Unconscious Inspiration

As I sat watching TV last night, I caught sight of a book called ‘Interaction of Color’ by Josef Albers. I bought this book at the Royal Academy’s show ‘Radical Geometry’ back in August. It has sat on my living room floor on top of a pile of books ever since. I was blown away to realise how unconsciously it had inspired me to create the piece I made on the right, and thought it might be an interesting thing to share.

Bauhaus Bouquet

Monica Bella Ullman-Broner.

Exercise from Josef Albers preliminary course 1929 – 30.

Collage of patterned wallpaper.

Bauhaus Bouquet. Sharon Elphick.

One of my favourite exhibitions this year  has to be Bauhaus: Art as Life, held at the Barbican from May to August. A piece that really caught my eye was by Monica Bella Ullman-Broner. The wallpaper collage (pictured above) was an exercise from Josef Albers’ preliminary course and was created between 1929 – 1930. I loved the simplicity of the idea and how effective it was, it also appealed to my love of pattern. Inspired and armed with compass and scalpel I set about creating a series of floral collages based on the same exercise. ‘Bauhaus Bouquet’ is one such collage in the series and the first to be released as a limited edition print. The print is £80, is an edition of 30 and measures 27cm x 19.5cm. Available from this weekend at Columbia Road. It will also be available online over the next couple of days.