Andrew Logan an Creative Journey

Andrew Logan An Creative Journey is a superbly produced Artwork ebook, filled with full web page color pictures of Andrew Logan’s worldwide life and work. (I resisted the temptation to tear the photographs out of the ebook, body them and hold them on my partitions!). Philip Hughes, the director of The Ruthin Craft Centre, the ebook’s writer wrote the glowing ahead. The illustrious artwork critic, Woman Marina Vaizey wrote the Introduction, and the reverential textual content is equipped by Fennah Podschies.Andrew Logan, who was a scholar on the Oxford Faculty of Structure within the early Sixties, deserves the reverence. He’s an iconoclastic artist who has been working prolifically in a large spectrum of ‘Artwork Media’ together with Sculpture, Portraiture and Jewelry for the reason that early Seventies.’For him all the things is make-believe. He has snatched a dream out of skinny air, his cloud-capped towers and beautiful palaces are constructed with all the things you and I’ve thrown away… He should be probably the most revered of artists who has made no distinction between his life and artwork,’ is an apt description from the late Derek Jarman, a pal and collaborator, who as soon as lived in a studio above Andrew’s previous dwelling in Butler’s Wharf, earlier than their constructing burned down in 1979.Through the years, Andrew has collaborated with world artists like Brian Eno, and his record of admiring patrons reads like a listing of Who’s Who. The late H.M. Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mom, Bono, Julie Christie, Anita Pallenberg are simply a few of his supporters. Andrew Logan’s work has been exhibited everywhere in the world together with the American Visionary Artwork Museum in Baltimore, the Flower East Gallery in London, the Victoria & Artwork Museum, the Hayward Gallery, Bonhams, the Nationwide Portrait Gallery, Sotheby in London, the Royal Academy of Arts and Somerset Home.

Andrew can be well-known for his Various Miss World contests, which he has been internet hosting since 1972.’A surreal artwork occasion for all spherical household leisure,’ is how he describes them.Among the finest identified names within the trend, arts, and media have taken half, both as contestants or judges. David Hockney has been a decide on a couple of event.’The artistry of the conestants’ and audiences’ costumes was wide-ranging and infrequently astonishing and a few have since develop into well-known and infamous,’ the ebook’s chronichler has said.His first contest was thrown in one in every of his former London studios, a transformed jigsaw manufacturing facility at Downham Highway in Hackney with himself taking part in the position of each Host and Hostess. Since then, there have been eleven Various Miss World contests, together with the fourth one held in a tent on Clapham Widespread in 1978. The late actor Divine was one of many presenters, and the Judges, together with Lionel Bart and Joan Bakewell have been incarcerated in a cage.”The orthodox world I stay in threatens the free spirits who on these events let rip with an exuberance and pleasure to outrage 1,000,000 matrons…. it’s like strolling amongst a gallery of sensible artwork objects – every having fun with every. Most sensible of all – Andrew Logan – creator, wizard, puppet grasp, promoter of selection,’ reminisces Bakewell.The resultant Various Miss World movie, directed by Richard Gayer, was premiered on the Odeon Leicester Sq. and Cannes. It was additionally notorious for receiving an injunction from the organizers of the annual Miss World magnificence pageant. The case was thrown out of court docket by the decide, Lord Denning, who stated that nobody was prone to confuse the 2 occasions. The barrister on the case was Tony Blair, who went on to develop into the Prime Minister of Nice Britain!The ebook’s chapters are dedicated to Logan’s existence as an eccentric and unique artist. The Various Miss World occasions are recorded in photographic element, as are his superstar portraiture of icons like Elizabeth Taylor, his shut pal, Zandra Rhodes and Maria Callas. His distinctive glass jewelry typically embellished with caught on incongruous objects, was described by George Melly as ‘the Faberge of the Eighties.”The mirror of the universe has been my life for thirty years. It has vitality like no different materials. The standard grain of sand transforms to glamorous glass,’ Andrew says, explaining his obsession with working with glass.’Andrew Logan works each as sculptor and Grasp of Ceremonies in a world of inventive journey; on this constructed universe, like Lewis Carroll’s different, the unexpectedly giant meets the infinitely small, and suspension of perception is rewarded by extraordinary surprises,’ is simply one of many profound quotes within the ebook.In the back of the ebook, there are a number of pages of dedications to Andrew’s broad circle of fascinating mates titled ‘Gods and Goddesses’, most of whom have been circulating in his orbit for years.So, drool over the sensational color pictures of his one in every of a form jewelry and and ogle his life dimension sculptures, a number of of that are displayed in his extraordinary dwelling, The Glasshouse studio, designed by Michael Davis, his associate. One in every of Andrew’s finest identified sculptures is Pegasus: A Monument to Hope (1980 with ‘subsequent interpretations and editions as much as 2008’). He ‘first conceived the concept of Pegasus, which years later led to the making of this sculpture sequence, as a toddler of 11 years of age. Obsessive about Greek and Roman fantasy, his creativeness was fired by the winged white horse that sprang from the severed neck of the Gorgon, slain by hero Perseus.’ Wings have remained a theme in Andrew’s work, first manifested in early sculptures in damaged mirror of birds. Andrew Logan has typically stated that throughout the creating course of, he felt he was ‘a instrument, that Pegasus symbolised a bridge between the bodily and non secular dimensions, and that the winged horse and his message of hope belonged to the the world.’ Actually, Pegasus: A monument to Hope was the primary sculpture that Andrew Logan made after the hearth at Butler’s Wharf studio. Since then, he has created a brand new Pegasus throughout every decade.

Though one can nonetheless get the complete influence of Andrew Logan An Creative Journey with out studying the phrases, the textual content performs a significant half in understanding Andrew’s work and life. However, it’s the beautiful pictures that actually assist this shiny Artwork ebook develop into the definitive respective of England’s most particular person and eccentric artist. He’s such a prolific creator, I’m positive this attention-grabbing ebook would be the first of his many retrospectives to return.Copyright: Frances Lynn, 2008