AS to A2 Transition Project

1. AS to A2 Transition:
Personal Study
This resource is designed to support different elements of the transition
project and the A2 course:
•The breadth of artists arranged in five themes could help you choose
artists for your presentation and / or add breadth to your chosen area of
study.
•Issues and questions posed could become a starting point for your
Curatorship Task.
•Issues and artists could inspire practical developments in your own
work.

2. Theme 1:
Narrative & Documentary
Autobiographical
Biographical
Text based work
Memory

3. In Cell Choisy, the guillotine and the marble house – a replica
of the family house – are in a stand-off. The guillotine is about
to come down over the whole house, but is never actually
released
Louise Bourgeoise: Autobiographical

4. Tracey Emin

5. Annette Messager: Autobiographical / Surreal

6. Paula Rego: Narrative

7. Tom Philips: Narrative

8. Grayson Perry
Narrative
Unhappy expressions on the
little girls’ faces in ‘Golden
Ghosts’ contrast sharply with
the idyllic country cottages
stencilled in the background.
Perry often uses found images
to create a mood or a tension –
the exceptionally sad image of
the seated girl is that of a child
affected by the Chernobyl
Nuclear Power Station disaster

9. Edward Hopper: Narrative

10. Stanley Spencer
Narrative &
Documentary

11. Caravaggio: Narrative

12. David Hockney:
Narrative & Documentary

13. Sophie Calle
Documentary

14. Rebecca Horn: Personal Narrative

15. Past themes and areas of study:
Narrative:
An examination of the similarities and differences between, Annette
Messager, Louise Bourgeois, Paula Rego and Tracey Emin, in their
approach to exploring personal narratives?
A discussion of the significance of language and the use of text within
modern art - To what effect have artists such as Tracey Emin, Barbra
Kruger, Annette Messager incorporated text within their work?
Is reusing text, imagery and artwork a relevant approach to creating work or
is it just plagiarism?
(David Carson, Neville Brody, Kurt Schwitters, Barbara Krugar, Vincent
Burgin...)
What processes and approaches do artists use to convey an Emotional
Reality in their work?
(Dan Witz. George Bellows, David Benjamin Sherry)

16. Theme 2:
Portrait and the Figure
Realism
Hyper-realism
Abstract
Body

17. George Segal
Sculptural Figures
Michelangelo

18. Ron Mueck
Wax figurative sculptures that
play with scale

19. Duane Hansen: Life sized wax sculptures

20. Henry Moore
Abstract figures

21. Mark Quinn

22. Anthony Gormley

23. Leonardo Da Vinci

24. Jenny Saville
Portraiture & Figure

25. Hans Bellmer

26. Lucien Freud
Portraiture & Figure

27. Julian Opie

28. David Hockney: Portraiture & Figure

29. Chuck Close: Realism / Portraiture

30. Denis Peterson
Realism / Hyperrealism

31. Robert Bechtle
Realism/ Hyperrealism

32. Jake & Dinos Chapman

33. Francis Bacon: Figure & Portraiture

34. Yves Klein

35. Past themes and areas of study:
Portraiture and the Figure:
The Female Figure in Western Art: How has the female figure been depicted
in art from the renaissance to the present day? Have social, cultural or
political influences influenced the representation of women?
Portraiture: Realism & Hyper realism v Expressionism. What is a true
portrait? (Visit National portrait gallery, look at ‘I am a camera’ exhibition,
Saatchi gallery, research Denis Peterson)
How does the use of colour and mark making in portrait painting give an
insight into a subject's character?
(Ian Cumberland, Jo Fraser, Paul Cezanne, Lucian Freud, Frank
Auerbach...)
How much of an insight into an artist's character does a viewer get from a
self portrait? (Use of colour, media, mark making, composition, location,
pose, technique etc.) Chuck Close, Francis Bacon, Egon Schiele, Jeff Koons,
Rembrandt, Frida Khalo, Jenny Saville.

