Page 165 - Expanded Media & the MediaPlex

Expanded Media - and the MediaPlex 165/206
Henri de Toulouse Lautrec: Woman pulling up her stocking. 1894
At Art School in the 1960s, we spent a lot of time drawing, with both male and female models, and I guess we all tried to 'draw like Lautrec' - he was our favourite draftsman - because we loved the visible spontaneity, the charcoal ,the pastel, the Ingres paper, the chalk, the unfinished 'painterliness' of Lautrec's drawings - and we loved how he transcribed or created these drawings afresh on the lithographic stones for his poster-designs. Pierre Bonnard also came close to this student ideal in his drawings and paintings, and also more contemporary artists with great graphic style like Ron Kitaj and Robert Rauschenberg - and a lot of Hockney's work too. With Lautrec, it was the unique combination of aristocrat artist, low-life Paris, and his 4ft 6 inches (1.42 metres) stature - resulting from breaking both his legs in childhood - these features seemed to elicit a recognition for the underdog. We loved his 'working' into the drawings, overdrawing, retouching, sketchy backgrounds - and altogether the graphic beauty of his drawings.