Cecil Beaton 

Cecil Beaton was an English fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, interior designer, who, whilst having all those professions under his belt, was an Academy Award-winning stage and costume designer for films and theaters. He was born on January 14 1904 but died on January 18 1980. 

During Beaton's career as a photographer, he designed book jackets and costumes for charity matinees. Beaton's photograph of his best friend, Stephen Tennant, is said to be the best representations of the Bright Young People of the twenties and thirties.


Beaton started off using a Kodak 3A folding camera but then later on used large format cameras and small Rolleiflex cameras. In 1931 he was the photographer for the British edition of Vogue at the time. Beaton is best known for his fashion photographs and society portraits due to the fact that he could make these pictures look amazing by trying to find the best shutter-release moment (as shown in the images above). 

Beaton eventually became Britain's leading war photographer. After Beaton got fired from working with Vogue, his career was revived by the war which is quite ironic.

Beaton is said to have heavily influenced major photographers such as Angus McBean and David Bailey. 

A stroke struck Cecil which caused the whole of his right side to be permanently paralysed which, although he had learnt to write and draw with his left hand, caused him great frustration. His life is said to have faded during the late 1970's which led to him dying at the age of 76 in 1980. 

Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein was an American pop artist who was born on October 27, 1923 but sadly died on, September, 29, 1997. Roy Lichtenstein, along with other artists such as Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and James Rosenquist, became leading figure within the art movement during the 1960's. Roy Lichtenstein was not only a pop artist but he was also a lithographer and a sculptor.

One of Lichtenstein's best known works, "Drowning Girl", was painted using oil and magna. The piece shows a woman with blue hair drowning and crying and it looks like while shes drowning she says in her head that, "I DON'T CARE! I'D RATHER SINK -- THAN CALL BRAD FOR HELP!". This piece displays a sorrowful emotion like the girl is in a dark place or just broke up with someone. Like many of Lichtenstein's pieces, Drowning Girl displays features such as thick outlines, bold colours, and Ben-Day dots. The use of these features make the simplistic looking piece look intriguing due to the fact that the bold lines  immediately capture a viewers eye therefore allowing a viewer to look at the piece for a longer period of time thus allowing a viewer to see that the piece isn't just like a comic strip.

Another one of Lichtenstein's popular pieces, "Whaam!", is said to be one of the earliest examples of Pop art. The piece shows a fighter jet being fired at by another fighter jet with a red an yellow coloured explosion in the background along with the distinct word "WHAAM!". Like the Drowning Girl piece, this piece also uses bold lines and bright colours to capture the viewers' attention. 

In lichtenstein's lifetime, he had 2 wives and 2 children. Lichtestein later on in his life died of pneumonia in 1997. Although Lichtenstein died, till today he is still regarded as one of the greatest influences on pop art which is a great accomplishment.

Banksy 

Banksy is an British graffiti artist whose identity has not been discovered yet. It is said that Banksy could be Robin Gunninham, a former public schoolboy at Bristol Cathedral Choir School. 

Banksy's work has been featured on streets, walls, and bridges of cities throughout the world. His work has also been said (by observers) to be similar to Blek le Rat, who started his work with stencils during 1981 in Paris. Banksy claims that he was inspired by "3D" who is another graffiti artist. 

Banksy was awarded person of the year at the 2014 Webby Awards. 

Banksy initially began as a freehand graffiti artist but then over time realised that using stencil took less time. Banksy's works feature shocking, humorous, contradicting images which are occasionally combined with slogans. 


In my opinion, this image (image on the left) portrays humour and contradiction because hte words behind the figure says " NO LOiTERiNG" yet the old man has decided to go against the words and further goes against the words by sitting in a rocking chair which in my opinion is usually seen to be a chair that old people tend to sit on for long periods of time. 

This image (image on the right) shows a naked man hanging out of the window, a woman and a man on the other side of the window, the woman is wearing just her underwear and her bra with a body posture which suggests that she has done something wrong and she knows it, whilst the man is looking out of the window with a gesture to suggest that he is looking very hard for something or someone. This image by Banksy is on the wall of a sexual health clinic which inputs humor whilst maintaining the seriousness of the situation and this is done by the image showing that the woman has clearly cheated on her husband and this could be a way that STD's are transmitted but the man hanging out of the window with no clothes on adds an element of humor to the image because he clearly has nowhere to hide and had no time to put any clothes on thus leaving him hanging outside the window as a last option.

