....with Artist Alan Tulloch
   TRANSFIGART
   
....with Artist Alan Tulloch
   
An Online Connection for "The Figure as Document" Woodlands ArtsFest 2004
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
E  Artist Alan Tulloch
"Shade" - Alan Tulloch, Pencil on Paper   1997
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                    Stories of Art - (Documents in the Document)
Most drawings make some sort of reference to previous art.  Even if the relationship is the use of a traditional art material, referencing the past continues one of the many stories of art.
Gombrich wrote a well known book, "The Story of Art" making art history an easily read account.  My idea of 'stories of art'  are not the ones that are seen on the pages of a book though.  I am talking about the stories that have been stored in people's subconsciouses. 
When an artist decides that a particular pose is suitable
for an artwork, the decision is likely to have been made in
relation to what has been suitable in past art.
I have already written about how I saw a relationship
between the pose of "Shade" and Michelangelo's "Libyan
Sibyl".  My referencing was more in a Post-Modern vain
than in the subconscious consultation with previous art to
decide on the value of the pose.
A straight standing pose such as "Naked" does not have
many previous art stories 'adding value' to the drawing - in
fact some would say that the pose is boring and is not art.
When we see a pose that is good, it is often because the
pose fits with previous figure drawings.  That is, a pose
has some connection with a host of mini-stories about
drawing - 'this sort of pose is good'; 'this pose is aesthet-
cly pleasing'; 'this pose is not unlike previous art' etc.
Medieval representations of people were more 'matter
of fact' ('straight and stiff' as in "Naked") and did not have
to rely on body 'contortions' to give value to the figure. 
Their representations people did not have the same
system of 'art stories' that Renaissance artists developed
so as to continue to add value to the use of the figure in art.
The contemporary challenge is become aware of role of
'art stories' in influencing the type of poses artists choose.
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