Joe Machine
Joe Machine (actually Joseph Stokes; born April 6, 1973 in Chatham , Kent ) is a British painter, poet and author. He is a founding member of the British Stuckists . His work is described as "rough and autobiographical".
Life
Joe Machine comes from a Roma family from the Isle of Sheppey and was born in Chatham, Kent. When he was six years old, his teacher forbade him to draw a picture of the Incredible Hulk , and he pricked her with a compass. Two years later he saw Diana Dors waving to him from a window in the Hotel Ritz on Piccadilly . He fell in love with her, and she became an icon in his later work.
His early life was marked by petty crimes. After theft and burglary offenses, he spent a few years in reformatory institutions in Rochester and Dover from 1988 . He received unemployment benefits for a while, later he ran the family's gambling den in Leysdown, raised Rottweiler and was a bouncer in the nightclubs of South London.
He started painting around 1988 without ever having attended art school. He later described the creative work as a way out of the social background in which he found himself trapped: “Painting and writing have been far better for me than any of the mistakes I made in stealing and fighting.” (“Painting and writing were for far better than the mistakes I made with stealing and beating. ”) Since 1998 he has been treated psychotherapeutically. He said: "The violence and the stealing and the aggressive manipulation in sex - these things have been done because actually I'm quite a frightened little fucker inside - it's a byproduct of my vulnerability." the aggressive manipulation in sex - these things were done because I'm really a scared little wanker inside of me - they are a product of my vulnerability ”)
In 1999 he was one of the twelve original founding members of the Stuckists . His painting Diana Dors with an Ax was used on the front cover of the group's first book, The Stuckists, and as a poster for The Real Turner Prize Show in Shoreditch .
Machine has exhibited extensively with the Stuckists, including their first exhibition in a museum, the Walker Art Gallery for the 2004 Liverpool Biennial . The exhibition called The Stuckists Punk Victorian was a definitive presentation of the complete work of the Stuckists, and Machine was one of the main exponents. Referring to the Sea Shanty painting , critic Mark Lawson wrote :
- “Although they oppose conceptual art, they certainly do not stand for conventional painting. These are very violent and explicit images, especially a painting on my left in which a seaman takes another seaman from behind - that's probably as far as you can go in a description. And that's an image that is very daring, very explicit, so that it could lead to protests and complaints. "
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/2005_Saatchi_Gallery_demo.jpg/220px-2005_Saatchi_Gallery_demo.jpg)
In January 2005, he took part in a Stuckists' demonstration at the opening of the Triumph of Painting exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London and carried a poster that said Stuckism 1999 is Saatchi in 2005 . In December, he was part of the protest of the Stuckists occasion of the Turner Prize in the Tate Britain , whose aim was to call attention to the purchase of a work by Chris Ofili to steer through the Tate Britain, a member of the supervisory board of the Tate, and the resignation of its Director, Sir Nicholas Serota .
Machine was one of the top 10 plasterers in the Go West exhibition at the Spectrum gallery in London in October 2006. Six of his pictures were sold before the exhibition opened.
Machine said about the stucco artists: "[S] ome of the paintings are not all that marvelous ... But everyone's painting and getting involved" ("Some of the pictures are not exactly wonderful ... but everyone paints and brings themselves." a. “) Billy Childish owns a machine that depicts a woman who cuts her wrists. Childish describes the picture as "pretty disturbing".
Machine was the singer of the junk band The Dirty Numbers and has published six volumes of poetry.
In 2003 he married Charlotte Gavin, who also exhibited with the Stuckists.
art
His work is strongly autobiographical and often traces life experiences of sex and violence. He works with a limited number of mostly five colors (initially due to his poverty) and named his grandfather, who also painted, as the main influence.
Recurring motifs are emaciated women, sailors and bloodshed. He painted fighting dogs (one of them dead) and a sailor with a slit throat. Other pictures are Ute Lemper and Diana Dors with an ax and also with a machine gun. My Grandfather Will Fight You depicts a gaunt elderly man with clenched fists and a bloodied shirt. It was painted on two old wooden planks that he nailed together (the connection can be seen as a horizontal line in the middle). Machine said about this work:
- "My grandfather was a Romany boxer, but sometimes fought bare-knuckle, which his own father did for a living. I loved my grandfather, although I was aware that other people were frightened of him. He always treated me with a great deal of love. It's left me between two worlds - love and violence. It was definitely an emotive painting: I felt he was looking at me. In some ways he wouldn't have been very happy about it, because he was a very private man. What I study more than anything else is the human shadow. The need to paint something until you've shown as much of it as you can. "
- ("My grandfather was a Roma boxer but sometimes fought without gloves, which is what his own father did for a living. I loved my grandfather even though I noticed other people feared him. He always treated me with a lot of love . This left me between two worlds - love and violence. It was definitely an emotional picture: I felt that he was watching me. Somehow he wouldn't have been very happy with it because he was a very reserved man. Which I study more than anything else is the human shadow. The need to paint something until you have shown as much of it as you can. ")
Awards
- The Real Turner Prize
gallery
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Buckman, David (2006), Dictionary of Artists in Britain since 1945 , p.1018, Art Dictionaries, Bristol, 2006, ISBN 095326095-X (English)
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Milner, Frank ed. (2004), The Stuckists Punk Victorian , p.90, National Museums Liverpool, ISBN 1-902700-27-9 (English)
- ↑ "Go West" , The Daily Telegraph . Go to frame number 8. (English)
- ^ "The Stuckists Punk Victorian" , Walker Art Gallery , National Museum Liverpool . (English)
- ^ Lawson, Mark. "Liverpool Biennial" , BBC Radio 4 Front Row , September 6, 2004. (English)
- ^ "Joe Machine: Biography," stuckism.com. (English)
- ^ "Triumph of Painting" , stuckism.com. (English)
- ^ "Turner Prize demo," stuckism.com. (English)
- ↑ "Shed Wins $ 58,000 Art Prize" , The Sydney Morning Herald , December 6, 2005 (english)
- ^ "Go West" , The Daily Telegraph (English)
- ↑ Gleadell, Colin. "Market news: Roger Hilton's child-like drawings, 'stuckist' paintings and Edward Seago" , The Daily Telegraph , October 3, 2006. (English)
- ↑ O'Keeffe, Alice. "How aging art punks got stuck into Tate's Serota" , The Observer , December 11, 2005. (English)
- ↑ Kinnes, Sally. "What's over Your Mantelpiece?" , The Sunday Times , December 3, 2006. (English)
literature
- Evans, Katherine ed. (2000), "The Stuckists", Victoria Press, ISBN 0-907165-27-3 (English)
Web links
- Paintings by Joe Machine (English)
- Painting and interview in Heyoka magazine (2006) (English)
- Interview about the painting My Grandfather Will Fight You (English)
- Two video interviews with Joe Machine (English)
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Machine, Joe |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Stokes, Joseph (real name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British painter, poet and author |
DATE OF BIRTH | April 6, 1973 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Chatham , Kent, England |