I ran into Peter Tunney's work at Pop International Gallery this past NY trip.
I liked it so much I googled him and learned a bunch - we'll get to that later, he has a backstory let me tell you.
So Tunney's work - uses copywriting as content and graphic element, which is something I'm realizing I'm drawn to - in a voice that is largely optomistic. Tunney cheers us on a lot:
"Enough is possible."
"Don't Panic"
"Nothing Happens Unless First A Dream"
"The Time is Always Now"
"We live in a beautful world"
"Mind Over Body"
even "Fuck Yoga" (which sold for $1500.00 in the back room of a club) is positive, depending on your perspective.
Visually it has a vibrating, complex surface - the unfinished application of the marks, with broken, brushed edges - the textures created by the substrate or the newsprint backing to the letterforms - there is an immediacy and "nowness" that his pieces capture.
And I think that is amplified by the use of the letterforms - the fact that I can read the words not just as content, but as TYPE, it gets the work into graphic design - and works as a headline.
This evolution of Pop Art, something I'm seeing in the Street Art of Banksy and Stephen Fairey - the influnce of the graphic image and graphic reproduction in the art. In other words, theres a heavy thumbprint of the digital age in the work: the images are found, and manipulated digitally, reproduced digitally, and are shared online as well as in traditional forms.
Here Banksy uses iconic images from two big brands, Tunney is using the printed page as a texture and background and background images for his work, and what I'm guessing are stencils of fonts for his wording.
And you see Tunney (below) use a schematic of a motorcycle
Compare this to the traditional tools of Pop Art - collage, hand lettering, hand rendering.
The takeaway for Tunney is a great balance visually - his choices for background surfaces (newspaper or magazine) become interesting textures and marks when they mix with his applied paint surface and lettering. The letter forms themselves work as compositional elements, breaking up the surface and giving us alternating "windows" into the background assets. It all works well in a two-dimensional, design-y space.
Then theres the content - the words work as copy - they shout at us in the anonymous voice of graffiti on a train overpass, like a collective conscience. In this dimension of his work we get into the "micro-blogging" twitter space right? Except with Tunney it's not 140 characters, it's a few words in a painting that resonate with us.
What I'm saying is that he hits the sweet spot of Pop Art - form and function in the now.
I mentioned his life. I read one article, so admittedly I'm no biographer for this guy. But here's a few takaways:
- I think it is interesting that the column author numbers "sleeping with women half his age" and the fact that Tunney gets laid a lot right up there with his other accomplishments - repeatedly. The guy has game - we get it, stop projecting.
- This dude is 51 now and has had several careers before becoming a famous American artist. You have to remind yourself that the article uses the setting of Tunney's days spent homeless and living in the back room of a nightclub. No matter how you slice it, he is self-made a few times over. Props for that.
- He came to art later in life and NOT from an art background. Stock-trader, salesman, businessman - he did all that crap but still kept coming back to his work and art - opening galleries and such. It's interesting.
- Let's underline a hard truth about making art - your shit could be the best in the world but until it attracts the attention of famous people, no one will know it. Look at any artist biography, the name dropping precipitates the coin-dropping. Tunney's list went from Jonah Salk (yes THAT Jonah Salk) to Kid Rock - which is hilarious in itself. I need Selena Gomez to buy something of mine. Maybe I'll send a Post It piece to her dressing room at "Wizards of Waverly Place".
But looking deeper, I think you could make an easy argument that the artist's lifestyle (look at Andy Warhol in Studio 54 days) while certainly a source of creative inspiration, is also a tool for marketing their work. We all want to believe and share in that "crazy creative person" myth right? Naming Dave Copperfield as one of your friends has power in the art world apparently.
- Most impressive. The guy DOES NOT use money. Think of all the ballers out there - Jay Z, Tom Brady, Leon Panetta - they all dig into their wallets to buy a latte. Not Tunney - he just goes to places that are displaying his art and they give him free shit. Or he makes art on a napkin and signs it. I'm telling you THAT is insane. I love it. When is Peter Tunney going to be on the new Kobe System commerical? "You do not have to use money" - "I don't."
Comments