Another Place depicts scenes from the production of an American film of the artist’s imagining, which centers on an unseen catastrophic event.

Read the entire article from The Independent here www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/jonathan-wateridges-another-place-1991589.html

Excerpt from ‘The Guardian’ From Nighthawks to the shadows of film noir by Philip French:

German expressionism impinged on Hopper early on, during his sojourn in Paris. His 1921 etching Night Shadows looks like a storyboard sketch for a high-angle shot in a Fritz Lang movie. But [...]]]>

NY movie by Edward Hopper 1939 Courtesy of Prestel

Excerpt from ‘The Guardian’ From Nighthawks to the shadows of film noir by Philip French:

German expressionism impinged on Hopper early on, during his sojourn in Paris. His 1921 etching Night Shadows looks like a storyboard sketch for a high-angle shot in a Fritz Lang movie. But what really influenced him were the movies shot on the backlots of Hollywood’s great studios in the Thirties and Forties. Like the films of Hollywood’s Golden Era, his paintings are about ‘the city’, a heightened abstract notion rather than any particular metropolis. Voyeurism has been an unavoidable condition of urban living and moviegoing, and Hopper’s pictures spy on people in uncurtained rooms. They are epiphanic moments in someone else’s life, stills from a movie we can’t quite remember.

Read the entire article here.

Secreto, 2010 acrylic on board

by A.M. Homes, excerpt from September 2010 issue Vanity Fair

I wish I had known about these windows when they were on display, I would have made a special trip to see them. Film director David Lynch, has been working hard as an artist for many years. In the late 80’s/early 90’s I saw an exhibition of his paintings [...]]]>

David Lynch Galeries Lafayette Paris

I wish I had known about these windows when they were on display, I would have made a special trip to see them. Film director David Lynch, has been working hard as an artist for many years. In the late 80’s/early 90’s I saw an exhibition of his paintings in NYC, he was using a very dark and textured palette. I love that now he has branched out and is working in a almost every medium imaginable!
His artwork can be seen here:
http://www.thecityofabsurdity.com
More images of his windows are online here:
http://blogs.lexpress.fr/cafe-mode/2009/09/david-lynch-aux-galeries.php

“A lot of people have assumed my paintings are influenced by or based on films, but it’s not that literal. I’ve directly referenced only one film still in my [...]]]>
Frieze Magazine runs an ongoing series asking artists and filmmakers to list the movies that have influenced their practice. Below is an excerpt from Peter Doig’s segment:

“A lot of people have assumed my paintings are influenced by or based on films, but it’s not that literal. I’ve directly referenced only one film still in my work, a figure in a canoe on a lake taken from Friday the 13th (1980, directed by Sean S. Cunningham). Of course, all artists are interested in film – I don’t know one that doesn’t have an opinion about music or movies. Cinema is, after all, the most important art form of our time.”

Peter Doig - Canoe Lake

Why do shadows recur so often in my writing, photos and paintings? Not wanting to delve too far into my own psyche, I can only say that I was undoubtedly impressed as a child by film noir (especially Bogart films such as The Maltese Falcon, Key Largo) and Hitchcock films, and [...]]]>

Hitchcock's 'Shadow of Doubt'

Why do shadows recur so often in my writing, photos and paintings? Not wanting to delve too far into my own psyche, I can only say that I was undoubtedly impressed as a child by film noir (especially Bogart films such as The Maltese Falcon, Key Largo) and Hitchcock films, and I still am. The portrayal of the otherworldly side of society and the darker side of human nature was powerfully conveyed on the big screen by extensive use of lighting effects and shadow. Night scenes with single-source lighting and long shadows were especially effective and suspenseful. I find that shadows provide an outline of form, but to me they are transient, vague and often hallucinatory. These qualities allow the shadow to serve as metaphors for a range of dramatic feelings and emotions. The ambiguity of the shadow is another critical element and one reason they feature in my thoughts and creative work. I lived in Europe for several years and loved the forests, spending invaluable time in Switzerland and Germany walking amongst the trees. European forests often have a gothic feel, a dark brooding and mysterious quality which is incredibly enticing. The German expressionists and film directors such as Hitchcock used this to great atmospheric effect. There are ultimately very few pictures I create which do not have a tree, or part of a tree, in there somewhere. In many of my paintings I search for classic frames of reference, often using forests as backdrops or street-lights to illuminate critical elements in a scene. Those elements within the composition are usually carefully constructed but almost always are based on one of many spontaneous ink sketches I produce in my spare time (ie. late at night). The use of shadows can heighten both the perspective or depth of a scene and its mood. And not infrequently, a shadow will take centre stage and provide the focal point of a painting.
Author: Beric Henderson