Artist Callum Innes - 'I'm Curious About Colour' | TateShots

Meet Callum Innes, a Scottish abstract painter, former Turner Prize nominee and winner of the Jerwood Painting Prize.
In this film, the artist allowed us to film him at work in his studio, revealing just how contemporary the watercolour medium can be, as he pushes paint to its limits.
Innes is one of the artists featured in Tate Britain's 'Watercolour' exhibition.
Find out more about Callum Innes: goo.gl/ysSGBX
Subscribe for weekly films: goo.gl/X1ZnEl

[@atmakali9599]

I think people need to read again The Emperors New Clothes. Utter bollocks.

[@michaelmckeown5396]

If you can do it, then do it.

[@atmakali9599]

Michael McKeown I’d need to be sectioned first. It’s the sort of recreational pastime loonies do in mental hospitals to keep them busy.

[@Doppe1ganger]

@@atmakali9599 Have you ever seen art made by loonies in a mental hospital? I bet it's a thousand times more interesting than anything you could make.

[@cliffdariff74]

This artwork is awesome, it's so simple... almost a non process, but ends up being powerfully spiritual. The negative comments here are silly. This guy's work competes with any working artist today.

[@katharinew4218]

Why do people get so heated about What Is Art! like chill, just let people be, damn, lol

[@CarlEuegene]

Katharine W it is not a matter of being angry, it is a matter of people having the title of artist, but not being able to produce note worthy work - work that has content concept and great form.

[@CarlEuegene]

Katharine W ... Sure, if you cannot afford a Rothko painting, buy this guy. He is ok, he is note worthy.

[@jackfirmin5814]

@@gorgnaxxangrog3183 what artists do you like, im honestly curious?

[@dianagilbert8690]

@@gorgnaxxangrog3183 ouch! Bad day at the office? Now that's soul-sucking!!

[@hs-tg5wy]

I believe art is an idea and how far can you run with it.

[@DrRicharddym]

Callum is a nice man. He is very successful, sells his work for a lot and is a very astute business person. When he talks about what he does it makes it sound dull. But the deep respect for discipline and materials does have a certain exhilerating feel and the tension across the object that he achieves is interesting too. No its not Kokoschka but there is room for all sorts and Callum fills one area well.

[@jackfirmin5814]

yeah thank god! the best thing of kokoschka is his signature, "ok", I love that. The rest, I had enough of it,

[@BirdL-m5i]

A perfect red heart shape at 3:16

[@zeeweirdeye]

Nice catch!

[@lestudio76]

How does one get paid to do this all day?

[@KEPHALLE]

@PicassoStar1 "your video": i'm not Callum Innes, nor a Tate employee hehehe. anyway, sure, i'd like to be economically indipendent as an artist and make a living with it, but 'til that day, if it will ever come, i'll just make art because it's one of the few things that makes my life worth living :-D

[@danthomas6587]

At least he didnt start by lighting a cigar.

[@geospectrum]

I’m new to Callum Innes and I like what I see.

[@donikajorgo5612]

Green and white. Black and white..

[@lisengel2498]

You seem to be longing after the beauty of control and luminosity - a strange experience very opposite to luminosity in nature

[@PicassoStar1]

Don't know enough about this artist to know if he's rolling in the bucks or not, but I am always disillusioned by artists who have substantial residual income from another source and don't have to "work" for a living and can dabble in art until they get good at it. Some artists produce thousands of paintings because they have the time on their hands, while us working stiffs plug along as best we can.

[@Americansikkunt]

You could make as many paintings as him, if you wanted. Many of his are quite literally 2 colors split down the middle....

[@Doppe1ganger]

These are the least effort paintings i have ever seen in my life

[@salmonline]

awww... how disappointing. I thought it said "Taint Shots". dammit

[@muhlenstedt]

I do not understand this, it is like a backgroud paint aplication.

[@michaelmalmomalmo9948]

Pure colour studies. He Should work in a paint factory.

[@A55455In47I0n]

wow he made brown

[@GloryDaze73]

splatter on the bloody wall is more interesting than the works!

[@stevothefellow]

Your ignorance and hostility should be an embarrassment to you. Go away

[@rosa2098]

Totally agree. People calling it brilliant are so pretentious.

[@Irisphotojournal]

The archetypal establishment artist. People who buy his work are most likely buying for investment..

