The Artwork of Roger Keith Barrett

All discussion related to Roger Keith (Syd) Barrett.

Do you like the artwork of Syd Barrett?

Yes
14
67%
No
3
14%
Other
4
19%
 
Total votes: 21

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Swan lee
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Post by Swan lee »

Have you noticed the little mouse at the left side of the drawing ? May be Gerald !! :wink:
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Syd'sSexy
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Post by Syd'sSexy »

Yes, I did notice! I have seen that sketch many times. It's adorable, just like Syd.

Syd did have a thing about mice...references in Bike and Scarecrow, solo Rats, etc...
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J Ed
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Post by J Ed »

Syd'sSexy wrote: Yes, I bought the first lot of notebooks.
!!!!
so, whats in syds notebooks?
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Post by Keith Jordan »

Syd'sSexy wrote:
Swan lee wrote:Syd's sexy you are very lucky ! You bought Syd notebook at the auction?
I think it's very beautiful to have something written and touched by Syd ! :smt049

I envy you ! :)
Yes, I bought the first lot of notebooks. I'm so glad I went to the auction. It was quite an experience.
I am fully convinced you should scan the notebooks and share them in the NPF Gallery and magazine! 8)
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Post by King Offa »

My personal favourites from the auction are:

Lightbox
Stool with extended legs
Walking stick stand
Various homemade speakers

(Keith, I wasn´t able to attach the pictures, but I´m sure you all know
which objects I mean)


The objects are really capturing Mr. Barrett´s fantastic sense of humour.
I love them. They remind me a lot of one of my favourite artists,
Joseph Beuys. His motto was: "Every human being is an artist!"

Syd Sexy, congratulations to your notebooks.
I´m sure they are in very good hands.
Last edited by King Offa on Sat Sep 20, 2008 5:08 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Syd'sSexy
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Post by Syd'sSexy »

Thanks, they are! I can't remember the lot number off-hand, but they are the smaller A-5 notebooks, one with notes about Syd's garden, and one with art history notes. My name was plastered all over the UK papers for several days. I had my moment of celebrity... 8)

Another Piper bought the psychedelic cushion and another bought one of Syd's cupboards and the chest of drawers that were painted red and silver.

I do have scans of them and shared them on the Astral Pipers site. I would be happy to share them here if Keith would pm me.
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Post by nosaj »

King Offa wrote:My personal favourites from the auction are:

Lightbox
Stool with extended legs
Walking stick stand
Various homemade speakers

(Keith, I wasn´t able to attach the pictures, but I´m sure you all know
which objects I mean)

The objects are really capturing Mr. Barrett´s fantastic sense of humour.
I love them. They remind me a lot of one of my favourite artists,
Joseph Beuys. His motto was: "Every human being is an artist!"

Syd Sexy, congratulations to your notebooks.
I´m sure they are in very good hands.


[/img]
Ohh!! Objects that were not in the pictures provided in this thread...Joseph Beuys, oh yeah! Explaining art to a dead hare!
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alma
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Post by alma »

Joseph Beus was good friends with an art teacher at my school and one fine day in 1981 or 1982 he appeared in the flesh at my school and gave a public art lesson. I loved it. They sold the blackboard on which he'd scribbeld some theories for quite a sum.
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Post by King Offa »

Alma, that´s an interesting story!
Beuys regarded teaching as a very important part of his work as an artist.
A lot of his lecture blackboards(inspired by Rudolf Steiner´s blackboards)
have survived and are frequently exhibited.

