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Loomit | pasta poodle
“You have to master your instrument. Painting is the instrument of drawing. You have to be able to draw the apple before you can paint big on the wall. Before you smear paint on the wall you have to have an idea of shape, light and shadow and so on. That comes from drawing. The craft must be learned.” (Loomit, 2020)
It is impressive to see the impact a pack of crayons, paper and an exciting comic can have on children. Growing up in Buchloe, the graffiti legend put himself to the test Loomit with his aerosol cans in rural areas before setting off into the cities of the world to prove his skills and spread his name. Like no other, he managed to make his stage name known around the world, even in the most remote corners. For more than 38 years now Loomit in the urban graffiti world and his heart still beats with full force for this art. And so it is not surprising that to this day his six letters are the main focus of his art. in the OZM HAMMERBROOKLYN you can marvel at this not only on the southern outer facade of the exhibit, but also very well in the new rooms of his exhibition pasta poodle.
Thanks to his decades of practice and the acquisition of new knowledge on his travels, he succeeded Loomit to develop his own visual language that not only takes up traditional elements of style writing, but also oscillates between abstraction and figuration as well as expressive colors. In this exhibition, apart from smaller series, each picture stands on its own and forms an individual universe created by the artist. You can see illusionistic constructions and organically curved forms, which only on closer inspection can be discerned as recognizable plastic bodies.
The basic stage in almost every one of LoomitIn the paintings shown, one or more of his characters (“L”, “O”, “O”, “M”, “i”, “T”) form one or more of his characters, which he usually “builds” into the space. However, he does not understand his letters graphically, but rather pictorially, with light and shadow. As unordered objects in seemingly endless space, they can sometimes distort or bend and become landscapes. Loomit It's primarily about the artistic representation of his name, but he doesn't just want to paint it, but also place it in an interesting way in a room.
At the same time he uses the characters as a platform for smaller illustrative stories. For these stories, he often uses animals and landscapes, and occasionally human beings also appear. According to his own statement, animals have no special status for Loomit, but he likes to visualize them and they are not easily compared to other things, such as B. people. It is definitely striking that, in addition to his written characters, depictions of animals appear more frequently in his oeuvre.
Loomits small to medium-sized works are characterized by the fairly frequent use of contrasting primary colors and are characterized by two to three painted pictorial planes. First there is the background, which is designed in one color or with flowing and subtle color transitions (graffiti slang: “fadings”). In the second embodiment in particular, the background often appears light and airy. The differently structured forms or figurations can be recognized as the second layer. These are executed in a very dynamic style and thus bring movement into the pictures. It is striking that only the figurative representations are contoured. The other forms do not have any sharp outlines or what is also called “outline” in graffiti jargon, which is unusual since this is mostly done with the pieces. As a result, they appear to be softly blurred and enveloped in a misty veil. This creates an idyllic and mysterious atmosphere. This technique is called "sfumato" in art history and even if Loomit does not use oil paint for his pictures, but the style is reminiscent of it. The characters and shapes stand out from the background due to their different coloring. Their spectrum ranges from bright colors to muted full tones and their respective pastel shades. The artist also uses fading for these depictions. Loomit works with lots of light and shadow, creating a spatial effect. But also the use of highlights such as mist and gloss effects or drips, which are shown as a third layer of color, are perceptible.
Furthermore, the artist uses interesting perspectives that provide surprise effects for the observer. In some cases, an intensive examination is necessary in order to be able to classify what is shown in a meaningful way. To evoke the impression of a three-dimensional space on the screen uses Loomit often the central perspective. Various effects can be achieved by using one or more vanishing points. Thus, the pictures with one vanishing point quickly give the impression of a rather rigid and firmly assembled spatial constellation, while the canvases with two vanishing points suggest greater openness and depth, which at the same time assign the viewer a rather distanced point of view, because he or she is from the pictorial space is more clearly excluded. Furthermore, especially in the smaller picture series, spaces without depth can be found, which are designed to be emphatically “flat”, so that the figures and backgrounds appear like layers pushed in front of each other. Due to the selected image sections, the images have a kind of overview and orientation function for the recipients. In addition to the perspective through which a certain space is reproduced, one can also ask about the function of the visualized spaces. at Loomit These serve primarily to transport a mood (of his person, a character, scene or story), but also to situate an action. As already described at the beginning, comics had in Loomits youth had some effect on him. This influence can still be found in his work today. But what connects Loomits art with that of the comics and where can differences be seen?
An obvious peculiarity of an illustration in comics is the plurality on a two-dimensional plane, which in the works of Loomit is clearly present. The artist also shows direct references to comics through the use of excerpts, the dynamics created in the characteristic style, through monochrome surfaces and the contouring through color contrasts. The rather smaller sizes of the canvases and the arrangement of several smaller pictures next to each other, which is particularly evident in the series, are reminiscent of the structure of a comic page. In addition, configurations of colour, shape or content are repeated, resulting in a more general structure that is characteristic of a comic. Another distinctive feature of comics is that they often present a stage of independent fantasies and dream worlds, which is what Loomit can also be seen. He uses a fairly wide range of painterly styles. In the history of comics there are also a number of illustrators who are often overlooked in the usual history of comics, but who, with a great deal of experimentation, created peculiar worlds and thus changed the form of comics aesthetically and permanently; E.g. 1926 Otto Nückel with Destiny - A Story in Pictures or 1929 Lynd Ward with God's Man. They understood the comic page as an art form in its own right and created their very own visions – above all, they knew how to use the large-format layout of the single page. Furthermore, wordless picture stories also developed in the comic world, which certainly represented sequential narratives, even if the typical panel delimitations (panel: illustrated single image of a scene in a comic) or other comic elements were missing. The artists made great use of the option to report in as complex a manner as possible using interrelated individual images. However, these wordless stories, with their often demanding implementation in the visual language, were intended more for an audience interested in culture, which is why no really independent tradition developed from them.
