Drawing from the old masters

Artists have always drawn from other artists. In doing so artists are both able to assimilate what the masters have to teach us, and are able to see how their own concerns are still capable of surviving the confrontation.  Glen Brown has stated that, “I want to feel like my ego is being disassembled & joined with a whole load of other artists”. There is a difference in 'drawing from' and copying and in Brown's case the images selected are transformed by a shifting language of surface marks. The image made 'after Rubens' emphasises the swirling twisting language that Rubens uses to orchestrate his large canvases, Brown reducing the 'atomistic' language to black and white swirls on grey, so that the image is on the point of melting into its own background.

Glenn Brown: After Rubens

Glenn Brown: Layered Portrait (after Urs Graf) 1, 2008

The layered portrait after Urs Graf is an etching and relies of the ability of etching to build layers of tone by creating masses of lines. In this case the technique is used to begin to erode away the original and replace it by some sort of ghost image of the former. 

George Condo has a very close relationship with the art of the past. As well as confronting masters of the Classical tradition Condo has also created images directly responding to Picasso's cubist language. 

George Condo: Society's Child

It was interesting to see that when Condo was faced with his own 'demons' after having to confront cancer recently, he returns to the fragmented language of cubism to hold onto his own pain. 

George Condo 2015

As in Brown's work, this is not copying but 'working from' or 'referring to', Condo's own visual language still of course comes through, he has a way of image making that for me also refers to a language I remember well from the satyrical magazine 'Mad', in particular the cartoons of Don Martin. 

Don Martin

The fact that Condo can refer to both classical artists and cartoonists is I feel indicative of a society whereby images are so freely circulated and available. This it is often argued, is part of the Post-Modern condition. 

Frank Auerbach: From Titian's 'Bacchus and Ariadne'

The visual dynamics of Titian's work are what interest Auerbach rather than the particular subject matter.  Again this is 'working from' rather than copying. I have like so many artists before me spent hours working from selected images in the National Gallery. Sometimes it has been because I was trying to think about composition or how an artist has invented ways to visually join two or more figures together. At other times it has been because I wanted to focus on some aspect of an idea and how this was realised by another artist, this often required working from details rather than drawing the overall image. 
Above all working from old masters reminds us that we are part of an ancient tradition. Artists have always referred back to other artists, there is a common acceptance amongst artists that this is what lies at the emotional core of their profession, and why artists sometimes refer to picking up the art baton, carrying it forwards and in turn passing it on. 
Perhaps the most important thing about drawing from other art is that you are really forced to look at it. It means that you can 'picture' the work much more accurately in your mind, and that you have had more 'real time' contact with the work. The more you think about something the more you begin to see the connections between related forms and ideas and eventually how connections may be made with the work you are doing yourself. 

Sketchbook drawings from details in the National Gallery

The drawings immediately above were done when I was making images of books and their relationship with bodily perception. By having a point of view, I was able to walk through the various galleries and select out details that helped me think my ideas through. In this case touch, sight and taste were in my mind being conglomerated with books as found in various religious paintings. There is no right way to respond to the old masters, this post is just a reminder that working in this way can be a rewarding and profitable experience, and that even well known contemporary artists have been able to make work directly out of this type of experience. 

Artists have always drawn from each other and Michelangelo was often found copying images to help his own ideas develop. See examples here

See also:

George Condo and Glen Brown
Cecily Brown