Artist David Hockney has just died aged 88.
On being informed of this great loss, a friend of mine responded that he hoped he died with “a paintbrush in one hand and a fag in the other”. (a fag is known as a cigarette in the colonies)
I have no doubt Hockney would have approved.
This resulted
in the generation of the idea of 10 Creative Ways For An Artist To Die.
There are of course an infinite number of creative ways for an
artist to die, so 10 is just a representative sample. Some research may be required to fully understand the full scope of each example listed.
No 1. Stung by a deadly scorpion just as you finally discover the secret location of Ed Ruscha’s Rocky 2 in the Mojave Desert.
No 2. Blown from the top edge of one of the outstretched arms of Antony Gormley’s “Angel Of The North” while walking across from the left hand side to the right, 60 feet above the ground.
No 3. Crushed by Michael Heizer’s boulder titled “Levitated Mass” while attempting to make a slight adjustment to its support position.
No 5. Shot while robbing a bank wearing a mask that makes you look like Cindy Sherman.
No 6. Flattened by the falling house when trying to replicate the famous 1977 “Deadpan” work by artist Steve McQueen.
No 7. Drowned while swimming across all of the swimming pools depicted by David Hockney in an unsuccessful effort to reproduce the actions of Burt Lancaster in the seminal film “The Swimmer”.
No 8. Electrocuted while sitting in a working physical reproduction of one of Andy Warhol’s brightly coloured electric chair prints.
No 9. Eaten by the coyote while reproducing the famous Joseph Beuys piece called “I Like America And America Likes Me”, where he spent 3 days enclosed with a coyote.
No 10. Stared to death by Marina Abramovic;.