Nosaj, are you being ironic by mentioning "How to explain pictures to a dead hare"? Beuys performance from the sixties, where he is walking around mumbling to a dead hare in his arms, with his head covered in honey and gold leaves. Perhaps it isn´t the best example of the resemblance between Barrett´s and Beuys work, or? Barrett never covered his head in gold leaves, just talcum powder with a floral fragrance. Some of Barrett´s wood work reminds me a lot of Beuys though, raw and unpolished. Not just with Beuys, a lot of the other artists within the Anti-art group Fluxus too. Their motto was: "If it isn´t fun, it isn´t fluxus."
Beuys had a compulsion to explain his works, even if he once declared:
"In art, there is nothing to understand, absolutely nothing."
I don´t think that Barrett had a great urge to explain his works or a philosophical manifesto working in his mind while creating, Thank God!!!!
Main thing, keep it simple, fun, kill the evil & dark bird of boredom, constantly prepared to dig his beak in to your neck. He did it only to please himself, no one else.
Roger Waters, Mr. Happiness himself, stated earlier this year that:
"Barrett´s death must have been a release, he thought he was deeply unhappy pottering about in his garden and building odd bits of furniture in his house. Because a part of his former extraordinarily creative psyche must have remembered what it was like to be able to function on that level and was distressed by not being able to do it anymore."
It is possible that Barrett once in a while pondered about what life would have been like if he´d been able to produce technically advanced masterpieces. Perhaps the thought sometimes made him sad and unhappy. But I really think that, despite all his problems, that most of the time he had a lot of fun. Strangely enough, I never think that you will ever find hippo doorknobs, animal curtains, winking drawers and coloured mood rooms in Mr. Waters home.
Yes, it would be a bad lie to say that Barrett´s recent landscapes/ seascapes are professional or "good". Actually, it would be more honest to say that they are "crap". I think that he was completely aware of his shortcomings, but wasn´t beaten by them. It wasn´t important to him, as long as he was able to paint at all, he used it to heal himself.
I think Ron Woods paintings are "crap" too, but "bad crap". I think Barrett´s paintings are "good crap", they were never meant to please an audience, just himself. He was so restless that he didn´t have the patience to waste too much time on just one painting. Always a new idea in mind, got to get moving... It wasn´t anything wrong with his imagination. In his youth he showed a great promise technically though. I like "The Cross" painting a lot that was recently sold at Cheffins. I also like his flies on the Barrett album, his turtoise picture and obviously all the hilarious letters he sent to his friends.

Syd´s sexy, I´m happy for your 15 minutes...
Wasn´t it a quite emotional experience attending the auction?
I remember reading somewhere that some dumbass played
"the Wall" at the showing.
Nevermind, I´m glad that you got his notebooks.
Last edited by King Offa on Tue Aug 19, 2008 8:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by my breakfast. »

I like his artwork. Diverse influences. I am starting to paint in school using a butter knife instead of a brush, and its thanks to seeing works like Barrett's. For some reason a lot of my friends have NO artistic skills, so instead just say "that looks shit" etc... not even appreciating colours or lights etc. :roll:

Syd was as good an artist as a musician I dare say!
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Post by DBlaze »

my breakfast. wrote: Syd was as good an artist as a musician
If I were Syd I would take that as a complement!
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Post by Syd'sSexy »

Some of the coolest, and most compelling items that sold for a fortune were Syd's homemade letter holder, bread box and his stool with the "Joseph Pollock" style painting on it. When I was at the auction, they were some of the last items auctioned, and the prices caused gasps throughout Cheffins. If memory serves me correctly (it may not after massive alcohol consumption on St. Pat's) the stool sold for over 4,000 pounds, and the bread box for around 1,600. Amazing...
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Keith Jordan
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Post by Keith Jordan »

The auction end prices are on this page....

http://www.neptunepinkfloyd.co.uk/news/?y=06&id=1130

or in this Excel file with US DOllars and Euros at the time in there also!

http://www.neptunepinkfloyd.co.uk/text/ ... uction.xls
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Post by Syd'sSexy »

I wasn't too far off! I guess I didn't kill all my brain cells last weekend... 4,400 for the stool and 1,400 pounds for the bread box. Still amazing nonetheless....
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Post by nosaj »

Ha! You know, I really wasn't aware of the non-paintings at all. I suppose I saw a bunch of crummy drawings and paintings and did not wish to explore any further (do like the insects on the Barret album)...

I love Beuys...it's funny, at a museum in Germany I was able to just walk on top of the blackboards, and NASCAD had some laying around their floor from a lecture he gave in the 70's, but when they were donated to the AGO a number of years ago, they ended up behind glass!! Not really in his spirit at all...anyway, I mentioned the Dead Hare performance, because I kinda find it facinating, but really impossible to explain to people. Actually, it may be one of the more inaccessible performances of his.