highlike

Will Cotton

וויל קוטון
綿はウィル
Уилл Коттон

Sweet

Will Cotton   Sweet

source: strozzinaorg

Le opere pittoriche di Will Cotton danno vita a un mondo in cui tutto diviene zucchero filato, crema, panna, fondendo riferimenti alla cultura pop americana e alla storia dell’arte.

Attraverso le sue opere, Will Cotton ha fatto proprio quel desiderio per un mondo interamente costituito da dolci che è trasmesso agli americani fin da quando sono bambini, come dimostra la popolarità di giochi come Candy Land o film come Willy Wonka e la fabbrica del cioccolato. I suoi quadri ritraggono figure e architetture composte di zucchero filato (in inglese, cotton candy), dolciumi e caramello, realizzati a partire da modelli in miniatura costruiti in studio e poi dipinti secondo uno stile fortemente realistico.

L’artista unisce riferimenti artistici colti e elementi della cultura popolare, in una potente alchimia di kitsch e fantasie consumistiche. I suoi dipinti sono realizzati in grandi dimensioni, conferendo ai soggetti la grandiosità tipica dei quadri di storia e citando artisti del Settecento come François Boucher, Jean-Honoré Fragonard o Giambattista Tiepolo. Cotton mantiene la loro estetica rococò, inserendo però figure tratte dal mondo contemporaneo: giovani ragazze dell’alta società newyorkese o protagoniste del mondo dello spettacolo come Katy Perry, icona contemporanea della musica pop. Per la cantante Cotton ha realizzato il dipinto Cotton Candy Katy, utilizzato anche come copertina dell’album Teenage Dream, e ha lavorato per il video del brano California Gurls, sperimentando così la ricerca di un nuovo e più ampio network per la diffusione delle proprie opere e rovesciando la relazione consueta tra cultura pop e arte “alta”.

Le figure femminili di Cotton riprendono elementi e fonti tradizionali, ma al tempo stesso diventano oggetti di desiderio erotico totalmente contemporanei, dimostrando una vena di esibizionismo particolarmente adatta a ritrarre un’epoca di auto-promozione come la nostra. Oltre ad un forte elemento voyeuristico, queste opere sembrano indurre nello spettatore anche una riflessione sul presente, evidenziando un senso di decadenza nascosto nello splendore e nell’opulenza di questi soggetti. Cotton sembra riflettere sull’iperconsumismo del mondo contemporaneo e sul tema iconografico dell’età dell’oro, vertice della storia dell’uomo destinato alla rovina. È così infatti che l’opera Consummation of Empire (La consumazione dell’Impero) cita la celebre serie The Course of Empire (Il corso dell’Impero) dell’artista americano Thomas Cole, che già nell’Ottocento metteva in guardia sul possibile esito drammatico delle ambizioni americane di successo e forza. Il tramonto sul castello fatto di marzapane, le ombre che si addensano in Consuming Folly, l’eccesso di zucchero sui churros di Abandoned sembrano prefigurare l’implosione e la crisi di una civiltà abbagliata e distratta dai suoi eccessi.

Will Cotton (1965, Melrose, MA, USA; vive e lavora a New York) realizza opere pittoriche che hanno come soggetto principale paesaggi e scenari spesso abitati da figure umane, interamente composti di dolci. Ha studiato in Francia all’Accademia di Belle Arti di Rouen ed è tornato negli Stati Uniti completando i suoi studi presso la Cooper Union e successivamente alla New York Academy of Art. È rappresentato da Mary Boone Gallery, New York; Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, Colorado; Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles; Galerie Daniel Templon, Parigi; Jablonka Galerie, Colonia. Le sue opere sono state esposte presso il San Francisco Museum of Art (2000); il Seattle Art Museum (2002), la Kunsthalle Bielefeld (2004); l’Hudson River Museum (2007); la Triennale di Milano (2007); il Musée Marmottan Monet di Parigi (2008). Suoi lavori sono parte delle collezioni del Seattle Art Museum e del Columbus Museum of Art, così come di molte importanti collezioni private. Tra le sue recenti collettive ricordiamo: (2009) “Talk Dirty to Me”, Larissa Goldston Gallery, New York; “Drawings by Will Cotton”, Atlantic center’s pabst visitor Center & Gallery, New Smyrna, FL; “I Want Candy: The Sweet Stuff in American Art”, Fresno Metropolitan Museum, Fresno, CA; “Chelsea visits Havana”, Museo Nacional De Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba; “Aspects of Pop Art”, Galerie Gmurzynska, Zurigo, CH; “Transitions. Painting at the (other) end of art”, Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia; “A Tribute to Ron Warren”, Mary Boone Gallery, New York; (2010) “Accessories to an Artwork”, Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, East Hampton, NY; “Divine Comedy”, Sotheby’s, New York; (2011) “Tous Cannibales”, La Maison Rouge, Parigi. Tra le sue recenti personali: (2009) Mary Boone Gallery, New York; (2010) Galerie Templon, Parigi; Pace Prints Chelsea, New York; Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, CO; (2011) Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: willcotton

b. 1965, Melrose, Massachusetts, USA
Beaux Arts, Rouen, France
B.F.A., 1987, Cooper Union, New York, NY
1988, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY
Will Cotton lives and works in New York City.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: strozzinaorg

Will Cotton creates an unreal world of overabundance in which everything becomes cotton candy, custard and cream, merging references to the American pop culture and art history.

