Imants Tillers III – a review & three works in more depth. We may recall Tillers is a contemporary Australian artist, b. 1950 of Latvian heritage. There are several distinctive features about his work. One is his use of appropriation of a wide spectrum of artists, poets and philosophers. He refers to this as ‘quoting.’ We cannot hope to recognise all the images and text he appropriates (and we don’t need to) but we can know some points about some particular works, to use as examples. In this image, he appropriates the work of Giorgio De Chirico. Note the inclusion of his daughter’s text into the actual artwork. He has ‘quoted’ his daughter’s art, and in doing so, brings it up to the level of a well known European Modernist, De Chirico. This quoting or appropriating of various sources, in this case a small child is considered post modern – why? Part of postmodern expression is to include many voices; many ideas. There is no one truth, or one authority. http://nga.gov.au/Exhibition/TILLERS/Detail.cfm?IRN=152805&BioArtistIRN=17247&MnuID=1 Tillers, Inherited absolute, 1992, oil and oil stick on 115 canvas boards, nos. 33885 – 33999, 231 x 228cm

We may remember Giorgio De Chirico (Italian, 1888-1978) from our sessions on Surrealism. He was an important influence on the Surrealists, painting images that were odd, disturbing and atmospheric. They often featured a ‘theatrical’ looking space, which could be interpreted as the unconscious or a dream state. De Chirico, Nostalgia of the infinite, 1912/13?, oil on canvas, 135 x 64 cm. (Old stuff.) Tillers was fascinated by De Chirico and has created 60 works featuring his imagery. Interestingly, De Chirico actually forged his own work. People loved his old stuff better than his new stuff. He wasn’t happy about this, so re-painted old stuff later in his life and passed it off as stuff from the earlier period. He ‘quoted’ himself, you could perhaps say…? This must have presented art historians etc with big problems. Like Duchamp, it raised questions about originality, but his motivation was different. Giorgio De Chirico, 1888-1978, The painter’s family 1926. (Old stuff.)

Another aspect of De Chirico was his appropriation of classical Greek imagery in his own work, as with Mysterious animal, below. De Chirico, Mysterious animal, 1975, oil on canvas (new stuff.)>> Imants Tillers, The hyperborean & the speluncar, 1986, oilstick, oil, acrylic painting on 130 canvasboards, 279 x 462 cm What the…? This weird looking, and weirdly named image by Tillers appropriates both De Chirico’s image on one half, and the work of 19th century British artist Frederick Leighton on the other. He also uses dots that are reminiscent of both benday dots from Pop Art, and Aboriginal ‘dot paintings.’ ‘Hyperborean’ is a word from Greek mythology: someone who lives in a far-away mythical paradise. ‘Speluncar’ means ‘in a cave, or underground.’ What on earth can he be trying to say with all this? Perhaps it could be seen as a reference to some on-going concerns of Tillers. One is the sense of Australia being at the margins, or peripheries of the art world. This is less the case now then when Tillers started out in the early 80s. When we ‘quote’ someone, we are trying to ‘own’ their idea in a way. We think it’s worth repeating. Quoting European artists was a way of ‘owning’ them…of placing oneself in the Western art tradition. Of saying, perhaps: “I am here.” Also the reference to Greek tradition emphasises this. Many ideas of the Western Enlightenment come down from Classical Greek times. The culture, thinking and art of Classical Greek times continues to be very influential. Greek structures such as in De Chirico’s horse can basically be a sign for ‘Western civilisation’ and therefore the Canon of Western art. Maybe we in Australia are in a far-away paradise? And ‘in a cave’ in the sense of being in the dark, of not knowing? I don’t know the answer to this!

Frederick Leighton (British, 1830-1896 , Greek girls picking up pebbles, oil on canvas, 1871 Leighton was a painter from the Academy working in the 19th century. In the approved Academy style, he looked to classical Greek imagery. Tillers took the figure on the far left to use in his work. Benday dots are best known from their use by Pop Artist Roy Lichtenstein. They were originally part of the printing process of comic books in the 1940s and 50s. Tillers brings these various styles and ideas together in one image which is puzzling though interesting to look at. Like other conceptual art we have looked at – Duchamp; LeWitt – the ideas behind the work are important, and also the audience is not simply entertained, but challenged to think. Throughout his art practice Tillers has made a habit of quoting various artists, poets and thinkers, mostly European. In particular, he puts them together in the one image. It’s almost like he holds parties and invites artists from all over the world, and across all time periods. Tillers’ own European heritage is very important to him – his parents came here as refugees and though he was born in Australia, when he started school he had no English. So both De Chirico and Leighton looked to ancient Greece for some inspiration. The effect of the dots reminds us of mechanical printing, which historically has been the only way someone in Australia could see European art – that is, in books. Lichtenstein, Crying Girl, enamel paint on steel, 1963.

