Andrew Logan An Artistic Adventure is a beautifully produced Art book, stuffed with full page colour photographs of Andrew Logan's international life and work. (I resisted the temptation to rip the photos out of the book, frame them and hang them on my walls!). Philip Hughes, the director of The Ruthin Craft Centre, the book's publisher wrote the glowing forward. The illustrious art critic, Lady Marina Vaizey wrote the Introduction, and the reverential text is supplied by Fennah Podschies.
Andrew Logan, who was a student at the Oxford School of Architecture in the early Sixties, deserves the reverence. He is an iconoclastic artist who has been working prolifically in a wide spectrum of 'Art Media' including Sculpture, Portraiture and Jewellery since the early Seventies.
'For him everything is make-believe. He has snatched a dream out of thin air, his cloud-capped towers and gorgeous palaces are built with everything you and I have thrown away... He ought to be the most revered of artists who has made no distinction between his life and art,' is an apt description from the late Derek Jarman, a friend and collaborator, who once lived in a studio above Andrew's old home in Butler's Wharf, before their building burned down in 1979.
Over the years, Andrew has collaborated with global artists like Brian Eno, and his list of admiring patrons reads like a list of Who's Who. The late H.M. Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, Bono, Julie Christie, Anita Pallenberg are just some of his supporters. Andrew Logan's work has been exhibited all over the world including the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, the Flower East Gallery in London, the Victoria & Art Museum, the Hayward Gallery, Bonhams, the National Portrait Gallery, Sotheby in London, the Royal Academy of Arts and Somerset House.
Andrew is also famous for his Alternative Miss World contests, which he has been hosting since 1972.
'A surreal art event for all round family entertainment,' is how he describes them.
Some of the best known names in the fashion, arts, and media have taken part, either as contestants or judges. David Hockney has been a judge on more than one occassion.
'The artistry of the conestants' and audiences' costumes was wide-ranging and often astonishing and some have since become famous and notorious,' the book's chronichler has stated.
His first contest was thrown in one of his former London studios, a converted jigsaw factory at Downham Road in Hackney with himself playing the role of both Host and Hostess. Since then, there have been eleven Alternative Miss World contests, including the fourth one held in a tent on Clapham Common in 1978. The late actor Divine was one of the presenters, and the Judges, including Lionel Bart and Joan Bakewell were incarcerated in a cage.
"The orthodox world I live in threatens the free spirits who on these occassions let rip with an exuberance and joy to outrage a million matrons.... it is like walking among a gallery of brilliant art objects - each enjoying each. Most brilliant of all - Andrew Logan - creator, wizard, puppet master, promoter of choice,' reminisces Bakewell.
The resultant Alternative Miss World film, directed by Richard Gayer, was premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square and Cannes. It was also infamous for receiving an injunction from the organizers of the annual Miss World beauty pageant. The case was thrown out of court by the judge, Lord Denning, who said that no one was likely to confuse the two events. The barrister on the case was Tony Blair, who went on to become the Prime Minister of Great Britain!
The book's chapters are devoted to Logan's existence as an eccentric and original artist. The Alternative Miss World events are recorded in photographic detail, as are his celebrity portraiture of icons like Elizabeth Taylor, his close friend, Zandra Rhodes and Maria Callas. His unique glass jewellery often decorated with stuck on incongruous objects, was described by George Melly as 'the Faberge of the Eighties.'
'The mirror of the universe has been my life for thirty years. It has energy like no other material. The humble grain of sand transforms to glamorous glass,' Andrew says, explaining his obsession with working with glass.
'Andrew Logan works both as sculptor and Master of Ceremonies in a world of artistic adventure; in this constructed universe, like Lewis Carroll's alternative, the unexpectedly large meets the infinitely small, and suspension of belief is rewarded by extraordinary surprises,' is just one of the profound quotes in the book.
At the back of the book, there are several pages of dedications to Andrew's wide circle of fascinating friends titled 'Gods and Goddesses', most of whom have been circulating in his orbit for years.
So, drool over the sensational colour photographs of his one of a kind jewellery and and ogle his life size sculptures, several of which are displayed in his extraordinary home, The Glasshouse studio, designed by Michael Davis, his partner. One of Andrew's best known sculptures is Pegasus: A Monument to Hope (1980 with 'subsequent interpretations and editions up to 2008'). He 'first conceived the idea of Pegasus, which years later led to the making of this sculpture series, as a child of 11 years of age. Obsessed with Greek and Roman myth, his imagination was fired by the winged white horse that sprang from the severed neck of the Gorgon, slain by hero Perseus.' Wings have remained a theme in Andrew's work, first manifested in early sculptures in broken mirror of birds. Andrew Logan has often said that during the creating process, he felt he was 'a tool, that Pegasus symbolised a bridge between the physical and spiritual dimensions, and that the winged horse and his message of hope belonged to the the world.' In fact, Pegasus: A monument to Hope was the first sculpture that Andrew Logan made after the fire at Butler's Wharf studio. Since then, he has created a new Pegasus during each decade.
Although one can still get the full impact of Andrew Logan An Artistic Adventure without reading the words, the text plays a vital part in understanding Andrew's work and life. But, it is the exquisite photographs that really help this glossy Art book become the definitive respective of England's most individual and eccentric artist. He is such a prolific creator, I am sure this interesting book will be the first of his many retrospectives to come.
Copyright: Frances Lynn, 2008
Frances Lynn is a professional writer and journalist. Her two novels, "Frantic" and "Crushed" are published by Eiworth Publishing. Her personal website is http://www.franceslynn.org/
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