Influences and Inspirations

  

In this week’s post, I’ll be talking about our tutor, John Fitzpatrick. We’ll be exploring his work and the artists who have inspired and influenced it.

 

John is an artist and teacher from Glasgow. He works primary with etching and print and explores the relationship between image and object. John is a member, tutor and exhibitor at the Glasgow Print Studio, and currently being considered to join the board.

 

The first piece we’re going to look at is titled ‘A sequence of Events’. This is a series of prints produced through etching, exhibited at the Glasgow Print Studio in 2018.

 

This work was made in response to a period of exploration as John revisited the artists who had originally inspired him. Before we explore how John made this piece, I want to discuss some of the artists, movements and techniques that inspired it. 

 

One of John’s major influences, Richard Serra, is an artist interested in the lived experience of sculpture. This idea was explored through the post-minimalist movement and is clearly evident in John’s work. Serra’s art makes the viewer centre to the work, making them move to experience it. You can see an example of this in the work pictured below.

 

 

Serra’s pieces are large installation and site specific. They are made with curved steel, with no bolts or welds and are not held to the floor. They are designed in a way that the mass and shape alone holds them up. Looking at the work, you are made aware of your physicality and fragility. The experience is lived as you move around the piece and change perspective.

Richard Serra studied painting under Josef Albers, influential lecturer and minimalist from the 40-60’s. Albers questioned how the material worked, what it did and how it functioned. He recognised the authenticity of a material rather than make something else out of it. 

 

As we refer this back to John’s work – we can see this concept of materiality in the foul bite, marks left where wax has broken down and acid has protruded. The marks show the honestly and integrity of the process, each line an index of action creating a sense of movement and stillness with the black form. This work explores the idea of “change and transformation through time”.  The piece also shows elements of the lived experience as John has used surface and depth to create an illusion of shape moving away into space. 

 

In a presentation in this week’s class, John talked us through how he made this piece to help us understand the form, surface, materiality and how this relates to the the lived experience. 

 

 

John started with a metal plate, covering it in wax and using a small tool to draw through it, leaving the metal exposed. Acid was then applied, corroding the exposed metal. This process was repeated to create solid lines and forms which were cleaned and flooded with ink, then put through a press to leave him with a print.

 

We can see how John’s practice is also influenced by the abstract expressionist movement with his use of lines and tone. This movement viewed art making as an experience. Considering scale, the human figure and figure removed. There are examples of this in works by Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko, both artist who influenced John's work. 

Moving back forward through time to the post-minimalist era, we can see influence in John's work from American artist Brice Marden. Marden’s work was made in response to both abstract expressionists and minimalists. He worked at a distance and encouraged the process to take over, letting the work evolve as he made it, responding and developing. Marden was Interested in the materiality of the etching process and how it translates in painting and print – we can see how this influenced the process when we look at at a series of work John made through lock-down this year.  

 

As John wasn’t able to access the print studio so he started pushing his work into 3D. To understand how John developed his work, we need to look at the influences of Donald Judd and Carl Andre. 

 

 

Untitled, 1980 / Untitled, 1986

 

 

144 Magnesium Square, 1969 / Equivalent VIII, 1966

 

Both Judd and Andre’s work are industrial, geometric and uses material in its truest form.

The impersonal objects make the viewer aware of the object and their relationship to it. It explores the concept of chance and response – to the material and the space.

 

 

 

John's original idea was to lay the pieces flat and create a floor piece – inspired by Andre, but as he developed the work we can see how he looked at what Judd was doing by having the shape in a different place within the configuration. This allowed him to look at the relationship of each and play around with the configuration, casting the paster-cast pieces at an angle and stacking the work. 

 

Learning about the process behind John’s work and the influences behind it gave me a better understand of the importance of taking inspiration from other artists. It has encouraged me to think more about the creative process behind a piece of work, and how it influences the way the artist and viewer experience it. I am excited to apply this to my work during the HNC when researching and participating in group crits.