Tiggy Ticehurst's Contemporary Art Class
"Seeing people coming out saying WTF was that? WTF did I just see?" is how the idea to create canvases which were "taking the piss and nicely attacking" the contemporary art establishment came to Tiggy.
However, Tiggy does not want to be labelled a political artist, he prefers to think of himself as an artist who makes people laugh.
Tiggy fell in love and started painting New York some 15 years ago. He arrived there at the turn of the new century and has been capturing the city's energy and vibrancy with maestro since then.
Positioning himself in the streets Tiggy has managed to reflect in his works the essence of New York, namely, the "busyness, the hustle and bustle, the people, the children with their mothers, the taxis, the cars". That and the omnipresent art scene which he has skillfully transposed onto his canvases with his brush and paints. This has earned him the Title of "Urban Primitive" by a famous NY Art Collector.
"It is quite a crazy place" says the London born artist who for many years stationed himself by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Met is where Tiggy found the inspiration for his latest series, which focuses on contemporary artists, the global art scene, and the lack of understanding it generates amongst a great many visitors of the museum.
"Seeing people coming out saying WTF was that? WTF did I just see?" is how the idea to create canvases that "take the piss and nicely attack" the contemporary art establishment came to Tiggy.
Tiggy does not want to be labelled a political artist, he prefers to think of himself as an artist who makes people laugh. "Most people will stop and look and give me the feeling of joy and fun, they'll like it, they will pass smiling, enjoying what they just saw".
And we can only agree with him, we no longer count the amount of people passing by our boutique and bursting out laughing at seeing Tiggy's work.
The new collection is now available on demand in our boutique.
Photo Image Gallery - Rue Haute 92, - 1000 Brussels.
Mao x 10
"I like this better than our culture. It’s simpler. I love all the blue clothes. Everyone wearing blue."
Warhol on China in 1982
I like this better than our culture. It’s simpler. I love all the blue clothes. Everyone wearing blue.
Warhol's Mao series was inspired by Bruno Bischofberger, Warhol’s dealer who wanted Warhol to go back to making portraits and suggested he creates portraits of the most important figures in the 20th century. At the time, in 1972, Nixon had just made his historic visit to China and Mao had been declared the most famous person in the world by Life magazine.
Andy Warhol based his 10 screenprints that comprise the present work on Mao's official portrait, the very one that was on the cover of the (in)famous Little Red Book.
Maoism's mass ideology and Mao's cult-time following could only attract Warhol. The series manages to show Warhol’s fascination with the clash of imagery between Communist propaganda and Western fashion kitsch. "The creation of a glammed up iconic image of Mao outwardly translates this powerful, mysterious and somewhat intimidating image of Communist propaganda into a glamorized 1970s ready-made pop icon, embodying absolute political and cultural power, reminiscent of Warhol’s celebrity portraiture."
When he finally made it to China in 1982, after Mao's death and Deng Xiaoping's "Open Door" economic policy, Warhol’s love of repetition and mass production rendered China somewhat of a wonderland for the artist.
“It was a Warholian experience. Here’s the guy that did the Campbell’s soup can – he was all about the multiplicity of things – and here was a whole lifestyle based on that idea.” Warhol concurred, reflecting at the time, “I like this better than our culture. It’s simpler. I love all the blue clothes. Everyone wearing blue. I like to wear the same thing every day.”
The whole series is now available in our boutique Photo Image Gallery - rue Haute 92 - 1000 Brussels