ARTery Interview with Tom Phillips

*images taken from http://www.tomphillips.co.uk/

MEET MODERN BRITAIN’S RENAISSANCE MAN: TOM PHILLIPS (RA, CBE, b. 1937)

Why do I call Tom Phillips my inspiration and a true gentleman worthy of leading the dreams of today’s young artists -simply Leading by his own Example ? A fellow proud graduate of Camberwell College of Art (Frank Auerback was his Principal Teacher) and the sole contemporary British artist worthy to call: A POLYPTYCH (poly –‘many’ and ptyche –‘fold’) POLYMATH.

Here’s a taste of Tom Phillips’ literally long scope of a lifetime’s work and interests : from learning the bassoon & violin and from singing solo as a baritone to musical

concerts composition, English poetry and literature, Renaissance iconography, African art, life drawing, portraits, painting, sculpture, second hand books and postcards collection, photography, art curation and criticism, choreography, tapestry, collage, book translations, binding and printing, Japanese lettering, lithography, mosaic installation, song writing, opera and theatre set design, film and television directing and broadcasting, illustration ..Royal Mint coin commission design to mark the occasion of the 2012 London Olympic Games as well as the 2014 Benjamin Britten 50 pence coin and the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birthday ..!!

A true ETHOS model of classical Athenian democracy’s ideal citizen (kalos kagathos), Tom Phillips has honoured his birthplace with national and international recognition (Europe, Africa, Australia, USA)– as he has managed to build his studio, live and work nearly all his life in Clapham, South London. From young Oxford University graduate to this day, Tom’s life has been celebrated by a spiral of landmark achievements and well-worthy recognitions such as : first one-man exhibition in London in 1965, teaching appointments at the Ipswich, Bath and Wolverhampton Art Schools, London Royal Academy election in 1984, RA Library and Exhibition Committee Chair (1995 to 2007), National Portrait Gallery and British Museum Trustee, 2002 Commander of the British Empire for Services to the Arts, 2005 Oxford University’s Slade Professor of Fine Art, 2005 to 2011 Director’s Visitor to Princeton University’s Institute for Advanced Study. Famous names appearing in Tom Phillips portrait series over the years have included among others the following: Samuel Beckett, Iris Murdoch, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Richard Morphet, the Monty Python comedy troupe.

Find his ARTery Interview below!

-THREE –

QUESTIONS

What do you call ART?

What I and selected others do

Why are you an ARTIST?

No option

What is the message you bring to ART?

Art brings messages to me, I pass them on

-TEN –

FINISH THIS SENTENCE

Art is a weapon against ..

Nothing, art is for and not against things

Art standards are set by ..

Search me

If there was a Nobel Prize for Art, the criteria would be ..

irrelevant

Favourite artist of all time ..

J.S. Bach

Favourite quote about art ..

“We work in the dark. We do what we can. We give what we have. The rest is the madness of art.”

Henry James

Best way for getting out of an art block ..

Cf Beckett: “I can’t go on. I’ll go on”

Tomorrow’s art will be ..

The day after the morrow’s yesterday

Best advice to a young artist ..

Cf Beckett again, “No matter, try again, fail again, fail better”

Best place to display art ..

wherever

Art isn’t finished until ..

Whenever

Hallmark Serial Artworks and Food for Thought and Inspiration by Tom Phillips:

THE HUMUMENT PROJECT & QUOTATIONS (work-in-progress art project between the years 1966-2016) : name of the title relevant to a threepence second hand Victorian novel (A Human Document by W.H. Mallock, 1892) ‘discovered’ by the artist on one of his usual Peckham Rye Saturday bargain hunt trips on 5th November 1966. Since then, a Treasure Hunt Art Labyrinth between words and forms has begun, developed and even transformed itself into a modern app for the iPad. Through painting, collage and cut-up techniques, the artist embarks into a personal dialogue with the original text giving us his own reading and lifelong voice statements of storytelling and multimedia transformations.

20 SITES N YEARS (1973-1993): capturing changes over time (same week, same time) of 20 photographic locations sampling the reference points of a full circle’s imaginary radius line about half a mile away from the artist’s own studio in South London.

For a wealth of information and news about The Artist – Author and his Unique Artwork, please see : http://www.tomphillips.co.uk/