[@michaelmalmomalmo9948]

Reminds me of working at chroma acrylics doing quality control strip tests all day long in my early 20s. If he used a black and white base zebra like pattern (dry) then painted over it he would open up a whole new body of work.

[@jonnnymoose]

Thanks..... great work. Appreciate the insight to your thoughts. When a your next exhibition in the U.K.?

[@KEPHALLE]

@PicassoStar1 i feel some bitterness and envy in your comment, wich is totally inappropriate here imho. i'm unemployed now but still i paint with what i have, the materials i can afford and squeeze the best out of it! if you want to paint and get better each time there's no excuse, you just go for it. and rememer: a great deal of artists teach in school or college, so they do not have all the time you'd expect, the time of the bohemian artist is over.

[@dejanmarkovic3040]

All I see and hear is ''I have severe ocd, but instead of therapy, I choose to just paint squares'', which is fine, but not fine art.

[@PHlophe]

ooooh Dejo " fine but not fine art ! " loooooool!

[@jackfirmin5814]

Id like to have one of these at home.

[@KEPHALLE]

finally a good video about this great artist! thank you so much!

[@christopherfarrell-artist3557]

I am really surprised about some of the comments here. Callum Innes produces very powerful and evocative paintings that grab your attention through your senses. If you take time to look in to his painting process you will see. Maybe you have to know about painting practice to understand...

[@jaydubya3698]

I don't know...I'm a painter myself and to me he's a one trick pony endlessly doing Color Theory 101 projects on mid-sized canvas cobbled together. Yes, the work looks nice and good for him--he's making a living. But come on...his process is pretty straight forward.

[@christopherfarrell-artist3557]

Obviously for watercolour he work with the light of the paper......For his oil paintings he work from dark to light giving the illusion of a standard practice.

[@TheJesMagic]

This is exactly my thought. I think his work really trancendents the usual. It is powerful and calm. For me he walks in the footsteps of John McLaughlin.

[@weirdguy4948]

All fancy words but no meaning behind it

[@cliffdariff74]

The simplicity is awesome

[@optidejyadubenko1165]

sharper,impostor

[@MrChubbington]

I realise how fortunate I am to be less robotic in my art. He must get bored.....

[@RiGzTattooz]

i like this

[@dianaschmitt8854]

Love this series of TateShots

[@StephenS-2024]

I know, I get it. Its hard to understand. I was watching a video the other day where these people were slaughtering these other people. I could tell it was fake. And I'm almost screaming, disgusted, " You call this War?" it just didn't fit my definition. Some people...You know?

[@goranlazarevski3007]

No...if you want to actualy compare...this art is more like a two dudes hand fighting on street and someone call that a war...there you go you sarcastic a......

[@StephenS-2024]

@@goranlazarevski3007 thanks. Wasn't being sarcastic though. Facetious. Flippant maybe, but not sarcastic.

[@cooperativ]

nice video, very interesting... haven't spotted any paintings, art or talent though...

[@13eugubino459]

A real business sense , creating a brand out of bland ....

[@cliffdariff74]

a serious cat, indeed.

[@patriciabrickell4005]

Thanks for the teaching

[@joygill7494]

I'm not a critic, but I don't understand this. I can do this. I'm sure he is a nice man, and knows art. But I still don't get it. Sorry.

[@dlg7555]

I would love to see you try. His aesthetic comes from a subtraction of elements. At the end of the day, any any art is about colours and shapes. It takes a lot of experiences to achieve what he does. Also, yes, maybe you could do it. However , did you? did you do it and make a successful career out of it? NO

[@stevothefellow]

Educate yourself then and stop being so lazy

[@vandolmatzis8146]

The mystery of an erased de Kooning but more poetic,brilliant.Spiritual

[@knownaigm]

As an artist I am so fucking sick of watching the general public get completely bullshitted by artists like this. I would love to do a massive gallery show called "A Long Overdue Apology To The General Public" where works from artists like this have a tag next to them that says "Don't worry, there actually isn't anything to "get" here." Furthermore, as an artist, I fully appreciate this and similar processes of exploring color, material, texture, etc.. but when you then show this work as if there is any intellectual value beyond an artists' study... that is where I simply say "fuck off" and keep walking.

[@ste1991]

What a silly thing to say.

