Title: Pictures of Innocence I
Artist: John Keane
Year: 2014
Location: London
Medium: Oil on Linen
Dimensions: 76 x 66 cm / 29 â…ž x 26 in
Keane uses oil on linen for this painting. Linen is used instead of canvas as it said to retain natural oils better, and does not go brittle because of the fibers flexibility. Keane paints all of his work in oils, and so this the medium that he is the most comfortable with. The key technique that is used in the artwork is the dotted technique with the blur on top. The random movements of the paintbrush when making the blur is also very interesting as it is so random yet so deliberate.
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The colors of this painting are very interesting. The painting is very dark and is mostly made up of a black background. The face is of a light skin color which greatly contrasts with the background. What stands out most about the painting is Brooks's bright red hair. Keane uses this as a focal point of the painting. He also cleverly uses different shades of blue mixed with black for her shirt so that her hair contrasts and stands out even more. I find it intriguing how most of the painting is based off black and white, and the hair stands out so much. The use of dark and minimum colors creates a very dark and dull mood which instigates questions int eh watchers mind, such as what happened to this woman. We associate her with brightness and happiness because of her hair color, yet she is shown in such a dismal background.
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The artwork creates a very dull and dark mood of sadness. Some words to describe this would be: sadness, dullness, darkness, crime, guilt, shock, hurt, contained.
"Pictures of Innocence"
ANALYSIS
The artwork that I am analyzing for this assignment is "Pictures of Innocence I" by John Keane, painted in 2014. I decided to take a look at John Keane's artwork as I find that his experiences in Rwanda really shape his artwork and make them more interesting. The stories behind his art are also very deep, and these meanings are intriguing to investigate in his artwork and finding the metaphors that he uses to represent them. This is also very relevant to our unit as it is also all about using metaphors in our artwork. This picture also caught my eye as it is mostly in black and white, except for the bright red hair and light blue shirt which bring life to the painting, and in my opinion tell a story. Using these contrasting colors catches the observers eyes.
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When I first saw this piece of artwork, I felt an immediate sense of curiosity as I wanted to know what was going on. The bright red hair in the picture pose a kind of mystery that intrigues the observer. After noticing the hair, the interesting texture and blotched surface caught my eye and cause me to wonder what John Keane was attempting to convey. I also think that the fact that the face is blurred out results in the observer wondering what has happened and encourages them to analyze the artwork.
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The blurred faces remind me of family trees in the older times in which when someone was disowned their faces would be blurred from the tree. This would be done to 'disown' them from the family. I think a similar thing is done when Keane blurred out the women's face, to show her as an outcast to society.
John Keane was born in 1952 in Hertfordshire, southern England. He studied at the Wellington College and Camberwell School of Art. His artwork mainly focuses on pressing political issues and questions, especially having lived in many countries.
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"I am interested in the process of painting, and I am interested in why human beings want to kill one another for political ends. These two apparently diverse preoccupations I attempt to reconcile by smearing pigment around on canvas in an effort to achieve a result whose success can be measured by how well it disguises the sheer absurdity of the attempt."
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John Keane first became famous after he was appointed as the official British war artists during the Gulf War. This caused him to continue to make his art about conflict and focus his attention and artwork on Northern Ireland, Central America and the Middle East. He also worked with organizations such as Greenpeace and Christian Aid.
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Recently, he has also started to paint more difficult and controversial topics linked to religiously inspired terrorism. This includes his works such as Guantanamo Bay, the Moscow theater siege and other violence against civilians. He has also become known for making commissioned portraits of famous people such as John Snow and Kofi Annan.
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'Pictures of Innocence I' is based on the story Rebekah Brooks, an English journalist who was a prominent figure of the 'News International' phone hacking scandal. The title of the painting is very ironic, as Keane himself was shocked when Brooks came out as 'not guilty'. Brooks was one of many reporters who supposedly leaked the private messages and calls of British leaders and especially the royal family. This was a very prominent example of the lack of online security. Although this scandal happened in 2006, Brooks came back into the journalist industry in 2014, the time when the painting was made.
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In this series which was made in 2014, other prominent political figures who were recently in the news were also painted with blurred faces. This was done with Vladmir Putin, leader of Russia who had an orange square placed over his face. This showed that Keane was doing this to people who he felt were outcasts to society.
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John Keane is a very modern artist who experiments with different mediums in his art. He does not follow an specific art movement, but uses different styles in different paintings. His portraits are very detailed, yet his paintings of many people and landscapes are not very detailed, and use many different colors and brushstrokes. Overall though, he uses dark grays through out his artwork and limits the use of color to one area of his art. His use of different styles is what makes his artwork so intriguing.
I think in his artwork, Keane is successful in communicating his suprise and even disappointment that Rebekah Brooks was not found guilty. He personally thinks that she should still be considered an 'outcast' and that should not be allowed back in the industry. He juxtaposes this idea in his title, 'Pictures of Innocence I'
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'Pictures of Innocence I' by John Keane is a portrait of Rebekah Brooks, a journalist at 'The News London who was amidst a phone hacking scandal. Keane painted this painting when Brooks was found not guilty, as in his opinion he believed that she should not have been released.
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The focal point of the painting is the direct center where the woman's face is blurred out very carefully. Although blurry things are not meant to usually stand out, they do in this photo as the rest of the painting has very intricate spots around. Having the scraped blur in the middle makes the area stand out. Furthermore, the entire painting is quite dark, but Brooks's red hair stands out in the center. The painting is a very simple portrait of a woman, yet the focal point is intriguing as it is very different from the rest of the painting.
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Apart from the face, the only other blurred part of the painting is Brooks's hand which she has laid on her opposite shoulder. This positioning makes it seem as the Brooks is guilty and is looking down in shame and holding onto herself, or that she is shocked that she has been proven not guilty. Both of this connotations are negative which emphasizes Keane's belief that Brooks should have been found guilty.
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The background is very interesting as it plain black, What makes the background so intriguing is the black dots that are placed on the background, adding texture. These dots could also have been placed there to recall the Ben- Day printing process. This not only refers to Brooks's professional field of journalism, but could have a bigger meaning as well. These dots were placed extremely closely in the printing industry to create an optical illusion of colors coming together. Keane could be conveying the illusion that Rebekah Brooks is presenting to the rest of the world.
PART 4: CONCLUDING RESPONSE
I decided to study Keane's work as he also mostly paints portraits, a field that I am interested in. Furthermore, what intrigues me the most i that his portraits are rarely detailed such as mine, yet manage to convey the same message through his color choice and brush strokes. I also decided to look at this specific piece of work as when the bright red hair caught my eye, so did the title. 'Pictures of Innocence I' is a very ironic title for painting which is demonstrating the guilt of some one. I think that I value a piece of artwork by its skill, but most importantly by the story behind it, and how well it has been displayed through the uses of symbolism. At first, I did not know the deep meaning of the painting, but after analyzing and studying it, I realized how every small aspect to the painting has a deeper and symbolic meaning to the background story.
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By studying these techniques, I will now be able to use them in my own artwork which is also based on metaphors. I will ensure that even my background is meaningful, and will convey an idea about my metaphor instead of just a 'beautiful' background.
