"... a robot character invented by his childhood hero, the Japanese manga artist Osamu Tezuka — onto the face of the child in Picasso’s original. 'At first I thought I would draw 10 and stop,' Tanaami said, but he kept going until he had produced close to 400. Before he started, he 'didn’t especially like Picasso,' he said. 'But as I was painting work inspired by him, I came to love him.'"
From "Keiichi Tanaami Remembers Everything/At 86, the Japanese pop artist has a lifetime of vivid recollections — some more real than others — and a new show in New York" (NYT). The Picasso painting he reimagined 400 times is "Mother and Child."
There's an interview with the artist. I loved the stuff about his routine: "I do the same thing every day. I wake up at eight in the morning, I take my time until around 10 to eat my breakfast and work on writing jobs I have. I come here [to the studio] between 11 and 12, work until the evening, go home, draw some more and go to bed around midnight. I don’t have any hobbies, so all I have to do is make art.... I live a very disciplined life — even more so than those who have to commute for work every day. For instance, I have a bath time. You need to have these things decided. I have a fairly boring life."
Have you ever done art based on the work of another artist? Picasso did it himself — reimagining Velasquez. Why not take something you love or — better?! — something you dislike and copy it over and over, faithfully, then with variations, big and small?
Here's Tanaami's Instagram page. You can see tons of his work there, including the Picasso variations.
He does the same thing every day. How close are you to I do the same thing every day? I'm pretty close, but I like some variations. If you have a good "same thing," then on any given day, you can just do it, and that's great, or you can have a small or big measure of variation, and maybe that will be great too.
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16 comments:
"You need to have these things decided."
Like Trollope. Massive output, while working a regular job.
Do you remember Wee Willie Webber, or was he after your time?
I remember one Astro Boy episode made me very sad, just like the planetarium show did. Kids don't like to hear about planets dying or the universe ending.
I do this superimposing also. My historical pen and inks of sailing ships is in great part based on the artwork and original hull renderings and reconstruction of Howard I. Chapelle naval architect and former curator of the Smithsonian Naval collection. There are others but for my American clients he is my go to guy for ship hulls. I recently completed the ship of the line USS Pennsylvania 1836 using his hull template. The attorney in whose office it now resides is a Univ of Penn grad. One of the secrets to this type of superimposing my original art work over my original copies (oxymoronic?) of his hulls, stern galleries, bow sprits, figureheads, etc, is the sail plan. A square rigged ship is a square rigged ship. And while universal - for the most part - I can have the sails furled, reefed, flying jibs, mizzen staysails, and the like added as I choose - not to even broach the subject of pendants, broad or small and flags in general. My routines though are not as his are... I have guitar theory days, surfing days, reading days, and two lane road weeks...
10/10/22, 9:31 AM
After looking at his work I’d say the exact opposite.
He never does the same thing.
He has achieved a relative contentment.
"How close are you to I do the same thing every day?"
If you are enjoying your life and what you're doing, then rinse and repeat is a good thing. It won't be many years until I can't.
Here's the first episode of Astro Boy.
The Japanese invented an anime style that annoys the shit out of some people. (My brother hates it -- will not look at it).
I like anime. So I rented an Astro Boy DVD many months ago from my library. Got kind of bored with it. The audience is obviously children.
It's interesting how some art is timeless, and stuff I loved when I was a child I still love. Star Wars would be my #1 example. Worked on me at 9, and that movies still holds up for me at 55.
Jonny Quest still holds up incredibly well. That music is amazing!
It's kind of shocking to think that Jonny Quest and Astro Boy came out around the same time. Animation was just far superior in the U.S. at the time. But Japan has caught up and they're doing really interesting stuff now. (I love the Case Closed animes -- inspired by Sherlock Holmes).
Anyway, I get why Japanese artists might have found memories of childhood art. But for some of that stuff, "you can't go home again." Better to keep the fond memory and not try to revisit it.
