George Herm's Aesthetics

Artists have used collections to group together different objects to create art pieces. Collections can be diverse and artists can use this technique to create unique pieces that harness their own aesthetics. Both George Herm and Jean Dubuffet are artists who have used this technique. George Herm’s, The Painter’s Mind features an old piece of wood with two L shaped brackets, an orange bottlecap glued to a scrappy piece of paper and a ripped off piece of paper from the book: The Painter’s mind, which inspired the work. George Herm focuses on using overlooked, mundane objects to create collections, collages and sculptures. He takes it as his life’s challenge to create as much art as he can and out of anything he can find. “The challenge, really, which one accepts, is to turn everything into art,” Herm says. “So, the more mundane an object is, the …show more content…
The orange colour of the bottlecap contrasts against the rest of the neutral colours that surround it, which again makes it easier for the viewer’s eyes to be drawn to it. Herm has also created isolation because of the colour contrast. Another focal point of the work could be the two large L-shaped brackets. Because of their size, a viewer’s eyes could easily be drawn to it. Also because of their L-shape they slightly frame the bottle cap and the teared book paper above the bottlecap also contributes to this. If a vertical line were to be drawn down the middle of the piece, it would be asymmetrical as the L-shaped brackets and shoe jar against any symmetry. In the top right of the work, the shoe gives off a rugged texture as it is torn. As the piece is featured on a wood canvas, most of the work gives off a rough texture, however, smooth textures can be found in the centre of the bottle cap and the L-shaped brackets. The L-shaped brackets can also serve as lines of radiation, drawing the viewer’s eyes to other parts of the