[@francesca8580]

You're extremely insolent and close minded

[@evanjones5664]

+no name Art doesn't happen in an object, in this case, in a field of color, it happens in your brain. In the same way that an instrument isn't music, but what happens when you hear the instrument. Would you say Thomas Kinkade is a better artist that Callum?

[@knownaigm]

+Evan Jones God no, I prefer the work to exist in the brain, and I absolutely love minimalist sound work when it comes to music. My issue here is when an artist comes upon a process or technique like Callum's that serves a very specific purpose once or twice but then continues making minor variations of the same piece for years and years as it becomes more and more banal with each new iteration. I have the same feeling for Pollock's action paintings. They were a novel, new concept that raised some great questions and served as a challenging new way to visually and mentally approach the work both as viewer and as artist. However, being SUCH a novel, specific concept, at some point they just become mindless redundancies. Listening to Callum laboriously attempt to inject scraps of remaining meaning into a beaten-to-death body of work it becomes quite clear that the intellectual exercise of exploring such a technique has become a trench he is stuck in. At this point the work is no longer art but purely masturbation. And if you really listen to him talk about the work and you're able to get down to the meat of what he is discussing you realize these are simply color theory studies... novel little explorations of the use of color. Which is fine in and of itself but does not warrant baffling the general public into thinking these are some intellectually profound masterpiece. Not to mention color field has been beaten, killed, buried, and had its grave pissed on at this point. I spent months making works very similar to these using sumi ink and other pigments as studies in the subtle effects of material texture, how it soaks and bleeds into the paper, and I took this work very seriously and spent a lot of time on them. However, I never bothered to show them to anyone because I have no delusion that these are anything more than an intellectual curiosity.

[@evanjones5664]

I generally agree with you, and you explained your opinion a lot better than you did initially. I think that if you're just repeating mindlessly what you've been doing because that's what you do, then there comes a point that you're bs-ing. but I think of Agnes Martin, who arguably could be doing the same thing as Callum on the surface, but found something transcendent and very human. So I'm not sure that you could say what Callum is doing isn't any less valid that what somebody like Agnes Martin was doing. I think the BS only comes in when you are making the work intending it to be a product, and you've ceased exploring your ideas. Like making the same song over and over. But that's a very different thing than staying true to your idea, and creating something that is based on that, and has the same aesthetic (sonically or visually), but is very different. If that makes sense.

[@zein9227]

I love this comment section 😂 The subtleties and dryness

[@jasonsumair9725]

What brandof brush he first use its nice and looks very high quality

[@mrartwatcher]

hey you in the video are you too busy painting to answer my queries or arrogant . what ,what am i having a conversation with myself here or are your ears just painted on ?

[@beartist9869]

GOT RAY-BAN.

[@mrartwatcher]

lol

[@gypsysnickerdoodle4354]

Where did he get those ceramic pans? Tell me he does NOT waste that paint left in the pans

[@wilmerleonardouseche6524]

"simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" Leonardo

[@sonnycorbi6889]

I wonder if he is related to George Innes - obviously not in style -

[@kalakartist]

Fuckin Rothko impersonator!

[@neoaureus]

How to waste paint 101…but wait , it works.

[@thestugats]

Love it 🤟 what brush are you using

[@ramenbo]

like hard edge abstraction

[@SabreToothCatfish]

That's it people! Announce your ignorance!

[@yohei72]

I'm bicurious about color.

[@juliag.1231]

Does anyone know, what kind of masking tape he is using?

[@atmakali9599]

No but the mixing pallet is a casserole dish from ikea. Highly recommend for perfect casseroles.

[@Victoria88520]

simple and beautiful..!

[@rosa2098]

Sorry but this is talent? I can't believe he has the nerve to call a solid colored square art. Puleeeze *eyeroll*

[@facuarroyo3249]

This is very asmr-ish

[@MrWopwink]

Can you tell me the brushes you are using? they look expensive!

[@jackfirmin5814]

someone in the comments said he's using the "da vinci" brand, 35Pounds. I think their cheap synthetic ones are good for water colors too. and in the end he is using a foam brush from the hardware store haha

[@ashikaahso7276]

Dream studio

[@wendyaustin5284]

I love her work .. Now I can look at my collections and be happy instead of having to think of a reason

[@patgee4574]

I'm curious about color is artsy speak for I can't really paint.😀

[@stevothefellow]

You’re a dickhead and a dunce mate. It’s nothing to be proud of. Go back to the football.