Art for the most part imitates art.™
I've been doing the same thing every day as long as I can remember. The thing is, the things I do now are different than the things I used to do. The blend changes slowly over time. Habits come and go.
The things that change from day to day are things that other people get billed for.
Remember watching Astroboy, Kimba the White Lion, and Speed Racer in the 60’s without realizing I was an early adopter Manga fan.
Remember watching Astroboy, Kimba the White Lion, and Speed Racer in the 60’s without realizing I was an early adopter Manga fan.
ha ha
I never saw Astroboy as a child. Probably would have loved it. Now it's too late, I think.
When I was a kid, my main addiction was Hong Kong Phooey (with Scatman). My dad used to watch that show with my brother and me. He loved it as much as we did.
My brother and I were addicted to cartoons. On Saturday morning we'd set the alarm for 6:30 AM. Start off the day with Mr. Magoo, and work our way all the way until Fat Albert at lunchtime. That was a solid 6 hours of cartoon watching.
I couldn't get my Dad to watch anything other than Hong Kong Phooey. He loved that show.
Hong Kong Phooey actually made it into a poem I wrote for my Dad's birthday. I remember the last lines ("the King, the Don, the Daddy, who is Screwy").
(Had to rhyme with "Phooey," plus I was king of the insults in fourth grade).
Hanna-Barbera, unlike Disney or Warner Brothers, was a complete rip-off outfit. I loved this show called Top Cat, and when I tried to watch it again as an adult, I was like this ("oh shit they're ripping off Sgt. Bilko"). Hanna-Barbera did a Jaws cartoon called Jabberjaw (a talking shark). I thought it was cool when I was 9 but I'm not even trying to find that shit.
Hong-Kong Phooey is a comic rip-off of Bruce Lee, for kids. It would be horrible except Scatman, who is amazing.
should be "fond" memories of childhood art
grrrrrrrr
can't even blame Blogger for that one
I should point out that Scooby Doo was a Hanna-Barbera cartoon. That was actually a fairly original show, I think. When adults watch that show we notice that Shaggy is a pothead and Velma is a lesbian. I feel like the guys who made Scooby Doo were more influenced by what was happening in the world than they were by other cartoons. There were animation similarities but a lot of originality in that show, too.
Not a surprise that this cartoon made the leap to movies. The second one, Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed is a lot of fun. I mean it's really fun. That movie is designed for adults who enjoyed the cartoon as kids. Brilliant stuff. (Skip the first one, it sucks).
Going the other way, Warner Brothers tried to compete with Scooby-Doo. So they brought in an old character, Charlie Chan, and invented Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan.
Keye Luke, who played #1 Son in the original movies, did the voice of Charlie Chan. (White guys actually played Chan in the original movies, so this was an improvement). Anyway, in the original Charlie Chans, he had a huge family, but we never saw them. In the cartoons he had so many kids you wouldn't believe it. 9? 10?
Mr. Google says 10, plus a dog. (I should probably put this on the big family thread). A subtle criticism of China overpopulation? Except they're all cute as shit.
Althouse, there is no Mom in the Chan clan.
Don't know how that shit happened.
Possibly Dad adopted them all from overseas.
Or maybe she didn't make it out of childbirth #10.
Just too damn exhausted, I guess.
Or not interested in solving crimes. Possibly she's a highly successful executive in a Fortune 500 company! I think we should assume the best.
holy shit, Jodie Foster was one of the kids in the Chan clan!
that's a big leap, from little Asian kid to Taxi Driver.
And Kubrick raided Hong Kong Phooey to get Scatman for The Shining.
Kubrick and Scorsese, watching cartoons on Saturday mornings.
I knew it!
Lurker21 said...
Do you remember Wee Willie Webber, or was he after your time?
I remember one Astro Boy episode made me very sad, just like the planetarium show did. Kids don't like to hear about planets dying or the universe ending.
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But they should, coz it happens all the time-----right?
You could always tell which cartoons were Japanese created and dubbed in English. The words didn’t match the speakers mouth movements.
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