level appears to be photorealistic, he shuns this term because he often changes the image to fit the content he wishes to portray. ROLLING STOCK SERIES #27 FOR CHARLIE: Especially with this piece, I see the opposite direction we seem to be going with our work. I have a piece very similar to this that is in graphite from when I first started perfecting realism and since then I have moved on to signs. It seems that Cottingham is doing the opposite starting with signs and then shifting to mechanical structures. Looking back I think that my composition on my piece was strong, but wish I had pushed the realism more. THE SPOT Looking at this image, I can defiantly draw connections to my own work especially considering I have a piece of the same name. What I can admire about this though, is the way he manipulated the sign to serve the purpose he needed it to fill and his use of composition. KEEN KOTTON While I can see the similarity between what we do, this particular painting demonstrates what I do not like about his work. When I paint a sign I find joy in each imperfection and love the dilapidation of these old structures. It seems that Cottingham prefers the more perfectionist approach. To me personally this looks too perfect and lacks the character that I like in the signs that I paint.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Mia
|
RSS Feed
