Barrett the painter. Thoughts and analysis?

[scarecrow]

I think we are in agreement that being technically good as a painter and being a good/ significant artist are different things? As are being able to play a particular instrument and being a groundbreaking/ significant musician...

I would also agree that some of Barrett's visual art didn't eclipse the sum of his influences... I think he made a good start, he was considered outstanding in his (small) town... but yes his artistic development was interrputed at a relatively early stage... its fruitless really to speculate whether he wouldve gone on to be a significant artist or not in different circumstances...I agree there is not enough of a body of early work to judge.

I didn't say Barrett 'painted what he saw in his head', thats what you said!

I think the extent to which Barrett destroyed his work was unusual, but the practice itself of making large quantaties of art works in a similar style or conceptual framework and destroying all but a few select works is not uncommon amongst artists ( I am reliably informed).

I also think the transition from an array of styles in youth/ art school to more traditional still life and landscape painting is a route which many artists take.

Of course everyone is entitled to their opinions on Barrett's life, I can see why people would frame his later years as 'decline' and many would see his lifestyle as self-indulgent or self destructive... on the other hand, it seems Barrett decided to get on with it and make the best of things...

I also think musically Barrett certainly eclipsed his influences of Diddley/ Rowe/ Cropper both in terms of songwriting and guitar playing

[scarecrow]

Anyone know which artists influenced syd? I know that syd floyd recorded a track named John Latham (who was a painter), so he might have been one of them.

It wasn't so much a case of a track being called John Latham - Latham's projections were used on occasion as backdrop to early Floyd shows. They recorded a piece of music to go with his projection, although this was lost and very unlikely to resurface, and became known as 'John Latham'... there is however a Latham archive in London where you can go and view his works... as well as some being available online

[snifferdog]

I can't help but think it's a case of the Emperor's New Clothes myself. Would anyone look twice at these if Jim the binman two doors down had done them?

[scarecrow]

I think the art world of Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin or Banksy is a case of the Emperor's New Clothes

I like most of Barrett's visual art, as much as I like plenty of local artists who do regular jobs for a living. Anyway, Barrett was already locally acclaimed as an artist and got a place at a prestigious art school, before becoming well known for music.

I think many of Barrett's Cambridge peers were surprised that he pursued music, as he was not particularly well known as being a skilled musician. I think its true his guitar playing was largely self-taught, intuitive and not remarkable in technical terms. Whereas with art, he displayed a natural ability from a young age, and gained technical skills which enabled him to work in several mediums...

[my breakfast.]

I think the art world of Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin or Banksy is a case of the Emperor's New Clothes

I have to agree with Hirst and Emin. I went to an exhibition of Hirst a few years back and he had one message to sell for the whole thing. Basically he had a slightly facile attitude towards iconography, so he reduced and represented foods as medical products or he put a sheep in enbalming fluid. He also had a picture of himself posing with a dead body that he had taken in a morgue when he was a teenager which I thought was especially brainless.

Emin stole her ideas wholesale off Billy Childish but ignored Childish's repeated iconoclastic behaviour. Emin, for example, told Childish to never talk about her or their relationship in interviews. Emin comes across as this 'cutting through the bullshit' working class scruff, but she is just another darling in the totally insular and self-congratulatory revisionist 'stuckist' London art scene. Really really fucking boring unless you are part of that whole circlejerk and somehow kid yourself that progress is being made there. My girlfriend's neighbours bought their daughter some Emin shit for her 18th birthday and I think it consists merely of crude sexual and religious imagery thrown together in a 5 minute pencil sketch. I've not seen it but apparently to the neighbours (who are from London, no surprises there) it is fabulous art.

Banksy is again tomming for the London petri-dish of art. Some of his stuff is evocative and very direct but he is hardly part of the same grafitti culture that spraycans three-letter gang symbols on hard-to-reach parts of buildings. I guess he captures just the right level of edgyness and 'street cunning' that also made white middleclass kids go to 2pac concerts. Like Emin and Hirst I would say he is a one-trick pony, and the fact that his artwork is peddled as some sort of bohemian or punk product (in glorious coffeetable books available for £30 in your local bookshop) smacks again of disingenuity.

Basically, if you like any of that lot's art you are a faux-worldly asshole.

[rememberaday]

Wow! A lot of discussions going on here!

[rememberaday]

Basically, if you like any of that lot's art you are a faux-worldly asshole.

Spot on!

[rememberaday]

Why on earth do people think that Syd's "paint-then-destroy" is uncommon. I believe many artists do this. I myself write several poems and discard 95 % of them.

[rememberaday]

It’s ironic that painting was dearest to him, and yet he became famous worldwide as a musician.

Come to think of it, it’s not really surprising in this world. Another factor which would have disheartened Syd (it would have disheartened me, at least )

[rememberaday]

Syd's artwork is way,way better than John Lennon's

[Stephen]

True but personally I'd rather listen to Lennon

[rememberaday]

I don't mind Lennon, he is the main reason I even listen to the Beatles. Unlike many artists of that era, he was consistently excellent , even in his solo career.

[rememberaday]

Well there are enough posts for you to form your verdict, my verdict is that Barrett was talented to an extent but with the lack of sufficient artwork it might be a little bit of regression to premature judging.

(PS. it was a dig at Hans Keller, in case none of you understood. )

[yippeeyoucantseeme]

Syd was a one off, like Ray Davies, an English eccentric who just happened to write great songs and have a unique take on music... The Van Gogh of rock.

[rememberaday]

Neither Syd nor Van Gogh was a one off.

Haven't listened to Ray Davies.