Facebook Man

He is hot. Kind of trending now. Continuing my series of 'popping' the hot and trendy. You have heard about 'papping' or getting 'papped', I am doing popping - get me? Latest mash-up. Photo was culled from a free newspaper during the same period that the bankers - Goldman Sachs valued his company at 50 Billion USD.

Photographer was not explicitly acknowledged in the newspaper. I did my bits in my image applications. First a scan and then some work changing the background and getting rid of the text.

My idea was to set my subject against a rough background. Imagine I was completely obsessed with 'form'. I conceived a background of banding rectangles that were together beige, black and brown and knocked the colour out of the resulting scan.

King Mark is then pictured against his own Rothkoesque background. The 'degraded' scan lent to the gritty appearance of my final composition to suggest a hint of class.

My art history book quotes Greenberg:

'What is the source of value or quality in art? The answer appears not to be: not skill, training, or anything else to do with execution or performance, but

on conception alone'

The suggestion is that it is an artist's imaginary sense, expressed through the work which is of value and relevance, rather than the subject matter itself. Said another way, it is the meaning in the medium, which constitutes real content.

I might sell a reprint of this derivative work, with no branding applied. Please write to info@popartrazzi.com