One subject people often talk about when it comes to art is how other artists influence each other, learn from one an other, and sometimes even borrow or steal ideas from each other. From the renaissance to modern times one can see how different artists have in one way or an other had some kind of influence on the works, and lives of others.
In the modern era, artists talk about their art and both inspire and teach on an other. If in the renaissance workshops tried to keep their trade secrets from each other, by the 19th Century, artists were gathering in cafes and salons to discuss art, and shape many of what became the modern art movements.
One such relationship I found interesting is a rather modern one. A relationship between pop artist Andy Warhol and graphic novelist Hergé. With the soon to be released Stephen Spielberg movie based on Hergé’s most famous creation Tin Tin, all things Hergé are back in the spotlight. Perhaps also being fascinated by the works of both these artists, looking at how one influenced and was important to the other is something I wanted to look further into.
What is interesting is that as Hergé became wealthier, he became himself quite a collector of art. No only did he like older Flemish works such as Breugel (who I have talked about before), and Holbein, but also modern artists such as Joan Miro, Roy Lichtenstein, famous for is graphic cartoon style, and Andy Warhol, famous for well, fame. During the 1960s, Hergé started himself to take art classes and started painting modern abstract pieces like the one below.
As for Andy Warhol, he is a great love of mine that was developed in my teens. Perhaps as a young gay man I started to identify with this openly gay, avant guard artist. I think I also started to be fascinated by celebrity culture, something Warhol became well know for. What I loved about the work of Warhol is that it is very graphic. It tends to be simple in line and in colour. The colours are bright, and he tended to use primary colours or red, blue, yellow. Does this sound familiar? Both Roy Lichtenstein and Warhol credited Hergé as influential in the American Pop art movement of the 1960s. Hergé’s use of artistic economy and of clear line was perfect for what became the iconic works of Warhol and Lichtenstein.
In the late 1970s, Hergé commissioned Warhol to do his Portrait. It would be the first meeting of the two. A few years later in 1983 Hergé passed away.
What I was hoping to show in this brief article is how even today, artists, from various mediums influence one an other, even me. I also find it fascinating that artists that I love, influence one an other. A French minimalist artist named Jean Pierre Raynaud was quoted as saying about Hergé:
"He has a precision of the kind I love in Mondrian. He has the artistic economy that you find in Matisse's drawings. He perfectly crystallises what he wants to say and, as a result, his work never ages."
When I started this Blog, the first thing I placed on here was a quote by Piete Mondrian, who perhaps more than any other artist has influenced what I do. It’s his work in New York, his linear blocks of colour that really speak to me. It truly is what I love about painting which is all about the paint, the colour of it. To see an other artist relate to work of Hergé to Mondrian in perhaps in itself why I love it so much. I should maybe now start looking to Hergé, my first true love, as my true inspiration in everything.
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