Fifteen chapters to write

I’ve had a plan for a long time to collect some of the thinking from this newsletter and turn it into a book. It’s exactly the sort of long, drawn out process that honestly suits the tempo of my life at the moment…

With the general cut and thrust of the book somewhat nailed down, I’ve been contemplating all the artists, movements, scenes and historical events that I’ve written about or spoken about on my previous podcast, and trying to make a decision as to which ones will be most compelling to include in the book version.

Some have really obvious links and ties between the art and advertising world. I’m thinking Bacon, Warhol and Holzer in particular.

I’ve rejected Dali on the basis that too much has been written about him already, and that the challenge of finding an interesting angle is not worth the effort. I’d rather consider a different surrealist like Kay Sage, who’s bleak architectural paintings are criminally under-seen – in my experience.

I want to write about Soviet art and Cold War modernism because I keep seeing the parallels between contemporary marketing and life in the USSR i.e. a system that is essentially doomed to fail repeatedly but the people in charge insist that it is supposed to work like this, and that nothing is wrong. Hyper-normalisation is back.

I want to write about artists who were unapologetically themselves, who knew what to do with the way that they saw the world, and what to do with the things that others discarded. Betye Saar, Tarsila de Amaral and Jean Dubuffet.

I have assembled fifteen chapters for the first draft.

There may be more, there may be less, but the following represents my current aspirations, and I have included a little log-line as a sort of mission statement or synopsis for each of the chapters.

The exact shape and style is still to come…

• Will there be a narrative that connects all of the chapters?

• Will there be any images at all?

• Will there be a structure or template applied to each chapter?

• Will the writing of the book itself be part of the book?

The mode in which I write this newsletter is attempting to convey a sort of careless immediacy in the first person, verging on a polemic at times, and this would be the easiest to translate. However, I would like to stretch myself if possible…

• The Jenny Holzer chapter could be a list of Trusims.

• The John Heartfield could be entirely made of propaganda.

• Betye Saar could be constructed from found objects (verse).

This kind of inscrutable, personal exploration could probably go a long way to achieving the kind of final product that I envisioned in the last newsletter, namely a book that is considered to be:

“Too thicky-thicky-dumb-dumb for the art world, and too clever-clogs for the ad world.”

The dream.

Art for Ad’s Sake’s 15 Chapters:

1. CAUGHT STEALING: FRANCIS BACON

Taste. Wearing your references on your sleeve. Sincerity. Obsessive re-interpretation.

2. RULES ARE MADE OF RUBBER: ALEKSANDR DEYNEKA

Systems can be subverted. The failure of socialist realism to inspire. Soft rebellion.

3. HERE LIES THE TRUTH: JENNY HOLZER

A clever phrase won’t necessarily reveal a cleverer meaning.

4. NOTHING IS SACRED: CILDO MEIRELES

Mass media doesn’t mean paying for mass media. Cunning stunts.

5.CONTROL. ALTER. DELETE: ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG

Reduction with effort. Messy minimalism. Choose targets wisely.

6. THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY: JEAN DUBUFFET

Traditions are traps. The benefits of naivety. Labels.

7. I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S NOT BUTTER: JOHN HEARTFIELD

Pain is funny. Pre and Post-satire. Anger is a gift.

8. EXPANSION PACK: REBECCA HORN

Your body is just the beginning. Limits are self-imposed.

9. DON’T LOOK NOW: THE DEGENERATE ART EXHIBITION

The irony of extreme negativity. Moralising is for wimps.

10. PICK IT UP: BETYE SAAR

Magpies and Bowerbirds. Putting it all together.

11. WHERE DO YOU COME FROM?: TARSILA DE AMARAL

Water your roots. Redefining heritage and history and myths.

12. THE ANSWER IS NO: KAY SAGE

The beauty and the bleakness of unfinished architecture.

13. FOUR EYES: LE CORBUSIER

The pull of cliches. The wheel of trends – change is tragedy and hope.

14. CLUBBED TO DEATH: MURIEL BELCHER

Scenes of community. The courage to be disliked.

15. WORKOUTS & SELLOUTS: ANDY WARHOL & JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT

This is what commercial creativity looks like. The almighty dollar.

***

More to come…

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Jonathan ✌️

My kid could do that

Another experiment is on the way, specifically designed to help parents make a judgement call on what art they want to keep and what art can be thrown away or recycled.

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