Tony Kaye, an advertising man, an artist, a rebel and ultimately a creative. He is the man behind of some of the most debated adverts of our time, as well as some of the most controversial art pieces. Is he just determined to break all the rules or is he using old traditions of the art world to affect his modern work? And create pieces that produce controversy, inspiration and groundbreaking movements within industries across the board.
He has a substantial body of work across both the advertising and art industries. The diversity of his cultural production, moves fluidly between the disciplines, in a way that seems entirely post modern. His work visualizes what the majority couldn’t even begin to dream up, with a consistent aesthetic addressing more than most would dare, in a manner more readily associated with the art industry than that of advertising.
A Romantics view of art is just that, romantic, choosing to follow the heart rather than the head. In contrast to the traditional art practices, whose origins steam back to the Ancient Greeks and Egyptians, and were highly structured with certain rules. Romanticism is largely self-fulfilling, Kaye is a good representation of the Romantic rebel, striking out against the rules, producing work that values originality, and expresses a subjective viewpoint. Kaye’s resistance to institutional control is evident in all of his work. He believes there to be a large distinction between his two separate bodies of work, claiming his art is a pure activity, whereas his advertising is contaminated. This is in keeping with the quintessentially romantic notion that an artist is an agent of feeling or imagination, as opposed to the commercial or applied artist who is compromised by a client or market.
The perception of Kaye within the advertising industry is “of a creative who is able to call tune and who produces advertisements that display particular vision and transcend the constraints of the product” (Art & Advertising, Joan Gibbons,Page 98,)
One good example of this is his advert ‘Unexpected’, for Dunlop in 1994:
In this advert Kaye shows he is not afraid to disorientate the viewer by entering strange, threatening and even uncanny territory when producing/ directing advertisements. This example, demonstrates a sensory overload characterized by the unusual visuals (created by layering artificial colour over black and white visuals) coupled with a quasi-hypnotic soundtrack, (Velvet Underground - Venus in Furs) This created a fantastical world, exhibiting a mix of things which both un-nerve and intrigue the viewer at the same time, ultimately drawing them in. This advert demonstrated a majority of the four motifs, which underpin the Romantic Movement; expanding the bounds of experience, the unpredictability of life and a loss of innocence.
Another key example of this would be his advert ‘Twister’ for Volvo in 1996:
This opens with a visual of two foreboding landscapes, with dramatically lit skies, playing on the belief that nature reflects human emotion. It progresses with the vast cyclone moving through landscapes we presumed could withstand anything, in particular a visual of an aged tree being ripped from the ground, as though it were nothing more than a piece of litter dropped that day, has a particularly profound impact, as we realize the sheer strength and power of what we are being shown. Once again he uses image manipulation and sound to create a mood and emotion for his work. And once again this work demonstrates a majority of the four underpinning motifs of the Romantic Movement; man vs nature, the unpredictability of life and the loss of innocence.
Both adverts show just a few of these underpinning motifs but with a highly evident influence from one of the main theories behind Romanticism, the theory of the sublime. A theory created by an 18th century German philosopher, Kant, who identifies the sublime as an aesthetic quality, similar to beauty but subjective. Referring to an indeterminate relationship between imagination and reason. This theory of the sublime being something that’s overwhelming but exciting can be seen to have largely influenced both of these advertisements.
These examples show how the Romantic Movement has heavily influenced Tony Kayes work and is embedded with what he produces, whilst also clearly demonstrating that all arts are fluid and what is relevant in one, is relevant in another and everything is influenced not just by what comes before it, but by what is happening all around it, not just art practices but also with more academic movements.
Personally despite all the examples of Tony Kaye’s work being largely influenced by the Romantic Movement, I would not say he was a Romantic, anymore than I would say he is a post-modernist. He is a man who appreciates the evolution of the artistic movement and allows it to weave itself into his work influencing and developing it. However, he creates pieces, in a variety of different art practices, which can only be described as thoroughly individual and perhaps, the beginnings of a movement in their own right.
(Art & Advertising, Joan Gibbons, Chapter 5 Tony Kaye)
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-aesthetics/#2.7
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