Jake And Dinos Chapman
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Iakovos "Jake" Chapman (born 1966) and Konstantinos "Dinos" Chapman (born 1962) are British visual artists, often known as the Chapman Brothers. Their subject matter tries to be deliberately shocking, including, in 2008, a series of works that appropriated original watercolours by
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
. In the mid-1990s, their sculptures were included in the YBA showcase exhibitions '' Brilliant!'' and ''
Sensation Sensation (psychology) refers to the processing of the senses by the sensory system. Sensation or sensations may also refer to: In arts and entertainment In literature * Sensation (fiction), a fiction writing mode * Sensation novel, a Britis ...
''. In 2003, the two were nominated for the annual
Turner Prize The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award) ...
but lost out to Grayson Perry. In 2013, their painting ''One Day You Will No Longer Be Loved III'' was the subject of
Derren Brown Derren Brown (born 27 February 1971) is an English mentalist, illusionist, painter, and author. He began performing in 1992, making his television debut with ''Derren Brown: Mind Control'' in 2000, and has since produced several more shows f ...
's
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
special, ''The Great Art Robbery''. In 2022, with the announcement of Jake Chapman's solo show ''Me, Myself and Eye'', it was disclosed that the Chapman brothers had ended their professional association. Jake Chapman made reference to mutual "seething disdain" and told the ''Guardian'' they were both "sick of the partnership" and were "no longer having fresh ideas together".


Lives and careers

Jake Chapman was born in
Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...
and Dinos Chapman in London. Their father was an English art teacher and their mother an orthodox
Greek Cypriot Greek Cypriots or Cypriot Greeks ( el, Ελληνοκύπριοι, Ellinokýprioi, tr, Kıbrıs Rumları) are the ethnic Greek population of Cyprus, forming the island's largest ethnolinguistic community. According to the 2011 census, 659,115 r ...
(hence "Jake" an anglicised diminutive of the orthodox Iakovos, and "Dinos", a typical diminutive of the orthodox Konstantinos). They were brought up in
Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...
but moved to St Leonards-on-Sea where they attended a local comprehensive (Christ Church Primary) & (William Parker School). Dinos studied at the Ravensbourne College of Art (1980–83), Jake at the
North East London Polytechnic , mottoeng = Knowledge and the fulfilment of vows , established = 1898 – West Ham Technical Institute1952 – West Ham College of Technology1970 – North East London Polytechnic1989 – Polytechnic of East London ...
, (1985–88) before both together enrolled at the
Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...
(1988–90), when they also worked as assistants to the artists
Gilbert and George Gilbert Prousch, sometimes referred to as Gilbert Proesch (born 17 September 1943 in San Martin de Tor, Italy), and George Passmore (born 8 January 1942 in Plymouth, United Kingdom), are two artists who work together as the collaborative art du ...
.