36. Past themes and areas of study:
Portraiture and the Figure:
How have sculptors been inspired to represent the figure? Compare
representational and non representational depictions of the body. (Henry
Moore, Anthony Gormley, Marc Quinn...)
Is it possible to paint like a camera? Why would you want to paint like a
camera?Is it 'cheating' to work from photographs, especially photographs that
haven't been taken by the artist?
(Warhol, Richter, Pistoletto, Malcolm Morley, Hamilton, Hockney, Robert
Bechtle, Franz Gertsch, Kippenberger, Luc Tuymans, Marlene Dumas, Peter
Doig, Elizabeth Peyton, Liu Xiaodong,Richard Artschwager, Vija Celmins,
Judith Eisler, Wilhelm Sasnal, Eberhard Havekost and Johannes Kahrs)
http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/find/hayward-gallery-and-visual-arts/hayward-gallery-exhibitions/past/the-painting-of-modern-life
Every Portrait Tells a Lie: Discuss the extent to which a portrait conveys a
subject's character or identity. How are we manipulated as viewers through
subtle alterations the artist makes to the representation and/or physical
proportions of the sitter?

37. Theme 3:
Still Life and Object
Recycling
Found objects
Collections
Kinetic
Natural
Decorative

38. Marcel Duchamp

39. Jean Tinguely
Kinetic Sculpture/ found
objects

40. Willie Bester

41. Joseph Cornell
Collections of objects

42. Mark Dion

43. Lisa Milroy: Collections of objects

44. Caesar Jedediah
Casting found objects in resin.
Arman
Deconstructing and assemblage

45. Tony Cragg
Recycled & Found objects

46. Tony Cragg
Recycled & Found objects

47. Sarah Lucas

48. Ernst Haeckel
Collections of species

49. Peter Randall- Page
Sculptures inspired by nature

50. Barbara Hepworth
Natural Forms

51. Paul Cezanne: Still life Matisse: Still Life

52. Past themes and areas of study:
Still Life and Object
Look at the work of Tinguely, Mark Dion, Willie Bester, Tony Cragg, Marcel
Duchamp and Robert Rauschenberg. How and why have these artists used
recycled and found objects in their work?
Explore the similarities and differences between the work of Richard Long,
Woolfgang Liab, Andy Goldsworthy, Barbara Hepworth and Peter Randall –
Page. How and why has the natural environment influenced them?
Can a common placed object that exists out of its customary setting be
considered as ‘real art’? – Explore the work of Marcel Duchamp, Michael
Craig-Martin (An Oak Tree), Joseph Beuys, Joseph Kosuth, Martin Creed
and Tracy Emin’s un-made bed. ( Turner prize – Shock of the new’ and
‘Sensation’ books are good reference material)
How did Dada and Surrealist artists alter our response to everyday objects
by presenting them in a way that we are unaccustomed to? Has this
influenced contemporary art? (Duchamp, Picabia, De Chirico, Dali, Man
Ray...)

53. Theme 4:
Landscape and Environment
Urban
Rural
Land Art
Cityscape
Abstract

54. Richard Long: Natural Environment

55. Wolfgang Laib
Natural Materials
Bees wax and Pollen

56. Andy Goldsworthy: Natural Environment

57. Wilting Flowers
Anya Galacio
Nature

58. James Turrell
Inspired by the Natural Environment

59. Yves Klein
Inspired by Nature & The Void

60. Michael Raedecker
Landscape

61. Turner
Landscapes: Mood and atmosphere
John Virtue
Cityscape

62. John Piper

63. David Thorpe: Paper cut landscapes

64. David Hepher

65. Lowry: Industrial Landscapes

66. Past themes and areas of study:
Landscape and Environment:
Since the Renaissance period, Western Art has focused predominately on
depicting realistic representations of the environment, placing emphasis on the
understanding of perspective and realism within the scene. Towards the end of
the 19th Century, artists started to play with these key elements and portray a
different reality, often distorted and abstracted. There was a large shift in the
way that artists chose to represent the environment. Compare representational
and non-representational depictions of the landscape.
Is landscape an out dated / old fashioned genre that has little relevance to the
viewer in the 21st century? Look at these contemporary interpretations of the
theme: Gareth Cadwallader, Ged Quinn, Tom Ellis, Peter Doig, Dan Hays,
George Shaw, Michael Raedecker and Sigrid Holmwood.
How does contemporary art address the idea of place? How do artists working
today reveal and question commonly held assumptions about land, home, and
national identity? (Laurie Anderson, Richard Serra, Sally Mann, Barry McGee,
Margaret Kilgallen, and Pepón Osorio.)

