ART, WHATEVER IT TAKES

Since the early pandemic in 2020, Rome Art Program has conducted a series of interviews, “Art, Whatever It Takes.”
Artists, Art Critics, and Art Historians living in Italy, the U.S., and U.K., share their insights during these powerful times.

Interview with Andrew Stahl

Andrew Stahl – London – Artist, Head of Undergraduate painting at Slade School of Fine Art – Member of RAP’s Honorary Board

RAP: Where do you live ? And what is your background?

Andrew Stahl: I have always been based in London though I have lived outside the UK as well. I did two scholarships at the British School at Rome, a two-year scholarship, and ten years later a fellowship for 5 months and I have also done quite a few residencies and travel scholarships in South East Asia particularly Thailand and also participated in residencies in China, Australia and Sri Lanka which enhanced my particular interest in the transcultural art discourse.

RAP: In your opinion is there a “creative method”?

Andrew: I believe that processes change and develop as an ongoing part of realising a vision or making a piece of work. Every piece of work for me anyway aims to experiment and to reflect a particular set of moments so I don’t believe in the idea of a fixed method.

RAP: The “lock down moment” can set you on the path of some important change(s) in your creativity and style…Has this happened to you?

Andrew: I have a studio next to where I live so it has been easy to go there compared to some people whose studio is a long way away. I think there is an incredible silence and disbelief everywhere and, in a sense, this provides a new atmosphere for the now empty streets of the usually very busy London – I feel its too early to predict what impact it will have on my work. I suspect though it will once more remind me to emphasise the fragility of life and the world we live in.

RAP: What normally inspires you? Which is the most important inspirational source you have found in Rome?

Andrew: Besides Rome and Italian art and architecture my work has also been very influenced by Japanese and Chinese painting, Angkor Watt in Cambodia, Giant Buddhas in Thailand and Burma and many places in South East Asia. As mentioned, I am fascinated by transcultural discourse and this includes the enormous cultural heritage left by Rome. As mentioned, I did two scholarships at the British School at Rome, a two-year scholarship, and ten years later a fellowship for 5 months. I walked around Rome and discovered so many things I found incredibly beautiful; I loved the richness and dense history of the wall surfaces. They reflected 2 millenniums of history and they were worn and beautiful. I was amazed at many places but particularly the Pantheon; Piazza Navona; the view across Rome from the Villa Borghese, and I was amazed at the Villa D’Este and the celebratory and the playful nature of fountains. The fountains all over Rome were astonishing. I started making fountain paintings where the water provided the opportunity for expressive surprise. I have never recovered from my visits to Rome -its one of those places that stays in my head for ever.

RAP: Is there a difference in working in Rome for an artist? What art medium do you prefer to work in?

Andrew: When I arrived in Rome and started making paintings there, I found that the light affected my choice of colours enormously – my work became paler and I felt the power of all the amazing art and architecture there as inescapable, providing the enormous weight of the history that is present everywhere in Rome. I make paintings with Oil, Acrylic and also I make sculptures and plenty of drawings.

RAP: Specific events and historical conditions have a significant role in the creative process; how does this pandemic emergency affect the Arts?

Andrew: I think it will have a substantial effect on society. I think we are just at the beginning still and I think it is too early for us to understand the impact it may have.

RAP: How are you feeling at this difficult moment and what made you feel this way? …are you optimistic for the future?

Andrew: For the future I worry about younger people and what impact it will have on them. I think it’s important and I am determined to keep optimistic though and not to suffer in advance. It will probably all pull through though with our amazing medical technology though obviously for some people it’s been very sadly tragic already.

RAP: What can Art contribute to history? Will “Art save us”?

Andrew: Art is at the heart of our society and an amazing interactive discourse. Art reflects on human life and like music can give us hope and save us.

RAP: What is your most ambitious dream?…and the greatest sacrifice that you have made for your Art?

Andrew: My hope is that we learn from this and my dream is that we question seriously why this has happened and try to really take care of our planet. We must see this as a chance to get our priorities right in society. Sacrifice? – I don’t think so – I feel lucky to have the opportunity to focus in my life on what I love – making art.

RAP: Recently, the artistic and cultural message of Italy and Rome was reemerging as a great “work in progress”, …is this your point of view?

Andrew: Rome has always in my opinion been at the heart of all Western cultural subconscious and central to art of all ages including the contemporary discourse.

RAP: Which is your favorite Italian, or Roman, place(s) of art (Museum, Gallery, Monument…) ?

Andrew: As stated already in Rome I love the Pantheon; Piazza Navona with the four rivers fountain by Bernini, I also love the worn down Terme di Caracalla and the amazing Basilca di San Clemente near the Colosseum and its three or four levels – you walk back in time to Roman streets as you descend deep into the foundations of the church and you go right back in history.

RAP: Which period of Italian Art do you prefer? What is your favourite Italian work of art?

Andrew: I love many different periods – outside Rome I love Sienna and for me Duccio’s Maesta is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen.

RAP: How has Rome personally influenced you as an artist and a person?

Andrew: Rome has been a major influence. A place I cannot escape from: I wrote for a catalogue in the 90’s the following: ‘Andrew Stahl walked into the city of Rome and marvelled at the beauty; everywhere he went, every inch was adorned in his mind with a richness and density. History was physically soaked into the stone. A visit to Villa D’Este in Tivoli and the celebratory and playful nature of fountains was conclusive. The fountains were wicked and divinely surprising. A whole series of fountain paintings ensued, where the spouting water provided an excuse to play with the liquidity of paint and with the physical fountains to bring in the solidity of the object in contrast to the fugitive nature of the water. The physically encompassing and playful nature of the fountains in Tivoli encouraged the making of large scale panoramic paintings – the potential for making paintings that had a both a large scale and a playful decorative scale, the minute decorative patterns and features on fountains in contrast to the massive physicality of the stone fountains’.
My time in Rome also was enriched by the wonderful fellow scholars and people I met. The social dimension of art is so important. The food and drink in Rome is amazing!!

RAP: What’s your goal? What role does the artist have in society? Any final thoughts and advice?

Andrew: We can have whatever goal we choose – it is a discourse that is a giant discussion and argument, among many things it can be magical, poetic, political or nothing, whatever you wish. The goal for me is partly to reflect the moment and the strangeness of being alive. It certainly is one place you can show your feelings.

#andrewstah1

www.andrewstahl.co.uk