Dieselpunk + Steampunk Culture
Romance, Sex, Noir: the Art of Jack Vettriano
In 2005 a painting sold at auction in London for a staggering 744,000 pounds. It was not a Monet or Van Gogh or Picasso, but The Singing Butler, by Scottish artist Jack Vettriano. One of the best-selling prints of all time, the Butler has made Vettriano a living art legend.
The Singing Butler (his most famous)
Vettriano's works share a common retro theme, roughly Diesel to early Atomic era, with glamourous or sultry women and fedora-clad men. Some, like the Butler, are light, elegent and romantic. Others, however, are the stuff of Noir: dark chiaroscuro backrooms with illicit liasons and lusty tension. This has led to some consternation from neophite fans who have purchaced an art book expecting more Singing Butler only to find steamy sex.
Temptress (they can get far more tawdry than this)
Still others feature retro-futuristic cars.
Bluebird at Bonneville
In all, his work maintains the aestetic of the Diesel Era, including some of the darker Noir elements, making him arguably an honorary Dieselpunk Artist, and a famous, popular, and damned high-paid one at that.
His website is: www.jackvettriano.com and many of his prints are available for view or purchace online.
Note: quite a few are NSFW.
Tags: Vettriano, art, noir, romance
Views: 1419
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Tome Wilson on -
You had me at NSFW.
Just kidding. These are excellent.
We have a similar artist that presents his works in Cape May. I'll have to look up his name when I get home, but he uses similar themes and palettes in his work that are worth checking out.
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Permalink Reply by Cap'n Tony on -
They are excellent! Jack Vettriano is a master of putting emotion onto canvas from light Ottensian to Dark Piecraftian. I've been intending to post Vettriano's work here for months now and finally scraped together the time. I'm amazed he escaped Dieselpunk notice for as long as he did, considering his fame. I first saw a print of his in, of all places, a local Thai restaurant.
Tome, please do find that artist! I'd love to see his work.
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Permalink Reply by Dieter Marquardt on -
Gorgeous paintings! Worth every penny..
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Permalink Reply by mark lang on
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i am from glasgow and was speaking to a lady last night who was a model for jack vettriano a few years ago,
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Permalink Reply by Larry on -
Lucky guy. I'm jealous.
mark lang said:i am from glasgow and was speaking to a lady last night who was a model for jack vettriano a few years ago,
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Larry said:Lucky guy. I'm jealous.
mark lang said:i am from glasgow and was speaking to a lady last night who was a model for jack vettriano a few years ago, ha i was comissioned by her work colleague to do a painting of her husband when she told me, i will see her at the weekend and find out more, and post if there is anything of interest, also check out another glasgow artist peter howison, very good, very surreal,
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Larry said:Lucky guy. I'm jealous.
mark lang said:i am from glasgow and was speaking to a lady last night who was a model for jack vettriano a few years ago, turns out it was 1993 and in a studio in edinburgh, she has no idea what the poses were for,
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Permalink Reply by Eric Langlois on -
I recently came across Jack Vettriano's work at the Kelvingrove Museum while on a day trip to Glasgow. When I arrived back in Edinburgh, I walked past a shop that had an entire window full of Vettriano prints.
I think part of what drew me to his work was the superficial similarity to Edward Hopper's work, although Vettriano's paintings feel a lot more human and visceral.
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© 2013 Created by Tome Wilson.
