Tuesday 14 October 2008

MODERN ART


Modern Art was Art Brut's second single, our first on Fierce Panda.

Modern Art is a song about getting so excited about Art you want to run around in Art Galleries shouting about how amazing everything is.

It is also a song about Paris.

I went to Paris for the weekend of my Twenty Second birthday.It was my third time abroad.I'd previously been to Ibiza (as a tiny baby, so no raving) and on a school exchange to a place called St Lo, in France.I cant really remember those trips though so going to Paris was really my first time abroad.

I know its a bit of a cliche but I fell in love with Paris immediately and visited all the tourist attractions.

I climbed to the top of  Monmartre and the Eiffel Tower, I quietly and intently looked around the Sacre Couer and Notre Dame and I really did jump up and down and run around in both the Pompidou and  The Louvre.

I also chose the name for the band I am in Art Brut.On my birthday at Halle Saint Piere and scrawled "Art Brut Top Of The Pops" in their guest book.

When I got back to England I was unbearable.I could steer any topic of conversation towards how amazing Paris was and about how I wanted to live there. I had filled my mobile phone with lyrics and was intent on writing a song about my experience.Although it turned out Jonathan Richman had beaten me to it by about twenty years with his song "Give Paris One More Chance" I was gutted

Since I'd got back from Paris I'd been arguing with anyone that would listen to me that the Pompidou was much better than the Tate.

I had been told off in the Tate about a month before for excitedly jabbering about the paintings too loudly.I am definitely the sort of person that bares a grudge and couldnt let it go.In the Pompidou in Paris there had been children running about and people having fun.No one would have told me off there.

So because one old man had given me a telling off in the Tate.I decided I would leave the UK forever and live in Paris never to return.Well at least in my imagination.I cant actually speak French  so if I'd really attempted to do that I'd have come undone pretty quick.

 I wrote the words to Modern Art whilst I was making this huge postcard.Both the song and the painting are for the same stupid old man that told me of for enjoying art.

I addressed the Post Card to the house where I grew up though as I'd had similar running away fantasies when I lived there.I also didnt know the stupid old mans address and doubt that he'd care wether I moved to Paris or not

You can hear the Art Brut song Modern Art HERE

This postcard is made of acrylic paint and ink on canvas and is huge







5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why are people so uptight when it comes to viewing art? I love running around museums, pointing out things to little kids and basically geeking out over art.

I've always wanted to visit the Pompidou! All I saw was the building and I was mesmerized. I visited Paris in high school, and I had to practically beg my teacher to take our class to the Musée d'Orsay. *sigh* I'll make it back one day.

I love the fact that you're doing this for all the songs. Can't wait to see more.

Jamie Woods '77 said...

The Pompidou is my favourite place in the world. The pipes, the escalators, the wierd little terrace balconies that you can sit in and smoke fags (always gitanes or gauloiuse) but are installations themselves and the views across the city and then and then and then the paintings and the installations and pollock and the man ray and the matisse

If I do the Tate Modern by myself, Headphones on and have the soundtrack it deserves.
You can't look at Roy Lichtensteins work with hushed reverence, or any of the Paoluszzi collages without listening to cut and pste pop music. Maybe the ROthko room, although thats what yr Jeff Buckley / Eliza Carthy is for. Or the Holy Bible by the Manics. Cos some of that shit is HARSH 'n' gloomy if you liked it when you were a teenager.

I think the Indelicates and Warhol might go well together, maybe I'll give that a go on Saturday.

Unknown said...

this made me giggle for a full five minutes.

Jamie Woods '77 said...

"I cant actually speak French"
and therefore in the future you need to let the funky music do the talking.

It's not rocket science.
Well, it's not science.
Or, for that matter, fact.

Mere Af Det Samme said...

I like the same paintings as 5 yr olds who share my name. Colorful images of elephants especially.