IN THE NAME OF ART

IN THE NAME OF ART

By William Sutton

Source: www.speakup.com.br

Language level: B1 Lower Intermediate

Speaker: Rachel Roberts

Artists sometimes adopt names for simplicity, sometimes to add mystique. Often, they are given nicknames by accident.

PLAYING WITH NAMES

Diminutives: Antonio Canal, famous for paintings of Venice and London, was known as Canaletto (you can read entertaining stories about his activities in England in Janet Laurence’s novels, such as Canaletto and the Case of Westminster Bridge). His nephew, Bernardo Bellotto, found success by borrowing his uncle’s pseudonym.

Donato di Nicollo di Betto Bardi is known for sculptures such as the David in the Bargello Museum, Florence, under the name Donatello.

English graffiti artist Banksy keeps his real identity secret, partly to avoid arrest for his guerrilla artistic activities. The pseudonym may be based on his real name possibly Robert Banks or Edwards Banks. This uncertainty mirrors public reaction to his work. Some criticize it was vandalism. But his distinctive paintings, appearing on walls around the world as if by magic, use dark humour to generate debate. One example is an image of two policemen kissing; another is a Guantanamo Bay prisoner on a Disneyland ride.

A SENSE OF PLACE

El Greco found fame in Spain, working for the Church. The Spanish found his name hard to pronounce, but his paintings are signed Domenikos Theotokopoulos.

Controversial artist Michelangelo Merisi is known by the name of his hometown. Caravaggio. He developed chiaroscuro, the melodramatic contrast of light and dark, and shocked society by using a prostitute as his model for the Virgin Mary.

THAT ARTY FEELING

Sometimes a name sounds more artistic. Emmanuel Radnitzky began using the abbreviated name Man Ray to avoid anti-Semitism, but this strange pseudonym suited his modernist ethic. Polish-French modernist Balthasar Klossowski de Rola chose the memorable name Balthus.

Arhitect Charles-Édouard Jeanneret Gris believed that artists, and cities, could reinvent themselves. He chose to be called Le Corbusier, perhaps connected to the word for crow, but similar to his grandfather’s name, Lecorbésier.

Hilaire-Germanin-Edgar De Gas chose a less pretentious spelling of his name Degas. And Andrew Warhola, the son of Czech immigrants, removed a letter to become Andy Warhot.

MEANING AND SIMPLICITY

Because Jacopo Comin’s father was a dyer or “tintore,” he became known as Tintoretto. (His real surname, which translated as the spice “cumin,” was discovered only recently by the curator of the Prado).

Nicknames have also been attached to modern artists. Picasso was the Bull and Salvador Dali The Magician, while Jackson Pollock was known in London as Jack the Dripper.

POLITICS AND MANIFESTOES

The Futurists used pseudonyms to reflect their modern ideas: Volt (Vincenzo Ciotti), Fillia (Luigi Colombo) and Luciano Folgore (Omero Vecchi).

Radical feminism produced the Guerrilla Girls, a New York collective who promote egalitarian ideas. The members use disguises during interviews, naming themselves after dead female artists, such as Frida Kahlo and Sonia Delaunay.