[@Emcostanza]

Kay. Explain to me WHY he chooses the colors he does if he can’t really paint

[@jackfirmin5814]

paint what?

[@田崎英昭]

ビュッフェ

[@calluminnes7640]

Nice name dude

[@tomajortom]

Nothing new here. Rothko did this decades ago.

[@Mr-ep2qi]

tomajortom tru and frankly once was enough

[@Mr-ep2qi]

I like Rothko tho

[@cliffdariff74]

Nahh...Rothko did oils bro.

[@stevothefellow]

tomajortom no he didn’t. Educate yourself and you won’t be as much of a moron

[@looopaa9783]

what a funny man, i never wash my hands WHILE i’m painting

[@druvaraj2547]

♥️

[@jmarmaduke]

Andy golds worthy

[@randycunningham7630]

Super!!!

[@PicassoStar1]

@KEPHALLE I don't feel any bitterness - I really don't. I have my own studio and I work my art every day, perhaps the same as you. In terms of envy? Yes, what artist wouldn't want to be financially independent and fee to work on their art until consumed by it. Your video gives the impression of an artist that has vast space to work and plenty of time to work, which rarely exists without a measure of wealth. You are correct, of course, the day of the bohemian artist has vanished.

[@christianegonbarnthaler1426]

super

[@christianegonbarnthaler1426]

super art

[@Human791]

What a waste of paint.

[@Gahboot]

This is what i always do with my 2 years old students.

[@PHlophe]

i think he has a cold !

[@jackfirmin5814]

nice, sounds good.

[@katjapeng5855]

I don't understand why this is called art. can someone explain?

[@katharinew4218]

Why shouldn't it be? What do you think art is?

[@helenawave]

this comment is a year old katja, do you know why this is called art now?

[@Doppe1ganger]

Yes. Love and concentration and interest and dedication and patience

[@echospage]

Define Art.

[@2mrspencer]

Katharine W I don't think people really debate if its art, its more about people selling art that is outwardly simple for an absurd amount of money. Money is at the heart of the issue as well as recognition. If someone works for a few hours and charges over $100 an hour then people have the right to question, not the legitimacy of the art, but the legitimacy of the character of the artist. But ultimately the market speaks for itself.

[@sssydneyyyy]

this art is dull. i don't understand why dull white men such as callum innes are given platforms over more interesting artists.

[@christopherfarrell-artist3557]

Please expand.....what artists are you talking about?

[@sssydneyyyy]

who do i find more interesting than callum innes? almost anyone.

[@nursemain3174]

Sydney Marshall his use of colour with watercolour is very impressive considering it’s a very hard pigment to control

[@sssydneyyyy]

i am not impressed by a man painting squares using tape SORRY

[@dlg7555]

i am also not impressed with you plasticky face. You dont have to understand taste. You have your own and I have mine.

[@laki74]

He's a great artist..... a scam artist.

[@danthomas6587]

I used to have a game that employed the same idea called Candyland.

[@cooperativ]

That's the biggest waste of Schmincke watercolors I've seen so far, congrats!

[@skiphoffenflaven8004]

Curious about color? Isn’t that an unspoken truism about nearly all artists that paint in some way?

[@SculpTV]

The Emperor's New Clothes.....

[@elartedericardobenavides1647]

HIs work is good but he is not a genius!!! I cannot Immagine his works being in the Reina Sofia Museum in 5o years from now!!

[@salomown]

Ricardo Benavides ok

[@eddyjames312]

Horrible rip off

[@stevothefellow]

You’re a horrible rip off

[@syriaart3253]

Sabhan adam🥀🥀🥀🥀🌺🌾🌵🌵🌵🌵🥀🌺🌾🌻🌿🌻🌻🌿🌻🌼🌷🍀⚘🌷🌷🍀🌷⚘🍀🍁🌱🌱🌲🍂🍃🍃🌲🌱🌳🌳🌴🥀🥀🥀🌺🌺🌷🌷🌷⚘🍁🍁⚘⚘🌷🍂

[@gloobnord]

I never trust an artist who's afraid to let a drip run over the paper, or who uses masking tape to make a line. Art is in the mind of the bolder -- I said that.

[@Emcostanza]

gloobnord in every art class I’ve ever taken we use masking tape as an outline like he did lmao. Literally every artist does that

[@eg-g]

Fucking ridiculous.