Artists Do the Same Thing Over and Over Again
Pattern and Repetition in Contemporary Art
Modern and Contemporary Artists use repetition not simply to improve on an initial version, merely every bit the ground of their art, creating rhythm and regularity within their work.
The years following Earth State of war II saw the triumph of the mass product of consumer goods: the long assembly lines of identical cars or washing machines, the nutrient shop windows full of lookalike cornflake packets inspiring Pop artists like Andy Warhol to borrow the materials, techniques, and imagery of mass production for their art.
Andy Warhol
It'southward impossible not to associate Andy Warhol with the apotheosis of repetition. Working with silkscreens and media imagery, it was easy for the pop artist to recreate his images en masse and, in doing and then, to celebrate mass culture - from his iconic prints of Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and Elizabeth Taylor to his reproduction of everyday products, such as Campbell's soup cans, Coca-Cola bottles, boxes of Brillo Pads and dollar bills.
Andy Warhol, Marilyn Monroe. 1967, MOMA
Repetition was central to his work; he would create grids of identical images which were presented much in a similar format to a book of stamps, the only multifariousness lying in his choice of color. But if Warhol was using repetition to comment on mass production in a consumerist world, he preferred not to say - instead, simply claiming that, 'I like things to exist exactly the aforementioned over and over again.'
Keith Haring
Keith Haring was obsessed past semiotics, the study of signs and symbols. Symbolism and Egyptian hieroglyphics were an important source of inspiration for the creative person's visual language and appear throughout his oeuvre. "I am intrigued with the shapes people choose equally their symbols to create language." Haring said. "At that place is inside all forms a basic structure, an indication of the unabridged object with a minimum of lines, that becomes a symbol. This is common to all languages, all people, all times."
Keith Haring, Best Buddies, 1990, Screenprint
In the alphabet of movie-words he adult, each recurring image carries its own fix of meanings. From his 'radiant baby,' a likely symbol of the time to come and perfection, to his barking, biting and dancing dogs which developed into an iconic epitome associated with the artist to the reoccurrence of UFOs and crucifixes.
Despite the tearing imagery that is rampant in Haring's work, his fundamental message was ane of devout humanism and dearest. Take his recurring comprehend, which is often between two genderless and race-less figures, who are glowing as they concord each other.
Yayoi Kusama
For Yayoi Kusama, artwork and mental wellness are intrinsically linked, with her utilize of repetition interim as a handling for her anxiety and depression. Working across multiple mediums - from functioning art to painting, collage to sculpture - the creative person uses repetition as a form of therapy to calm and focus the listen.
Her repeat signature polka dot patterns, psychedelic colours and organic forms are ever-present in her art with the artist known to work in 50- to 60-hour stretches, covering sheets of newspaper with miniscule, repetitive marks to not only fed her love of fine art, only besides help her cope with the stress-induced hallucinations she'southward experienced from a young age.
Pumpkins are some other recurring motif within her oeuvre in a collection of works jubilant the subject area's "generous unpretentiousness." Rooted in her childhood, Kusama's love of pumpkins has significantly shaped her practice for over seventy years. Whether cropping upwardly as detailed drawings, public sculptures, or immersive installations, Kusama's stylised interpretations of the humble squash have become some of her most well-known works-and are amid contemporary art's near iconic masterpieces.
Yayoi Kusama, Cherry Pumpkin, 1994, Screenprint
"I love pumpkins," the artist said in 2015, "considering of their humorous form, warm feeling, and a human-like quality."
Unlike polka dots and flowers-whose hallucinatory forms frightened the budding artist-Kusama institute condolement in pumpkins, noting that she was "enchanted by their charming and winsome form" as early as her first encounter. "The first time I always saw a pumpkin was when I was in elementary school and went with my grandfather to visit a large seed-harvesting ground," Kusama recalls in Infinity Cyberspace, her autobiography. "And there information technology was: a pumpkin the size of a man'south head . . . It immediately began speaking to me in a well-nigh animated manner."
Damien Hirst
Damien Hirst began his 'Controlled Substances' series, more commonly known as spot paintings, in 1988. Based on a simple grid format, the paintings feature circular 'spots' of coloured paint, each representing a chemical, lined up at regular intervals, with the spaces between them e'er the aforementioned distance as their diameter, on a white background.
While the early on works are hand drawn and painted by the artist, with visible marks from the compass with which he used to brand the dots, many critics were quick to characterization Damien Hirst as some sort of corporate art automobile, afterwards the creative person created multiple studios across England to churn out huge numbers of these spot paintings. In 2012 there were over 1500 spot paintings which he would then sell for vast sums but this accusation didn't much bother the artist, peculiarly when the pieces were already centred on the concept of repetition and blueprint.
Damien Hirst, Ethidium Bromide Aqueous Solution, 2005
As he says of Andy Warhol, the original king of repetition, 'Warhol'south great. Yous can't debate with that. And visually great. Information technology's easy, cheap, simple. He certainly doesn't over-complicate things. I call up that's good. And in terms of consumerism and all that sort of stuff, fine art has been in a constant boxing for hundreds of years with every other kind of paradigm-making.' And, Hirst might add, the studios of former masters were full of assistants, helping to create the often similar religious works ordered past patrons.
Lefty Out There
Lefty Out At that place is a street artist by nature, so it's no surprise to find repetition in the American artist'due south work; graffiti artists ofttimes create a simplistic and repetitive style that's unique to them - their own personal branding if you like. By creating intuitive, repeated shapes, Lefty Out In that location achieves the rare feat of working in contradictions. His work is both bold and intricate, organic only uniform.
Lefty Out There, Sanguine Amnis Album, 2019
A simple mark makes up a considerably more complex whole. Lefty Out There's signature calling cards are what he calls 'the squiggles' - the lines he employs to create intricate and repetitive design work for the fashion, art and design world. "I just got progressively more and more obsessed with the lines. I tin can walk up to something and the offset thing my brain tells me to practice is a claw squiggle. Information technology'south merely natural." Following a spontaneous desire, Lefty'southward blueprint making makes the centre linger and yearn for interpretation - likened to cell structures and organisms, they phone call for the audience to pay attending to things that they accept for granted.
Source: https://maddoxgallery.com/news/61-the-art-of-repetition-pattern-and-repetition-in-contemporary-art/
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