67. Theme 5:
Culture and Society
History
Memory
Social Constructs
Controversy / Shock
Morality
Fashion
Gender Roles and Sexuality

68. Grayson Perry
Culture & Society
People say, ‘why do you need
to put sex, violence or politics
or some kind of social
commentary into my work?’
Without it, it would be pottery. I
think that crude melding of
those two parts is what makes
my work.”

69. Christian Boltanski
Historical

70. Kara Walker:
Historical

71. Lisa Kokin
My work is about memory and history, both personal and collective, and the area in which the two
intersect. I am interested in representing the human condition by using the objects we leave
behind.

72. Marcus Harvey
Shock Value

73. Damien Hirst:
Controversy / Death
Sally Mann:
Controversy / Death

74. Chapman Brothers
Controversial Subject Matter

75. Maurizio Cattelan
Controversy / Religion
Andreas Serrano:
Controversy / Religion

76. Sonia Boyce: Issues of Race Ingrid Pollard: Issues of Race

77. Chris Ofili
Controversial subject matter and materials

78. Past themes and areas of study:
Culture and Society
Sarah Lucas, Andreas Serrano and Marcus Harvey have explored topics that
have shocked society. Write an extended essay that discusses one or more of
the following themes: sex/sexuality, religion, death, violence, deformity and
disability in art. Why is society sensitive about art work that is created in
response to these areas? Do artists intentionally aim to shock us with their
interpretations of these themes or are they merely presenting their personal
opinion? (Joel Peter Witkin, Hans Bellmer, Marc Quinn, Ron Mueck, Kiki
Smith...)
Pop Art was a 20th century art movement that utilised the imagery and
techniques of consumerism and popular culture as well as mass media and
advertising, often in an ironic way. Observers and critics today are now left
questioning just whether or not the quality of art decreased at that time. They
are also concerned that Pop Art had a negative impact on the art that is
created today. Do you agree? Should art be based on the everyday banalities of
our lives or should it represent an ideal which is more unobtainable?
(Richard Hamilton, Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, Michael Craig-
Martin, Michael Landy)

79. Past themes and areas of study:
Culture and Society
Compare how female and male artists have represented women. Are the
different representations influenced by society, culture or politics at that time?
You may wish to look at one particular period of art, (the late 1950s-1970s
would be a fascinating period particularly with the rise of feminism and the
representation of women within Pop Art) or compare two different artists (one
male and one female). (Hans Bellmer, Roy Lichtenstein, Jenny Saville, Kiki
Smith, Lucien Freud, Louise Bourgeios, )
How does contemporary art address the idea of spirituality? How do artists
working today reveal and question commonly held assumptions about faith,
belief, meditation, and religious symbols? (Beryl Korot, Ann Hamilton, John
Feodorov, Shahzia Sikander, and James Turrell.)
How does contemporary art address the idea of consumption? How do artists
question commonly held assumptions about commerce, mass media, and
consumer society? (Barbara Kruger, Michael Ray Charles, Matthew Barney,
Andrea Zittel, and Mel Chin.)

80. Past themes and areas of study:
Culture and Society
Fashion designers and fine artists have defined Modernity through the medium
and dialogue of fashion. Surrealists frequently adapted clothing to present
their intentions (Dali: Aphrodisiac Dinner Jacket, Meret Oppenheim Project for
Parkett No. 4, André Masson Surrealist mannequin 'Head in a Cage' )
Other artists and designers have also used fashion and clothing as a means to
present wider artistic motivations. (Pierre Cardin: Men's shoe with toes, Mimi
Smith: Recycle Coat, Mona Hatoum: Hair Necklace, Stephen Willats: Multiple
Clothing, Marie-Ange Guilleminot: Dress on Wheels, Helen Storey: Primitive
Streak) Consider the stories of art and fashion during the twentieth century,
highlighting the moments when they have converged
Issues based sculpture: How are serious issues and complex opinions
presented within sculpture? Is 3D more effective in imparting a message than
2D? Look online at 'The Shape of Things to Come’ exhibition that was held at
the Saatchi Gallery. http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/sculpture/ Also
consider the work of Hew Locke, Yinka Shonibare, Tony Cragg, Thomas
Schutte, Jane Alexander, Willie Bester, Kader Attia, Goncalo Mabunda and
Joseph Beuys.