Hooks table
Little bit of a wander around the Prague Museum of Modern Art, five floors of art and sculpture from the rich history of the country. Plus some French masters and some seriously random shite.
Jindfrich Styrsky
Artistic football
Creepy and cute Hitler
Broken vinyl
Then this down by the water
Prague p-p-p-pengiuns
Child of Prague
A StandardFact trip to Prague, well the architecture is amazing and gothic and dark and religious and old full of statues, more statues than Czechs. Also more Germans and and Yanks than Czechs come to think about it.
Few points to make:
Very beautiful but not for raves.
Loads of places to eat but you better want a lot of meat
Loads to drink but bloody hard to find a Bloody Mary (head to Chilli Bar)
From a distance
There was very little to note in the way of street art except for the best known Czech artistic street export, Pasta Oner. His playful colourful pieces have the air of an advertising style from days gone by, something a little Lichtenstein about the style. One such wall in Pargue 1 displays some of the vibrant art that Pasta Oner is known for. SF Likes a lot
Here are a few snaps
Hardly an….
Big ‘like’ this…..
Religious building stencil
The Dude Company stencils
tri shade stencil
Shady sheep
Then this weirdness….
See we said it was thin on the ground for street art
SF has been looking for new paint, away from the well trodden tracks of Brick Lane, the canals, Old Street, etc etc. A little cycle out past the Olympic stadium past Newham and beyond through up these lil gems. No idea of the artists as yet so suggestions would be welcomed, top line diggery suggests the below.
IDKY
Great colours and freehand with some stencilling to boot. 2013 so pretty fresh too
Kid1
Simple old skool, nice colours and freehand
Sish Man
Pink. Everyone likes pink, not just ladies and poofs. Words mixed in to the brain matter, with an on switch. Big like.
Cheese Freedom
Pyramid, all seeing eye and the idea of Cheese Freedom, who knew that the shackles were on for the fromage. Liking the slick writing style
Head to Newham on the cycle paths for your own view
Recent new piece from the infant terrible Hugo & Sholto of Id-iom
Scalter Street
Little wonder around Brick Lane and there is paint on every wall…. not much of it that really catches the eye anymore. Then you have Id-iom. Never a dull moment, creepy dark, amusing, vivid.
You find some of the best and most interesting, witty things scrawled on the walls of toilets, regardless of which city, country or continent you are in.
Does this say…..
a) Lance Armstrong is innocent or
b) Lance Armstrong is no c*nt
Livewrong
Below it comments that all ‘we all ride bikes on drugs….’ Good ol Eastend
Plus two scrawled cocks on the walls
Then a couple of other bits SF thought you’d like
East
Wall tag
Tinker
So when SF discovered Noble & Webster, it was unlike anything we have seen before….. or was it? It turns out there was a certain Dutchman who had already had the brainwave. Diet Wiegman was the real pioneer and for the very fact he put MJ in his pieces. That’s a win.
MJ
The manipulation of light and sculpture to create a new image is something that fascinates and puzzles in equal measures.
Vagavonds
Take Michelangelo’s David, iconic but arguably looks better with Wiegman’s interpretation
David
Wiegman has been using the technique for over 25 years and not only using one light colour but a variety.
Coloured mix
SF is going off to stick bits of wood, yoghurt pots, cardboard and leaves with PVA glue…. I assume that is what it takes.
Chess Master
There was this chap, a rather fascinating chap, one who has left an indelible mark on the world, one who it is argued shaped the world of art as it is known today. He involved in surrealism and was integral to the dadaist movement. What is also argued is that he had a hand in the creation of Pop Art and that there would be now Hirst (a bad thing?) or Tracey Emin without him. He also had a hand in Jackson Pollock the poster boy for 20th century abstract expressionism by encouraging Peggy Guggenheim to commission the artist to create something in her home (it took 6 months but was worth it). One thing for certain is that the hugely influential Ai Weiwie is a massive fan of the man that they called Marcel Duchamp.
At the Barbican at the moment there is a whole program of interesting Duchamp ditties and the one that drew SF was the Cabaret Duchamp. The only way to describe it without writing and essay would be quaintly-fucked-up-innocent-devious-brilliance.