There are in the pictures of Loomit but also aspects that contradict traditional comic designs. Thus, in most comics, the shapes depicted are contoured, which is what the images of Loomit is often not the case. Likewise, there is no clearly recognizable seamless connection between a story and the usual communication with the viewer through text modules or visualized noises in speech bubbles does not take place in his works. In addition, the images appear from Loomit in contrast to the panels in conventional comics more on their own, since there are usually omissions between the individual images and there are e.g. B. does not use so-called "movelines" to illustrate movements in his series. But as already described, the artist uses other painterly means to bring dynamics and movement into his works. It has also already been mentioned that there are also comics that can consist of static single images without panel limitations, as is the case with Loomits exhibition is the case. The artist has more of an intuitive approach to storytelling through images and a keen sense of creating a setting that creates an inimitable atmosphere with its original compositions. In terms of understanding with the recipients, one can say that the works communicate with us like in a kind of silent film: the visual elements are seen and interpreted, but the artist does not provide any clear verbal information about the narration. However, the letters here do not only serve as subjects with which Loomit artistically engaged, but they are also suitable as a means of communication in the sense of onomatopoeia. Moreover, the characters are the motifs that appear most frequently in the exhibition and can therefore be classified as “main figures”. Again, this is an element almost always found in comics.
A nice example in Loomits exhibition, which takes up characteristic features of the comic and the previous descriptions, is the image The hunt.
What can be seen is a fragmentary, static single image which, with the help of central perspective, presents us with an overview of a diverse scene. The picture also situates an action, in this case – as the title and what is shown suggests – a hunt and possibly part of a story. It is unclear whether this is the beginning, the climax or the end of the narration. The background was designed in the already mentioned flowing color transitions and the contrasting primary colors are also clearly visible. This example of work makes it wonderfully clear how Loomit understands his letters artistically, because the colors used in a targeted manner create light and shadow effects, which make what is depicted three-dimensional and give the picture a spatial depth. Furthermore, the characters here serve not only as protagonists, but also as a stage for the narrative. The whole composition is very dynamic, everything seems alive like in a performance. The two "O"s can be seen clearly in the foreground. Due to the chosen design forms, it seems as if they have two weapons on their heads and are aiming at the "M", which looks like a target, further up in the picture. Or is the figure on the right in the background the supposed target? In any case, the "M" seems to have been placed at the top of the i-point. This letter is clearly seen here as a looming mountain that the person is climbing. The figure, which appears to be a man because of the finely accentuated muscles, raises its left arm and probably swings the "T". Or is the shape in his hand an antler or a crossbow? Is the character a warrior or even a divine hero and where is the “L” hidden in all of this? Some questions remain open and cannot be answered.
Loomits images are rich in allusions, full of metaphors and allegorical narratives. This is also particularly evident in the clearly recognizable subjects of the animals. Depictions of animals play an important role in the origin of the human representational system and are among the earliest motifs in painting, photography, sculpture and film. They can be found in art over the millennia: for example as studies in the Renaissance, as wild creatures in the Romantic period, as beautiful beings in Classicism or as representations of vital forces in Expressionism. Even in popular media such as B. the comic, they have been around for a long time. For many years animals functioned e.g. B. as attributes for nature and character traits, human senses and activities. But they can also stand as symbols for something. The border between attribute and symbol is fluid and their meanings can change over the years. Today, these interpretations have receded into the background for most people. However, the deer can stand for goodness and wisdom, or since it is a nimble animal, it can also be interpreted as a symbol for the passage of time. The bear, on the other hand, is sometimes understood as the shaping force of art and the crane stands for luck and longevity in Japan and China. Today it is clear that there is no einheitThere is and cannot be a general, absolute and everlasting interpretation of the animal, but always only historically and culturally limited views of the animal. So it is not surprising that not only the interpretations, but also the forms of representation change and expand. In recent years there has been an increasing number of artists developing robotic animals. Similar to see in the pictures enjoyment 1 and enjoyment 2, where a robotic-looking elephant appears to be holding a coffee grinder(?) and a polar bear listening to a vinyl record over a gramophone.
All in all, this impressive exhibition combines perfect and professionally executed artistic activity and ingenuity. The originality of Loomit's art is his use of artistic popular fringe: a mix of graffiti and the artistically-tinged comics, and his ability to reassemble them to create something new. Well-known classic standards from graffiti and the conventions from the comic world are released from their original anchoring and Loomit releases them into a wide range of his imagination. The focus of his works is almost always one of his six letters, which is usually represented cryptically. Therefore it is difficult to identify them in the images. In addition to the characters, the visual creation of a mystical atmosphere and the telling of stories are in the foreground. Loomits forms are characterized by dance-like grace and liveliness, atmospherically inserted into these seemingly endless background landscapes. However, it does not radiate the lonely emptiness of an Yves Tanguy, but rather a heavenly expanse that appears light and airy. However, everything is never clearly comprehensible and so his pictorial worlds, which have a high recognition effect, always pose a puzzle. In this way, the artist gives the readers of his pictures a great deal of freedom for their own interpretations. May everyone find their own story!
According to a cherished legend, comics are the urban invention of the last turn of the century. The first heyday of comics was centered in New York. The modern art form of graffiti was also born on the streets of New York. A wonderful parallel that is revealed by this. And both forms are still elements in the vernacular of modern life.