DAY 15: Barry McGee: TWIST

Dear Friend,

For today's post, I decided to share a paper I did this semester on an amazing current artist, Barry McGee.  Hope you enjoy.  

Sincerely,
Angeles

Barry McGee: Twist

Coming out of the mod scene in the 1980's and growing up in San Francisco, Barry McKee, known also as Twist on the streets, began bombing the streets with his graffiti in 1985 during the Reagan/Bush era, at the age of 18.¹ He came from the underground youth arena of West Cost surfers, skaters, indie music and graffiti artists and began creating art that reflected this.² McGee views graffiti as a vital method of communication and feels it keeps him in touch with a larger, more diverse audience than can be reached in traditional spaces of galleries and museums.³ He continues his graffiti even now that he is internationally known and shows his work in mainstream and alternative galleries and museums.

His large popularity has been seen to help legitimize the street art genre, paving a way for names such as Banksy and Shepard Fairey (the controversial artist who painting the street portrait of Obama).⁴

In 2001, his work was featured in the Venice Biennial. Since then, his work often sells for hundreds of thousands of dollars.⁵ Since 2001, his art made it's way to Ebay, alternative exhibition spaces, skate shops, art fairs and auction houses and most recently museums and galleries. In the past, McGee's works have been stolen, traded, destroyed and faked.⁶ At a solo show which took place at Brandeis University's Rose Art Museum in 2004, “there was a major heist there –thirty-nine bottles were stolen over a period. But no one figured it out until the end of the show”.⁷ These bottles that were stolen are ones he is known for that he paints his droopy eyed, depressed looking characters inspired by homeless people and transients he has come across on the streets.

Fig. 1

McGee's influences come from artists such as Mexican Muralists, and graffiti artists from the 70's and 80's such as Jean Michele Basquiat and Keith Haring. You can see these influences come out in his work. The color palette he uses, particularly in his geometric pattern paintings are reminiscent to the colors found in Mexican Murals (fig. 1). The text, paint drips, things marked out, graffiti and raw drawings are all characteristics you will find in Jean Michele Basquiat's work, as well as social issues being addressed (fig. 2). And his characters in particular remind me of Keith Haring's work, the way they are so recognizable, stylistic and social (fig. 3).

His work has been described as “...a strong immediately recognizable visual signature of the best graffiti art, but is also enormously poetic and evocative. It communicates the artist's strong empathy with people who have been left behind by contemporary society”.⁸

Fig. 2

Graduating from San Francisco Art Institute in 1991 he is seen as a part of the Mission School of Art Movement, which emerged around a core group of artists that attended the San Francisco Art Institute.⁹

Fig. 3

One element that is particular to the Mission artists is the 'cluster' method (fig.4). There is not an artist that is a part of The Mission that does not use this method within his or her work. The artist will bring together several artworks, usually small in size and mount them on a wall in a cluster, very close together or sometimes even overlapping as McGee often did. Another characteristic that is unique to The Mission is a real concern with social issues. Living in The Mission District, one is constantly bombarded with homeless people as well as drug addicts living on the streets, seeing a lot of

suffering.¹⁰

Fig. 4

McGee is a multidisciplinary artist, as you can tell from looking at his work. In the exhibit, “One More Thing”, which I will discuss in greater detail later, you will find that he has sculpture, paintings, installations, and video art within his shows. He also paints on the walls, as you would find a graffiti artist doing on the streets, paints on canvas, found objects such as sheet metal, glass bottles, car parts, vehicles, and trash bins to name a few of the endless ways he chooses to express himself.

Fig. 5

Along McGee's career, there have been times of controversy. In 2006, McGee was involved in providing artwork to Adidas for their Y1 HUF shoe. A protest campaign was started by Asian Americans who believed that the picture on the shoe's tongue depicted a racist stereotype, showing an Asian type character with slanted eyes and buck teeth (fig. 5). The image was a Ray Fong image, another street name McGee used at times before he became known as Twist. In Barry's defense, this image was a self portrait of himself at a young age. McGee is half Chinese.¹¹

Fig. 6

A couple of years before, a controversy that came about is one that took place in the San Francisco City Hall when San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Matt Gonzalez let McGee spray paint his office walls with a message: “SMASH THE STATE” (fig. 6). This is one of the last exhibitions of many that Gonzalez hosted before another election was held, one that he was not running for. His work in the City Hall exhibition did not only have this controversial text, it also included his characters as well as small installation pieces.¹²

Fig. 7

One final controversy that I want to mention is a mural piece McGee was commissioned to do by The Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego (fig. 7). This mural was located right across from City Hall. One resident of San Diego complained, “I think it's awful, it's an ugly eyesore”. A cop asked, “What's graffiti and what's not?” which totally brings up the debate of 'what is considered art and what is graffiti.¹³