Opening with host Will Gompertz getting two people on stage from the crowd to perform, who in turn picked out a poor fellow in the crowd who sang a Toy Dolls hit about a vicar cock-blocking (quite apt of the day that the world saw another creepy Pope chosen) then the main attraction.
Then…. an interesting spoken word turn by Stewart Lee, accompanied by a unplanned racket from two accomplices. Margaret Leng Tan performing on a miniature piano, a mesmerising and amusing turn by Martin Creed who coupled the guitar, harmonica, piano, ballet and a penis going from flaccid to turgid and back again in perfect timing as the crowd cooed and gasped with shock and delight.
The final act was Dog Kennel Hill Project who sang, danced, chanted and then perfectly summed up the thoughts of the crowd in a repetitive piece quote the crowds potential thoughts or maybe the reviews of critics.
The original… not the one on Old Street
How is this Duchamp? Well Duchamp was the man who said that anything could be art and that art did not have to be beautiful, the man who entered a toilet into a New York exhibition as art. Anything can be art and be interesting and this certainly was.
Ben Slow 13
New Endings – March 7th Exposure Gallery London, the first solo show for Ben Slow, or Slow Ben, depends how well you know him. Slow showcased his latest works to a packed out crowd, prints and originals, yours for between £200 and £2000. The exhibition is live for 4 weeks total and the Gallery is open daily on week days.
BS
Slow’s style has evolved from portraits to something hyper real, black and white portrait styles cut with shards and angles in colour, something of Tron about it. These pieces take one female subject as their focus and split the images almost in to pieces of puzzles.
BS
‘It’s a step away from the safety of what I know and into something new and exciting. It’s important for me to experiment and to be uncomfortable, to question things and go seek answers. It’s been a challenge collating a body of work that I am proud of to showcase for the first time. There has been a lot of trial and error, plenty of mistakes made but that’s a good thing, it’s healthy to fuck a painting up every now and then.’
Head to Brick Lane and you will see numerous pieces by Slow, a bit of a break from the high colour style you usually see on London walls.
Lichtenstein @ Tate
One of the most seminal artists of the modern era and one that even a heathen would recognise. Mr Roy Lichtenstein was born in 1923 in Manhattan New York, the exact place that he died some 73 years later, by this time he had influenced a generation with his take on art and his use of modern advertising and imagery found in comic books.
AM:FM
Blue pictures
Dot work
Beach
The exhibition currently running at the Tate Modern in London is a whistlestop tour through his stages in thirteen rooms, from his early discovery of his now iconic styles through experiments, sculpture, Chinese Song dynasty influences and up to the end of his life and his artistic career.
Pop sculpture
Along with Warhol, Jasper Johns, James Rosenquist defined a movement and one of the most exciting ones ever, the influence of modern brands taking art away from more traditional areas and injecting some humour and irreverence.
Pop Chinese
It has been said that Lichtensten actually was fed up with being seen as purely a pop artist and his iconic use of dots to create depth and shade actually limited his scope of work. Unconfirmed but you would can forgive the man for feeling that way.
Pop interaction
Lichtenstein: A Retrospective at the Tate Modern London runs until May 27, plan to book your tickets to avoid queues and disappointment. One of the finest exhibitions around and worth a re-visit. SF will be heading there again soon
Kreuzberg. February. 2013. The walls are alive with the painted faces.
Religious Clown
Street artists have long used faces and massaged them into something new, emotive and down right creepy at times. The most recent trip down Berlin way pulled out many a face and here are a few stencils, freehand, stickers, statues and even a headless dictator.
Scroll below
Face Clown
The humour of putting one of the worlds most famous, money grabbing, creativity sapping gents in the game using street techniques is a nice touch.
Old Clown
Old is just as good and current and relevant as new
Super Clown
Super heroes are alive and well in Berlin
Berliner leibe
Jesus looks like he has finally found the love of a good man too. God may well be pleased
The bronze man of Berlin
Paint on everyone
And one depiction of evil
From Berlinische Gallerie
standardfact 
