Feelings Inside
Alexandra Possy Berry Quenum
I went to the Paul McCartney's exhibition twice. When I first heard about the exhibition, I told myself: "Well, people are interested in it just because it's Paul McCartney. I'm sure he's not really talented as an artist." Then, the first time I saw the brochure of the exhibition, I thought all the paintings showed suffering. All those faces with yellow and red colours and tortured features; I thought Paul McCartney must have a kind of sadness inside, maybe because of the pastness of his "Beatles" life or the deaths of John Lennon and Paul's wife.
When I saw the exhibition, I changed my mind. I found that Paul McCartney really has talent, although his idiosyncratic styles are often challenging to the viewer. Of course, I am only an amateur concerning paintings but some pictures made me feel something inside. Either happiness and admiration, or even discomfort, but something. For me, that is the definition and the aim of all kinds of art. The artist has to provoke a reaction or a feeling inside his "spectators". If you feel something when you look at a piece of art, then the artist has done his job. I experienced a spectrum of feelings during the exhibition and, for the most part, I liked what I saw.
Potent Colours
Angela Holzhauer
When I first saw some paintings by Mr McCartney in an exhibition leaflet and on posters in Siegen, I must confess that I was not very much attracted by this kind of art, these paintings with abstract forms and somehow abstruse compositions. But later, when I was standing directly in front of these pictures, I was truly overwhelmed by the potency of the colours! The fact that the paintings were arranged on neutral white walls and illuminated in a very clever and optimal way by reflectors made them appear dazzling and exciting.
The works which impressed me most in that colour-based way were "Shark on Georgica" and "Unspoken Words" as well as "Patti Boyd" and "Bowie Spewing." By the way, I was very surprised at how small "Bowie Spewing" is - I had imagined it much bigger!
Me and blue and blue
A surprise! So colourful
Wow!The shark explodes
Creative Projections
Elena Komleva
When I saw on TV that Paul McCartney was exhibiting his pictures in Siegen and even arranging them himself, I was very surprised. I hadn't realized that the famous Beatle was a talented painter. Going to his exhibition, I was also amazed at how many pictures he created.
Mr McCartney's pictures are something special, and I like them very much. He has a good imagination and a perfect ability to project it onto a canvas. His pictures have a magic power. Generally they are understandable, even the paintings in which the artist expresses feelings and experiences abstractly, such as "Black Scratch I". In creating this work McCartney associated himself with a prisoner. The dark shades, the scratching through the color, and the keyhole form underline the association.
According to the interviews with the artist, most of the pictures representing his friends or men of show business originated coincidentally. Nonetheless, they seem to portray those figures accurately, and I find them the most interesting of his paintings. "Bowie Spewing" captures the provocative atmosphere of the rock-singing scene with its emphasis on excesses and eruptions in sound and life-style.
The Celt series is also particularly impressive. The archaic details such as the mask-like faces, square nose and slits for eyes, Celtic hats, symbols like the golden owl perched on an orb as the antique sign of wisdom are combined with a relevance for the present. The mythic figures communicate with modern figures, both in the paintings and through the viewer.
I would like to wish Paul McCartney many more creative ideas!
The Nobel Prize for Innovative Self-Marketing
Daniel Kürzinger
In the wake of an exhibition featuring paintings by PAUL McCARTNEY being premiered at an improvised art gallery in the small German town of Siegen, leading minds from the world of popular musical entertainment have announced their respective plans of following in the former Beatle's footsteps and of thrusting upon an unsuspecting public the drawn, painted and sculpted results of their inexhaustible creativity.
Said CHER in Los Angeles: "Yes, it is true. Demi, Pammy and myself are definitely going ahead with plans to have our silicon implants exhibited in a cucumber greenhouse near Antwerp. Donīt I think thatīs crass and beside the point? Ah, now, thatīs just the sort of petty, small-minded, misogynous pseudo-criticism great artists like us - without wanting to heap too much praise upon our own shoulders - have had to endure ever since Priscilla Presleyīs credibility was blown to smithereens as a result of her Elvis sculptures made of dogs' droppings."
Announced MICHAEL JACKSON from his home 600 ft below the soil of Missoula, Montana: "Hellooooo! Look, Iīve drawn some beautiful flowers and some chirpy chirpy cheep-cheep birds and some monkeys and... oh, wait, donīt go away, Iīm so alone down here, donīt switch off just yet, look, Iīve also knitted some woollen underpants for my little boy, except he probably wonīt get them 'cos the nurse said that Debbie doesn't want him to come and play with me no more and... nooooo, don't go, don't turn that off, I SAID DON'T TURN THAT OFF OR I'LL GO AND TELL THE MEN FROM SONY AND YOU'LL BE IN BIG TROUBLE! ALL OF YOU! AAAARRRGH..."
Declared MADONNA at a press conference in New York: "Yeeeaah, you know, I believe it's always been apparent in my work that other women painters like Frida Kahlo and, uhh, her who married that Auguste Rodin guy have been a huge influence on me. What do you mean, she wasn't a painter? Well, uhh, of course she wasn't a painter, I, too, would rather call her a paintress, or even a paintrix, words that also include the brilliant word pain, which is what I intend to express in my art in the same way as I have always done in my music. What? Yeah, I think I was expressing a lot of pain when I did 'Material Girl'. That's pretty obvious, don't you think?"
Exclaimed WHITNEY HOUSTON and MARIAH CAREY at a joint press conference in a suffocatingly perfumed hotel room in Washington, D.C.: "Art is such a beautiful, inspiring thing, isn't it, Whitney?" - "It sure is, Mariah, hahaha! And that's why we've decided to make this beautiful world an even more beautiful, inspired place by showing to the world the lovely pictures we've created - and all for the benefit of a registered charity for kids in Beverly Hills who haven't got enough spending money to support their socially necessary coke habits!" - "I always find it so inspiring, Whitney, the way you can put these laudable intentions into beautiful, inspiring words! Let's hold hands, shall we, to show to the world's media that we co-exist in peaceful harmony, despite the fact that I've had more Number One hits than you!" - "Ooh, uhh, thatīs a beautiful idea, to say the least, Mariah, still I don't think you're correct on all accounts there, as I've certainly had a great deal more Number One hits than your paltry twelve, and besides, everybody knows that Celine Dion does all the vocals on your records, so those 'hits' of yours don't really count, do they?" - "Ffffwweeell, grrzzzz, I mean, hahaha, Whitney, what's a little in-joke between true friends, eh? Anyway, shall we go outside for a bit? I feel a high-pitched scream coming on..."
Said MICK JAGGER in London: "Yeah, right, fab, I've always been right into that art stuff, if not quite as much as into the hot stuff, hurhurhur, we had lotsa body painting going down back in the Seventies when Keith'n'I were still on smack, an' lotsa that sculpture stuff as well, 'cos we used to love lickinī peach yoghurt off chicks that looked just like some o'them sculptures over there, hurhurhur, anyway, I've been doin' some painting myself recently, and guess what, it turned out to be nothin' but all these really rude shapes, hurhurhur, like, fab, if you know what I mean? OK? Yeah, right..."