Council of Regional Arts

It was a brilliant move and in itself can be viewed as a conceptual art piece worthy of Maurizio Cattalan’s approval. As you may recall, Maurizio Catalan once burglarized the Galerie Bloom in Amsterdam and stole all of the gallery’s …

I love to broaden my horizons so I am currently taking a sculpture class and a class on conceptual art. You can check out my art on DeviantArt at http://starsk8grl13.deviantart.com/. View my complete profile …

Ever since Alex Steinweiss designed album covers for Columbia Records in the 1940′s, many famous artists and designers have also designed iconic and stylish album cover art. From famed cartoonist Robert Crumb, who designed Janis Joplin’s “Cheap Thrills” album cover to Andy Warhol’s contribution to the Rolling Stones’ “Sticky Fingers” LP, many famous artists have put their talents to work and put an image to the music created by rock and roll bands and artists.

One such artist, Roger Dean, is world-famous for his legendary album cover designs and concepts. He is best known for his partnership with the progressive rock band Yes and his album covers are peerless.
Dean was born in Ashford, Kent, England in 1944 and spent much of his childhood moving around the world (he has lived in Cyprus, Greece and Hong Kong) with his British army father. The family returned to England in 1957 where Dean enrolled in the Canterbury School of Art and earned a National Diploma of Design. In 1968, he graduated from the Royal College of Art. Dean preferred to distinguish between design and the reworking of an existing model or design or inventing and the making of something new, a concept that would help him later on with his work.

In fact, one of his inventions was the “sea urchin chair,” a foam chair which, though appearing to be spherical, would conform to the person sitting in it; who could obtain a seated position of varying angles. The uniquely designed chair was featured in the film “A Clockwork Orange” and Dean was commissioned to design a “landscape” of similar seating for Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club.

It was around this time that Dean would embark on the now famous art design work that he is best known for, designing and painting unique album covers for various rock bands. His first album cover was for a band called “Gun.” In 1971, Dean designed the cover for the first Osibisa LP (an African/Caribbean band) and this cover attracted a lot of attention and interest in his work. In fact, later that year, Dean formed the partnership that he is most recognized for, the album cover art for the band Yes (and along with his brother Martyn, designed the stage set for the band as well).

As Yes guitarist Steve Howe explains, “There is a pretty tight bond between our sound and Roger’s art.” Dean’s art is characterized by dreamy, space-like landscapes, floating islands and fantasy habitats. He primarily works with watercolors, but many of his paintings make brilliant use of other artistic media such as gouache, ink, enamel, crayon and collage. Dean is also a highly respected calligrapher, designing logos and titles to compliment his paintings.

Besides his impeccable and incomparable album covers for Yes, he has also designed album covers for the rock bands, Uriah Heep, Asia, Atomic Rooster and Budgie and artists Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman.

In 1985, Dean landed a gig with Psygnosis and he has designed the artwork for several videos games, including Tetris Worlds and the redesign of the Tetris logo. In recent years, he has focused on his architectural ideas and designs. As an architectural designer, he has designed homes and sustaining villages and even designed all the aspects of his own home, from the construction techniques that were implemented to his own emotional comfort and security. The design is based on his “Home For Life” concept, that a house should be artistically appeasing, irenic and environmentally kind; yet cheap and quick to construct.

Rest assured that whatever project Roger Dean may be working on, it will always be innovative, inspiring, and incomparable and tackled with an obvious zest. His stylish, conceptual album cover art will live in infamy for years to come as he continues to influence new artists to this day.

I was recently thinking about the work of Ragnar Kjartansson, the young artist representing Iceland at this year’s Venice Biennale (whom I blogged about a few weeks ago). Isn’t it interesting, I thought to myself, that his work is supposed to represent the entire country of Iceland. What makes his work distinctly Icelandic? And what is so American about Bruce Nauman’s conceptual pieces, for that matter? With the advent of technology–and particularly that speedy mechanism which keeps us all “connected”, the internet–the art world has indubitably expanded to international scope, but how many artists think in national terms? To put it more bluntly: is it outdated to be conceiving of art fairs and biennials by nationality?

The Venice Biennale has a long history stretching back to 1895, when it was one of many international fairs created in the spirit of internationalism and curiosity, eclecticism and exoticism. The nationalistic chauvinism of the Venice Biennale, World Expo (also called World’s Fair) and other fairs was especially fresh; many European countries had undergone revolutions and governmental changes in the nineteenth century, resulting in completely new states. Germany was unified into a modern nation-state in 1871; Italy finalized its unification with the repossession of the Papal State from the French in 1870; France, too, had established the Third Republic at the end of the Franco-Prussian war, also in 1870 (dates taken from Wikipedia). These toddler nation-states, among others, were proud and eager to formalize a national cultural heritage to solidify a political one. 

The other function of the world cultural fair was, of course, educational. Although a strong bourgeois class had emerged in the nineteenth century, it would still be several decades before world travel became a pastime for the middle class; travel was still a time-consuming and expensive enterprise, exclusive only to the wealthy. The world fairs and exhibitions were the only means to introduce most Europeans to the cultural and artistic heritages of many countries, near and far. The assemblage and compartmentalization of cultures did also have that the effect of Darwinian scrutiny or circus sideshow awe, as Europeans marveled at the exotic people and places represented.

Now, over a century later, the Venice Biennale is still a major art fair–one of the most important in the world–which has expanded to include satellite fairs, festivals within the biennal (such as film festivals) and more. But the tradition of national pavilions remains, despite the fact that we undeniably live in a time of postnationalism. Postnationalism, for those who need a definition, is the understanding that with the globalization of economy, business, communication, and yes, the arts, we no longer self-identify in national terms, but global ones. 

British artist Steve McQueen addressed these issues of nationalism at the Venice Biennale by showing a film that captures the shabby, derelict ruins of the national pavilions before they are made spic and span for the art fair.  According to an article from The Independent, he noted, ”[In the film] the American pavilion looks like a real façade, it was not particularly solid, it had boarded windows, there was a siren going off. It was derelict. But see it now (at the biennale) and its all new and shiny.”

A critique of the superficiality of national chauvinism is apparent. As McQueen said himself, ”These [national] lines are always blurred. The idea of nationalism is imposed on us. At certain moments, these lines are blurred, and sometimes they don’t exist.”

I understand that the national organization of the exhibition is a very basic method of efficient organization: with hundreds of thousands of artists across the world, the curators need some kind of systematization, and the easiest way to do that is to have a curatorial team in Madrid take care of the Spaniards, a curatorial team in Buenos Aires scope out the Argentine offerings, etc. But must the artists then be exhibited by their country? What if the Biennale was organized more thematically? The pavilion of artists who address political persecution? The pavilion of artists who address environmental issues? In this postnational world, would thematic pavilions not more swiftly highlight our human similarities rather than artificial national differences? I ask again: How relevant are these national divides in the art world?

I’m really excited to share some new conceptual art that has to do with “The Perfect 10″. Sometimes I feel my art comes out with no “reason” or purpose….but it is times like that where I have to dig deeper to put all the pieces of the …