The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents Shadows (1977–78) by Andy Warhol, a monumental artwork of 102 large format, silkscreened panels. (February 26 — October 2, 2016)

Andy Warhol is one of the most important Pop Art artists, he developed his own iconography from common features of everyday life, advertising, and comics, using his favourite process; screenprinting. During this process, photographic images can be transferred directly onto canvas or paper multiple times, allowing works of art to be created in large quantities easily and inexpensively.

In 1978, Warhol embarked upon the production of a monumental body of work titled Shadows with the assistance of his entourage at the Factory. These works are entitled ‘Shadows’ as they are all based around a photo of a shadow taken in his office.

This series was conceived as one painting in multiple parts, the final number of canvases is determined by the dimensions of an exhibition space. For the first exhibition, in 1979 in Soho, New York, only 83 on the 102 canvases were installed. 

Warhol and his team coated the canvases with acrylic paint with bright and cheerful colour tones (like the translucent violet and the aqua green which are characteristic of his larger body of work). Then, the shadow image was screenprinted on top, primarily in black silkscreen ink — only a couple were made in silver.

Each Shadow corresponds to a form that reveals, with precision and self-awareness, its space, directing the viewer’s gaze to light, the central subject of the series.
In focusing on the shadow to devise light—that is to say, sparks of colour—Warhol returns to the quintessential problem of art: perception.

 

January 25th saw the opening of UTOPIA 2016 at Somerset House; a year of exhibitions, workshops, talks and performances to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Sir Thomas More’s influential book ‘Utopia’. Throughout the year Somerset House will hold a series of events bringing together the realms of art, literature, society, fashion, design, architecture and theatre, in honour of More’s work of fiction and political philosophy. 

Written in 1516, Utopia was More’s envision a self-contained island world where society and its systems were equal. The Greek word ‘Utopia’ meaning both ‘nowhere’ and ‘good place'.

Sir Thomas More 1478 - 1535

Jonathan Reekie, Direcetor of Somerset House, has expressed that he feels More’s text does not present a single vision of a 'Utopia', but instead “an invitation to dream, to think... to imagine a better world”.

UTOPIA 2016 Flag created by Jeremy Deller & Fraser Muggeridge flying above Somerset House

UTOPIA by Jeremy Deller & Fraser Muggeridge, inspired by Thomas More’s Utopian Alphabet, printed in the first edition of Utopia

Exhibitions include Venturing Beyond: Graffiti and the Everyday Utopias of the Street, exploring the “intrinsically utopian” art of graffiti, showcasing specially commissioned works by 18 street artists from around the world. Totality: A new commission by the Arts Council Collection by Katie Peterson: a mirror ball comprising images of nearly every solar eclipse that has ever been documented by humankind. And In Our Hands: An Experimental Installation demonstrated by Le Gun Collective Illustrators and Professor Richard Howells: a collection of intercultural Utopian expressions drawn from Navajo designs to Roger Fry and Slavoj Žižek.

 

UTOPIA 2016 is a collaboration between Somerset House, King’s College London and the Courtauld Institute, in partnership with the British Library, the AHRC, Guardian Live, London School of Economics and Political Science, Verso, the British Council and engages many of the 300 plus creative organisations, artists and makers resident at Somerset House.

The art of paper cutting has become a folkloric tradition in Switzerland.

It is difficult to really define its origins, but it is thought that this technique has existed before the invention of paper itself, as some discoveries date from back to 206 B.C (Han dynasty). This style of paper cutting then probably reached Europe around the 1600s, and became one of the favourite activities of the religious in Switzerland during the Counter-Reform (XVII s).

The style is called 'canivet' (Spitzenbild) as it is achieved with a pocket knife ('canif' in French). It is also very much a privilege of the aristocracy, as all young ladies from good families have to practice the art of paper cutting.

Paper cutting was then strongly influenced by Etienne de Silhouette (1709–1767), Jean Huber (1721–1786), and Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875), then became a middle-class pastime.

Etienne de Silhouette (1709–1767)

Jean Huber (1721–1786)

Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875)

 

Many artists worked without even sketching a drawing first.

In Switzerland, this art-form spread out to the countryside. Among the most famous artists were Johann Jakob Hauswirth (1809–1871) and Louis David Saugy (1871–1953). Most of their works represented the nature, the mountains and the love of their country. It is without doubt because "the Swiss are unable to override their origins as a tough, mountain people" ("Xenophobe's Guide to the Swiss", Paul Bilton).

Johann Jakob Hauswirth (1809–1871)

Louis David Saugy (1871–1953) : Musée du Vieux Pays-d'Enhaut, Château d'Oex