Through his art Will Cotton grants the wish of every child across America by creating a world built entirely by candy, directly alluding to the popular board game Candy Land and to movies like Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. His paintings portray figures and landscapes made from an assortment of sweets, from cotton candy to taffy to liquid caramel. Cotton’s works are first developed as miniature models inside his studio and after the model is completed, he uses a realistic technique to paint renderings of the three-dimensional forms.
Cotton expresses a sensibility for mixing high and low art forms through a complex interplay between kitsch and consumerist fantasy. His paintings are often done on a large scale, giving his frivolous subjects the monumentality of history painting. His aesthetic quotes eighteenth-century artists like François Boucher, Jean-Honoré Fragonard and Giambattista Tiepolo. Although he maintains their Rococo aesthetic, he fills his settings with figures from the contemporary world, from the likes of New York City socialites to show-business stars like Katy Perry, an icon in today’s pop music scene. Cotton also created Perry’s Teenage Dream album cover (visualized in the painting Cotton Candy Katy) and the set for her California Gurls video, thus opening a new and wider communication network for his works and inverting the traditional relationship between pop culture and “high” art.

Cotton’s female characters quote traditional iconographic and stylistic elements, while at the same time they become objects of a new form of erotic desire, demonstrating a self-aware and post-feminist exhibitionism that is particularly suited to our age of self-promotion.

In addition to a strong voyeuristic element, the paintings seem to induce in the viewer a reflection on our times, underlining a sense of decadency hidden within the splendour and opulence of the subjects. In addressing the hyper-consumerism of contemporary society, Cotton reflects on the iconography of the Golden Age as the apex of human history that at it’s height was inevitably doomed to fall. In his work, The Consummation of Empire, the artist quotes the famous series by the nineteenth-century American artist Thomas Cole, The Course of Empire, whose response to human nature had already pointed out the unavoidable, dramatic end of American ambition for success and strength. The sunset over the marzipan castle, the fast-approaching shadows in Consuming Folly, the overwhelming sugar doused on the churros in Abandoned along with other elements in Cotton’s work seem to prefigure the implosion and crisis of a civilization made blind and distracted by its excesses.

Will Cotton (1965, Melrose, MA, USA; lives and works in New York) is a painter whose work primarily features landscapes composed of sweets, often inhabited by human subjects. Cotton studied in France at the Fine Arts Academy in Rouen, then he came back to the United States where he finished his studies at the Cooper Union and then at the New York Academy of Art. He is represented by Mary Boone Gallery, New York; Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, CO; Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles; Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris, France and Jablonka Galerie, Cologne, Germany. His works have also been exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Art (2000); the Seattle Art Museum (2002); the Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany (2004); the Hudson River Museum (2007); the Triennale di Milano, Italy (2007); the Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris (2008). His work is in the collections of the Seattle Art Museum, Washington and the Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio, as well as many prominent private collections. His recent exhibitions include: (2009) Talk Dirty to Me, Larissa Goldston Gallery, New York; I Want Candy: The Sweet Stuff in American Art, Fresno Metropolitan Museum, Fresno, CA; Chelsea visits Havana, Museo Nacional De Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba; Aspects of Pop Art, Galerie Gmurzynska, Zurich, CH; Transitions. Painting at the (Other) End of Art, Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia; A Tribute to Ron Warren, Mary Boone Gallery, New York; (2010) Accessories to an Artwork, Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, East Hampton, NY; Divine Comedy, Sotheby’s, New York; (2011) Tous Cannibales, La Maison Rouge, Paris. Recent solo shows were held at galleries like (2009) Mary Boone Gallery, New York; (2010) Galerie Templon, Paris; Pace Prints Chelsea, New York; Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, CO; (2011) Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: tuttartpitturasculturapoesiamusica

William Cotton (1965) es un pintor norteamericano. Nació en Melrose, Massachusetts, en 1965. Vivió su infancia en New Paltz. Estudió Bellas Artes en, Rouen, France; La Napoule Art Foundation, La Napoule, France, 1985. Cooper Union, NYC, NY, B.F.A., 1987. New York Academy of Art, NYC, NY, 1988. El principal tema de sus pinturas son “dulces”, confitería y mujeres desnudas, casi siempre en conjunto. Cotton vive y trabaja en la ciudad de Nueva York. – Will Cotton
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: lost-paintersnl

En nu naar het schilder- en tekenwerk van Will Cotton (1965). Wat er alvast voor valt te zeggen is dat het technisch erg goed geschilderd is. De vrouwen zijn bijna letterlijk om op te eten. Maar verder, poeh. Het is zoet, mierenzoet. De invloeden van zijn werk zijn overduidelijk; pin-up en popart met een vleugje chauvinisme. Zijn landschappen zijn opgebouwd uit snoep en suikerspinen waarin de vrouwen in diverse wulpse houdingen zich kostelijk lijken te vermaken. Een paradijs dus. Hierbij lijkt het ergens in de lijn te liggen met Fragonard, Boucher en de rest van de Rococo. Niet geheel verwonderlijk doet zijn werk het dan ook goed in een tijd waarin bling bling net als in de Rococo de norm is. Dat is ook meteen de reden dat het kitsch zou zijn, wat gebeurt er buiten die vrouwen in snoep om? Bar weinig. Inhoudelijk hoeven we ons dus niet te verbazen over zijn werk, maar technisch is het een lust voor het oog.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: etodayru

Уилл Коттон (Will Cotton) родился в 1965 году в Массачусетсе. В 1988 году окончил Академию Искусств Нью-Йорка. Основнымми темами творчества Уилла Коттона являются девушки и сладости.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: sitedouban

纽约艺术家Will Cotton一定很喜欢棉花糖还有各种甜食,他的拟真画作几乎都是轻飘飘又色彩丰富的梦幻场景,仿佛画中人物是生活在糖果屋一般的环境当中。Will Cotton除了油画之外同时也拥有素描,雕塑等作品,当然也是跟甜食脱不了关系,有兴趣的可以前往他的网站观赏。