My Favourite Artists (Top Three)

People frequently sometimes occasionally ask me who my favourite artists are and I'm sure the question has arisen in your noodle too, hasn't it? No? Oh well, I'll state them anyway, just for something to do...because, after all, this blog mainly exists as something for me to do that is not making art, washing up, working in the shop or watching the telly. Unlike, say, Top Ten Film lists, this one doesn't change, hasn't changed for a long time, which suggests that I've come to the end of the Discovering Favourite Artists road and that, in a way, is a bit sad. So in no particular order...

Rausch(enberg) Rumble

Robert Rauschenberg, I kneel at your feet. No I don't. Let me state early on, where such a statement must be made, that I idolise no artist, perhaps because I lived through the Punk era, during which we realised it was the twilight of all (old) idols (Elvis, the Beatles and The Rolling Stones), instead, replacing them with the likes of The Clash when, actually, we should have idolised no-one because that would have been more 'Punk', wouldn't it? Yet each generation needs it's 'Pop' idols, doesn't it?

When it comes to Artists, I made up my mind long ago that in order to Carry On Being Creative (have you seen that film? Hilarious turns by Kenneth Williams as a cruel critic and Sid James as an Abstract Expressionist who is permanently drunk and getting into fights) I could do without the 'burden of worship', which could see me permanently in awe rather than confidently continuing regardless.

Bob, though...I mean...the sculptures, collages, prints, performance art, paintings...he had it all, the swine! No-one made better screen prints. And no-one organised apparent chaos better on a canvas.

Roth (without the 'Ko')

Why not Rothko? He bores me. All that 'spiritual' guff. And rooms of his work where people can sit and contemplate the 'meaning' of...something - bah!

Dieter Roth was a dirty, rotten scoundrel, wasn't he? He liked a drink. He liked being naughty. His art was naughty, quite mad, potentially displaying real genius, but not actually doing so. The crazy drawings, absurd, amazing literary 'sausages', prints, writings, paintings and artist's books, especially the artist's books and his Little Tentative Recipe . His statement: 'If you don't want to give it up, go on until you can't stand it anymore' is both funny and as true as piece of advice as an artist in the mechanical age has given, emphasising as it does both the nature of being possessed by multiple production and how its relentless potential can drive one insane. Roth was a lord of misrule, breaker of taboos and head bouncer at the wildcard artist's bar, eager to kick all poseurs and pretenders up the arse.

Eduard(oh!) Paolozzi 

Oh yes! What can I say? Um. Have you noticed a theme emerging? Well done. Yes, all favourites so far have been eclectic in their media and styles. So, Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi; printmaker, collagist, sculptor and importantly (to me), co-creator of fantastic artist's books such as KEX. He was an early Pop star and contributor to Britain's sci-fi New Wave via New Worlds magazine. He was also a prose evolutionary (like Ballard) in his writings and text accompaniments to photos chosen specifically to suggest scientific, philosophical, artistic idea and an important contributor to the dawn of Tomorrow on the British art scene in the 50s. I've still no idea, though, what Wittgenstein was goin' on about!

That's all for now - the immediate Top Three but not all of those who've inspired me over the years, of course. There may be more to come, depending on how much making art, washing up, working in the shop or watching the telly I do in the forthcoming days and weeks.