"One More Thing"
Deitch Projects 2005

"One More Thing"
Deitch Projects 2005

"One More Thing"
Deitch Projects 2005

One of my favorite exhibits that I found on McGee was a show that he did in 2005 for Deitch Projects in New York titled, “One More Thing”. Deitch Projects is known for producing ambitious projects by contemporary artists as well as books. Some artists that have been a part of shows at Deitch Projects are Jean Michele Basquiat, Keith Haring, Francesco Clemente and Julian Schnabel.¹⁴ McGee's exhibit, “One More Thing” is a great representation of all aspects of McGee's work as an artist on the streets and in the gallery. Here, you will find graffiti style paintings on the walls as well as 'writings' in the main room and the restrooms. There are sections that have his 'cluster' paintings, all framed in cheap dime store looking brass and wood frames, however the presentation and art is by far not cheapened by use of these frames. As you enter the exhibit, you will find a picture of Ray Fong, the character used on the controversial Adidas shoe and will be welcomed by overturned cars almost piled up to the roof doused with graffiti. McGee brings his own world into the space.¹⁵ You will find dumpsters spilling out artwork, geometric color panels popping out of the walls, characters on bottles, stacks of television sets inside the back of an open van, cords coming out of the ceiling connected to electronics with art, paintings on sheet metal, and other fragments from the streets. The televisions stacked in the van as well as other places have animated drawings flickering from them. All of this is bringing the streets to the museum guest. As much chaos that is happening, his use of space is exceptional while your mind can be at times overstimulated. A very important aspect and presence of the show, to McGee, is the part that his community of friends plays. You will see this through photographs, sculptures, mannequins, and drawings as well as their participation in the installation of the exhibit. “The ills of contemporary urban life, with its burden of homelessness, addiction and social inequalities can be felt in McGee's installations.”¹⁶

This installation shows the rough side of urban life such as homelessness, addictions, rejection and social inequalities. He also shows a personal response to mass produced advertising, corporate logos and billboards that constantly are in our face every day.¹⁷ This part of McGee's work reminds me of Warhol's 1980's pieces that were centered around mass production and commercialization, each of the artists reacting to this issue in different ways with different responses.

To sum up McGee's work, the is a central theme we continually see throughout his gallery pieces. Social issues are represented in each piece and have followed him since the beginning of his first marks he laid down on the streets, billboards, buildings, trains and stickers. His work, as well as the way he presents everything, is thought provoking, somewhat sad when looking at the characters, especially when you know what they depict, visually stunning, and inspiring. His use of line, color, shape, values and texture, along with his understanding of how to mix different medias without them becoming separate parts are genius. I look forward to following his career for the next several years and decades.

1Bucket, Charlie, “Barry McGee (Twist) Interview,” in Entertaining Things, Dreamhost, 12 Sept. 2009, <http://www.entertainingthings.com/2009/09/12/barry-mcgee-twist-interview/> 19 Nov. 2010

2Anderson, Lauri, “Barry McGee,” in Art 21, PBS, 2001, <http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/mcgee/clip1.html> 20 Oct. 2010

3Anderson

4Wright, Andrew Jeffrey, “Barry McGee; Twist,” in SWINDLE Magazine, Media Temple, 2007, <http://swindlemagazine.com/issue14/barry-mcgee/> 20 Oct. 2010

5Wright

6Kuo, Michelle, “Barry McGee.” Artforum International 46.8 (2008): 338+. Academic Onefile. Web. 19 Nov. 2010

7Kuo

8Deitch, Jeffrey, “Barry McGee,” Deitch Projects, NS0.com, 2005, <http://www.deitch.com/artists/sub.php?artistId=1> 19 Nov 2010

9Wright

10Rose, Aaron and Strike, Christian, Beautiful Losers, San Francisco, CA, 2004, 42

11Wright

12Hoggard, Barry, “Barry McGee: Smash The State,” in Bloggy, Webfaction.com, 2004, <http://bloggy.com/2004/12/barry_mcgee_sma.html>, 23 Nov. 2010

13Unknown, “San Diego Is Not Feeling New Barry McGee Mural,” in Juxtapoz, Domaincontrol.com, 22 Nov. 2010

14Deitch, <http://www.deitch.com/gallery/about.html>

15DiRosa, Joe, “Barry McGee: One More Thing @ Deitch Projects,” in New York Art Series, Artistseries.com, 2005, <http://www.newyorkartistseries.com/mambo/content/view/190/60/> 22 Nov. 2010

16DiRosa

17DiRosa

**I am not the owner of the photographs.  I cited all work to the best of my ability, intending no harm to anyone but to spread the art of Barry McGee.