Although Banksy is clearly talented at what he does, his work that aims towards political and social themes is clear due to the fact that it is said that his work have included anti-war, anti-consumerism, anti- anti- fascism, anti- imperialism, anti-authoritarianism, anarchism, nihilism, and existentialism, also, his work also critiques human conditions such as greed, poverty, hypocrisy, boredom, despair, absurdity, and alienation. 

One of the components of the human condition that i feel Banksy captures perfectly through his art work is the image on the left. This image shows a man wearing a hat, gloves with holes, sitting on the floor with a blanket over his knees with a cup in front of him which suggests he would like some money or "change" and a sign in his hand and this suggests to us that his person is homeless. The sign in the persons hands say, "KEEP YOUR COINS, I WANT CHANGE", in my opinion, the play on words is extremely clever and gives a clear and powerful message because if the sign was to only say "I WANT CHANGE" this would suggest that the homeless man wanted coins, now, because the sign starts with "KEEP YOUR COINS" we automatically exclude the fact that the homeless man would want coins and see the bigger picture which is that what the homeless man is really asking for which is change in the world.

Gas Mask Angel

The Gas mask Angel is at the Musee Des Beax-Arts in Tournai which is in Belgium. Unfortunately I am unable to find the artist that made this sculpture but I chose to write about this sculpture due to the fact that I feel that although this sculpture has nothing to do with Trafalgar square, it has everything to do with Trafalgar square. What I mean by this is that to me this sculpture most represents what Trafalgar square is all about and what Trafalgar square stands for which is war. 

According to a response I found when trying to find who made the sculpture, the Gas Mask Angel is at the part of Belgium where the front-line was during WW1, so in my opinion this sculpture is a reference to the war due to the fact that many soldiers lost their lives in the trenches during gas attacks and the angel is also holding its horn with a clenched fist which shows that it could be using its horn as a weapon, so the idea of an angel wearing a gas mask and holding its horn is very effective.

Also, the angel wearing a gas mask could also be seen as a reference to the damage we humans have caused the earth, so they angel has to wear a gas mask because it is unable to breathe the same air as us. The gesture of the angel pointing could mean that the angel is pointing towards anyone who stands right in front of it as though the person is to blame for the pollution of earth.

For my final piece for my Fourth Plinth project i am to make something that everyone would be able to relate to and which would link to Trafalgar square and the idea of war. This sculpture is an essential link for my final piece because in order for my piece to be successful it must be able to be seen by those who go past, including tourist, to be able to make their own decision or conclusion about the piece and about what the piece could mean.

Josef Albers

Josef Albers was an American that was originally born in Germany. He was born on March 19, 1888 and died on March 25, 1976. His work is said to have formed the basis of some of the most influential art education programs within the twentieth century. 

Albers during his early life worked as a school teacher in his home town but later on decided to work as a printmaker from 1916-1919. 

Albers married a woman called Anni Albersa in 1925.

Albers was an accomplished designer, typographer, photographer, print maker, and poet. Albers was also known for his outstanding work as a theorist and an abstract painter.

Albers created many paintings that consisted of squares within squares which  were painted in different colours.

Examples of Josef Albers' paintings:



Josef Albers influenced artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, Eva Hesse, and John Chamberlain.

He also influenced art movements such as Pop Art, Colour field painting, and Geometric Abstraction.

My Albers influenced pieces:

Here are some examples of my Albers style square on squares (on the left).I was not particularly going with a particular theme with the bottom 2 images but as for the first image I chose to start off with a bright version of the colour then I chose to make the squares that were getting smaller a darker shade of the colour. For example I with the first square in the first image, I started off with a light red then I made the smaller squares a darker shade of red. I did this 7 more times with different colours in order to make the image more interesting. I got this idea from the image above which shows 4 squares on squares that start off with a big yellow square then leads to a smaller square which is a darker shade of yellow then the smallest square ends up being the darkest shade of the colour that was initially used on the biggest square.