An Artist, The Studio, and all the rest…

An Artist, The Studio, and all the rest… takes the form of two beautifully crafted HD film projections with sound produced and directed by John Beattie over a period from 2006 to 2012.
Beattie explores the relationship between traditional academic ideas of the artist and their practice and contemporary approaches to art making. Beattie’s work raises complex questions as to how we, on the other side of the 20th century experimentation, may integrate and value the traditional.
To commence this research he approached Thomas Ryan, a past president of the RHA, and they created a Master/Apprentice collaboration. The first film is shot in Ryan’s studio and is a meditation on the craft and methodologies employed by an artist working in the academic vein.
For the second film Beattie appropriated Gustav Courbet’s The Artists Studio, 1854/55, and staged a recreation of the image in The Great Hall, at the Irish Museum of Modern Art. For the tableaux he invited artists, and representatives of the cultural institutions in Ireland to pose for this carefully choreographed re-staging. It is a theatrical and thought provoking spectacle on how one unpicks and understands the creative process.
The artist would like to acknowledge the assistance of the Arts Council/An Chomairle Ealaionn in the making of this work. Also thanks to the Studio Residency Programme at IMMA and the Firestation Studios.
John Beattie, HD film still, An Artist, The Studio, and all the rest… duration 15mins, 2012. Image courtesy of the artist.