This mashing up of various imagery in the one artwork is something we have seen before. With Dada we saw photomontages that combined images from various sources. The motivation, or intention was different however. Max Ernst & Louise Straus-Ernst, Augustine Thomas and Otto Flake, collage, 1920

We have seen appropriation before…we have discussed Manet’s appropriation of Giorgioni’s 16th century composition for Luncheon on the Grass, and of Titian’s Venus of Urbino (also 16th century) for Olympia. Picasso did a lot of appropriating also. It has been a tradition in Western art to look to what has gone before. Manet, Luncheon on the Grass, 1863 Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1538 Picasso, Luncheon on the Grass after Manet, 1963. Manet, Olympia, 1865

<< Sol LeWitt, Cubic modular wall structure 1966 Another characteristic of Tillers’ work is his use of canvasboards: small, identically sized boards that he paints on and then butts them up together to create entire works. Originally this was done because of a lack of room to put up large canvases.  However this became a sort of signature style of his. Imants Tillers (Aust. B. 1950) Mt Analogue, 1985, oil paint, oil stick and acrylic paint on 165 canvas boards, overall 279 x 571cm. It is reminiscent of the grid formation we have seen in Sol LeWitt’s conceptual works, and brings to mind repetition; industrial production (everything produced identically); issues of originality. It is also reminiscent of the grid you would use if you were copying something. Eugene von Guerard (Austrian, 1811-1901) Mt Kosciusko, 1863, 66 x 116cm << Sol LeWitt, Cubic modular wall structure 1966

There is a deliberate confusion or blurring of the boundaries between sculpture and painting. He says the art object ‘dematerialises’. Where have we seen this questioning of the art object before? The Book of Power These boards became a sort of independent concept or artform in themselves. Tillers started using the boards, and numbering them, in the early 80s and has called them The Book of Power and regards them as one work, continuing on ‘towards infinity.’ The numbers are sometimes painted on the front of the board, as part of the painting. He now has over 80,000 boards. The boards are secured to the wall with Velcro dots according to a diagram. He sometimes paints over the boards, or mixes them up to use in different works. He stores them in stacks, and has actually used the stacks as sculptural elements in works. The counting of the boards, the stacking and storing, the use of the boards as an art object in themselves rather than simply a piece of a larger work, are all reminiscent of the Conceptual art ideas we saw with Sol LeWitt; Duchamp much earlier; and Joseph Kosuth with his ‘Water’; Canvasboard stack installation, 1984.

Hiatus, 1987, oilstick, gouache, acrylic paint on 190 canvasboards. Eugene von Guerard, a European who came to Australia in Colonial times, is another favourite of Tillers. He used von Guerard’s work along with that of New Zealand artist Colin McCahon in several works of the 1980s. Von Guerard had visited NZ in the 1870s. Hiatus, 1987, oilstick, gouache, acrylic paint on 190 canvasboards. All the text in McCahon’s painting is another kind of ‘quoting’ – from the Bible. The ‘I am’ is what God said in the Bible about himself, indicating he is eternal and immortal and fairly important. In the 1980s Tillers believed that McCahon was an artist who was overlooked, perhaps because he came from New Zealand which has been regarded as a ‘backwater’ of the art world: a long way from Europe. Colin McCahon (NZ 1919-1987) Victory over death, 1970, acrylic paint over canvas

Eugene von Guerard, Milford Sound, 1877-79, oil on canvas, 99 x 176cm Tillers felt that McCahon’s text was not only interesting in itself, putting the words of God into an artwork, again and again, but also the scale and shape of the letters read like a landscape painting in itself at times. What can we make of Bible quotations in an artwork? Tillers, Counting one two three, 1988, 251.0 x 639.0cm, acrylic paint, gouache, oilstick on 162 canvas boards Nos. 17188-17349 This work uses all three artists – McCahon’s numerals; Von Guerard, And De Chirico’s signature at the bottom. This multiple use of imagery from others makes them read as signs of some sort.

Q: How do contemporary artworks dissolve separations between artist, work and audience? Refer to Nho Nho Nave, Celula Nave and the text. (Allow 14 mins. 8 marks.) Plate 4: Ernesto Neto, b. 1964 Brazil. View of Celula Nave, 2004. Multi-sensory Installation, stockings, sand, aromatic spices, styrofoam pellets. Exhibited at Musuem Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. TEXT: “The works engage all of the five senses. They speak of the finite and the infinite, of the macroscopic and the microscopic, of the internal and the external, of masculine and feminine powers.” Adapted from a statement by Ernesto Neto. Plate 3: Ernesto Neto, b. 1964 Brazil. View of Nho Nho Nave, 1999. Multi-sensory Installation, stockings, sand, aromatic spices. Exhibited Dec 1999- Jan 2000 at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. TEXT: refer to handout notes.