TDC Talk: James Faure Walker
Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2014, 14:00 - 15:00
Venue: Queens Building, De Montfort University
In the eighties, James Faure Walker was knocked sideways by the paint systems on the Apple II and the Amiga – Dazzle Draw, Deluxe Paint. Already established as a painter and critic, he had to begin again, liberated, improvising between screen and canvas. Paint software simulates paint, and paint simulates the screen. Painters mostly avoided these tools, having a low opinion of computer art. In turn, the digital art community set itself apart, dreaming of a time when virtual art would take over – some time after 2000. That didn't happen. 'Painting the Digital River' was his response, arguing that painters could use the new palette and still be painters. He argued that digital art didn't need to look different. It didn't need to be futuristic, weird, or interact with the spectator in a novel way. It could remain within the orbit of the art of painting. This illustrated talk brings the story up to date, with themes from pigeons to football, from watercolour to the Cintiq. He will also mention early how-to-draw books, and how they anticipate the draw program.
James Faure Walker (born London 1948, St Martins 1966-70, RCA 1970-72) has been incorporating computer graphics in his painting since 1988. Exhibitions include the Hayward Annual (1979), the John Moores (1982, 2002), the Whitworth (1985), eight times at Siggraph (1995 to 2007), and at DAM Berlin. In 1998 he won the 'Golden Plotter' at Computerkunst, Gladbeck, Germany. He has eleven works in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, and his work was featured in 'Digital Pioneers' in 2009. He was one of five English artists commissioned to produce a print for the 2010 South African World Cup. He co-founded Artscribe magazine in 1976, and edited it for eight years. His 2006 book, 'Painting the Digital River: How an Artist Learned to Love the Computer', Prentice Hall (USA) won a New England Book Award. In 2013 he won the Royal Watercolour Society Award. He is Reader in Painting and the Computer at the CCW Graduate School, Chelsea, University of the Arts.
Links
More information: https://vimeo.com/85416041
