For his first visit to Singapore, acclaimed American pop artist Burton Morris – a confessed “big kid at heart” – will be giving us a sneak peek behind his vibrant, pop art compositions. We talk with Morris below to bring you closer to his work.
Pop. It’s the distinctive visual art movement that coincided with the globalisation of pop music and youth culture. With a brash, young, fun attitude, and an ironic, anti-establishment approach to the art world, it is the art of popular culture.
Influenced by the visual lexicons of contemporary life and using his own shard-like motifs to render bright, bold culture icons graphically, Burton Morris depicts everyday objects: portraying popular culture through radiant black outlines and vivid colours. As Guy Debord has said of Pop, “the world appears as an immense accumulation of images.” Morris brings us the world and its images, through a rather cheerful lens, with the power to uplift anyone’s mood.
At the opening of his solo show with Pop and Contemporary Fine Art (taking place at ION Orchard Art Gallery), Morris will explain the enormous detail which goes into each of his artworks. The artist’s process and levels of detail may not be so evident at first glance: Starting with a sketch of an image, he moves on to a marker pen, which he then fills in with pencil colour blocks, before a composition is ready to begin transforming into a painting.
Warhol, the King of Pop Art, saw the everyday ‘iconic’ images as banal, stripped of any meaning or emotional charge through their mass exposure, and therefore the perfect material with which to construct his works. Artitute asked Morris if his artworks similarly play on the everyday status of the image, or is he perhaps searching for iconic visuals that express something specific about modernity?
Burton Morris: “I don’t search for images. They jump out at me because they represent something meaningful in my life. For instance, when I paint a coffee cup, it is because it represents the coffee shop culture as a whole. Something that is very much a part of my daily life.”
Morris explains that with his childhood influences of cartoons and comic books, he is a “big kid at heart” and that the pop art movement is still alive, perhaps as Post-Pop. With the gift of projecting an enticing mood of happiness, high energy and fun, the artist creates what he calls “an instant happening” for the viewer. Thus a steaming coffee cup, a swirling martini and a dancing popcorn box all take on a new life under his paintbrush.
You may not have realised it, but most of us have seen his works before, perhaps in the background of the Central Perk café on the television show Friends. But, in a reversal of pop-art tradition (where artists may display an ironic reverence of consumerism, examining a society in which ‘being’ has been transformed into ‘having’), Morris’ work has begun to be revered by commercial brands.
With corporations such as Heinz, Absolut Vodka, and Kellogs owning his pieces, he has also been the official All-Star game artist. In addition, he has been commissioned to create imagery for the United States Olympic Team, The 76th Annual Academy Awards, The Montreux Jazz Festival, and FIFA World Cup Soccer (to name a few), whilst helping to raise millions of dollars for charities worldwide.
The lines between art and commercial imagery have become blurred. This post-pop artist proves that the world has come full circle: From graphic-designers-turned-artists whose artworks use pop culture as medium and subject, mimicking and celebrating mass media whilst also challenging it, art has eventually become part of this more commercial, mass-media visual lexicon. Is this a triumph for art or consumerism?
Some say that art has infiltrated everyday life. Others say that the whole of culture and daily life has been brought to market. In no place is that more evident than in the realm of pop art: It at once questions, ridicules, worships, and thrives on consumerism in a playful yet healthy love-hate relationship.
Morris’s style typically re-appropriates the imagery of mass culture, using visuals such as the coke bottle. Artitute asked the artist for his opinion on the matter: Where do we – as artists or individuals – draw the line or definition between art and commercial images?
Burton Morris: Art is subjective. What may be art to me in a commercial sense may not speak the same way to someone else. And that is fine as everyone has different tastes. I think this is what keeps the art markets exciting and alive.
Having been exhibited in over 21 cities and eight countries across three different continents, Morris is undoubtedly connecting with an enormous amount of people, hearts and minds. So we asked the artist what has been the most exciting place to exhibit.
Burton Morris: “Believe it or not, Asia is fascinating to me to show my art as an American Pop Artist. This will be the first time I will be in Singapore, and I can’t wait to experience the culture. When I walked down the red carpet at the Academy Awards and saw my artwork displayed everywhere, knowing that over 1 billion people would see my artwork, this was a thrill for me as well. I have been very fortunate over the years to see my artwork displayed in many exciting venues.”
This year marks a milestone for the artist. His first significant retrospection is hosted at an affiliate of the Smithsonian Museum in the USA after being previously shown at galleries, public venues, and public and corporate museums worldwide.
Pop in the City will comprise some of Morris’ signature works and include print, canvas, paper, mixed media, and sculpture.
Meanwhile, Pop and Contemporary Fine Art are great examples of a gallery giving back to society through education. For ART21’s 1,000 artists anniversary, they will be screening ten individual art documentaries. With no admission charge to the screenings (or the exhibition), it is the perfect chance to improve your knowledge about certain art processes such as silk screening and lithographs. A list of the documentaries and screening times can be found on Facebook.
Don’t miss your chance to get your fill of POP! in Singapore.
Pop in the City – III 18th – 31st October 2013, ION Art Gallery, 2 Orchard Turn, Orchard Ion Level 4, 238801
Mon-Sun: 11:00 am – 9:00 pm
Artist’s talks and video screening at ION Art Gallery:
- ART21 Documentary Screenings– Friday, October 18, 2013 at 11:00am – 1pm
- Coffee Talk with Burton Morris – Monday, October 21, 2013, at 11:00 am – 12:30 pm
- The Art of Networking – Wednesday, October 23, 2013, at 7:00 pm – 9.00 pm
- We ARE – Sunday, October 27, 2013 at 3:00pm -7:00pm
More information is available at POP! In the City III – Burton Morris Exhibition‘s Facebook event page.