Art collaboration

They began their own collaboration in 1991. The brothers have often made pieces with plastic models or
fibreglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clo ...
mannequin A mannequin (also called a dummy, lay figure, or dress form) is a doll, often articulated, used by artists, tailors, dressmakers, window dressers and others, especially to display or fit clothing and show off different fabrics and textiles. P ...
s of people. An early piece consisted of eighty-three scenes of
torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...
and
disfigurement Disfigurement is the state of having one's appearance deeply and persistently harmed medically, such as from a disease, birth defect, or wound. General societal attitudes towards disfigurement have varied greatly across cultures and over time, ...
derivative of those recorded by
Francisco Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and ...
in his series of
etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...
s, ''
The Disasters of War ''The Disasters of War'' ( es, Los desastres de la guerra) is a series of 8280 prints in the first published edition (1863), for which the last two plates were not available. See "Execution". prints created between 1810 and 1820 by the Spani ...
' (a work they later returned to) rendered into small three-dimensional plastic models. One of these was later turned into a life-size work, ''Great Deeds Against the Dead'', shown along with ''
Zygotic A zygote (, ) is a eukaryote, eukaryotic cell (biology), cell formed by a fertilization event between two gametes. The zygote's genome is a combination of the DNA in each gamete, and contains all of the genetic information of a new individual ...
Acceleration, Biogenetic, De-Sublimated Libidinal Model (Enlarged x 1000)'' at the ''
Sensation Sensation (psychology) refers to the processing of the senses by the sensory system. Sensation or sensations may also refer to: In arts and entertainment In literature * Sensation (fiction), a fiction writing mode * Sensation novel, a Britis ...
'' exhibition in 1997. Their 1995 mannequin ''Two-faced Cunt'' was of a naked young girl with two heads joined together by a vagina, which sold for £91,250 in 2011. The Chapman brothers continued the theme of anatomical, pornographic and paedophilic grotesque with ''Fuck Face'', a series of mannequins of children, sometimes fused together, with
genitalia A sex organ (or reproductive organ) is any part of an animal or plant that is involved in sexual reproduction. The reproductive organs together constitute the reproductive system. In animals, the testis in the male, and the ovary in the female, a ...
in place of facial features. For example, one has a male toddler wearing a bright red smock with an erect penis in place of his nose and an open anus in place of his mouth. It sold for £115,250 in 2010. Their sculpture ''Hell'' (2000) consisted of a large number of miniature figures of
Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
arranged in nine glass cases laid out in the shape of a
swastika The swastika (卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various Eurasian, as well as some African and American cultures, now also widely recognized for its appropriation by the Nazi Party and by neo-Nazis. It ...
. In 2003, with a series of works named ''Insult to Injury'', they altered a set of Goya's
etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...
s by adding funny faces. As a protest against this piece, Aaron Barschak (who later gate-crashed
Prince William William, Prince of Wales, (William Arthur Philip Louis; born 21 June 1982) is the heir apparent to the British throne. He is the elder son of King Charles III and his first wife Diana, Princess of Wales. Born in London, William was educa ...
's 21st birthday party dressed as
Osama bin Laden Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...
in a frock) threw a pot of red paint over Jake Chapman during a talk he was giving in May 2003. The Chapmans' oeuvre has also referenced work by
William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...
,
Auguste Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor, generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a uniqu ...
and
Nicolas Poussin Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythological subjects painted for a ...
. Jake Chapman has published a number of catalogue essays and pieces of art criticism in his own right, as well as a book, ''Meatphysics'' (Creation Books, 2003). The brothers have also designed a label for Becks beer as part of a series of limited edition labels produced by contemporary artists. Using a title from the
Tim Burton Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his gothic fantasy and horror films such as ''Beetlejuice'' (1988), ''Edward Scissorhands'' (1990), ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993), ...
film, in 2004 they curated ''A Nightmare Before Christmas'' as part of the occasional
All Tomorrow's Parties "All Tomorrow's Parties" is a song by the Velvet Underground and Nico, written by Lou Reed and released on the group's 1967 debut studio album, ''The Velvet Underground & Nico''. Inspiration for the song came from Reed's observation of Andy Warh ...
music festival at Camber Sands. In October 2013 the Chapman brothers took part in ''Art Wars'' at the
Saatchi Gallery The Saatchi Gallery is a London gallery for contemporary art and an independent charity opened by Charles Saatchi in 1985. Exhibitions which drew upon the collection of Charles Saatchi, starting with US artists and minimalism, moving to the D ...
curated by Ben Moore. The artists were issued with a stormtrooper helmet, which they transformed into a work of art. Proceeds went to the Missing Tom Fund set up by Moore to find his brother Tom who has been missing for over ten years. The work was also shown on the Regents Park platform as part of
Art Below Ben Moore (born 25 May 1978)Nick Curtis''London Evening Standard'', 25 May 2010. is a British art curator, entrepreneur and artist. He is the founder and curator of Art Below, a contemporary art organisation that places art in public spaces and ...
Regents Park.


The Rape of Creativity

From April–June 2003, the Chapmans held a solo show at
Modern Art Oxford Modern Art Oxford is an art gallery established in 1965 in Oxford, England. From 1965 to 2002, it was called The Museum of Modern Art, Oxford. The gallery presents exhibitions of modern and contemporary art. It has a national and internationa ...
entitled ''The Rape of Creativity'' in which "the ''enfants terribles'' of Britart, bought a mint collection of
Francisco Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and ...
's most celebrated prints – and set about systematically defacing them".Jones, Jonathan
Look What We Did
''The Guardian'', 31 March 2003. Retrieved 3 February 2009.
The Goya prints referred to his ''
Disasters of War ''The Disasters of War'' ( es, Los desastres de la guerra) is a series of 8280 prints in the first published edition (1863), for which the last two plates were not available. See "Execution". prints created between 1810 and 1820 by the Spani ...
'' set of 80 etchings. The duo named their newly defaced works ''Insult to Injury''.
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
described more of the exhibition's art: "Drawings of mutant Ronald McDonalds, a bronze sculpture of a painting showing a sad-faced Hitler in clown make-up and a major installation featuring a knackered old caravan and fake dog turds." While ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...
'' commented that the Chapman brothers had "managed to raise the hackles of art historians by violating something much more sacred to the art world than the human body – another work of art",Dorment, Richard
Inspired Vandalism
''The Telegraph'', 27 May 2003. Retrieved 3 February 2009.
they also noted that the effect of their work was powerful. The Chapman brothers were nominated for the
Turner Prize The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award) ...
in 2003. As well as including ''Insult to Injury'', their Turner Prize exhibit debuted two new works ''Sex'' and ''Death''. ''Sex'' directly referenced their previous work ''Great Deeds against the Dead''. The original work shows three dismembered corpses hanging from a tree, ''Sex'' shows the same scenario, but in a heightened state of decay. Additionally clown's noses are now present on the skulls of the corpses; snakes, rats and insects (like those found in joke shops) cover the piece. ''Death'' is two
sex doll A sex doll (also love doll, fuck doll or blowup doll) is a type of anthropomorphic sex toy in the size and shape of a sexual partner. The sex doll may consist of an entire body, or just a head, pelvis, or other body part (vagina, anus, mouth, ...
s, placed on top of each other, head-to-toe in the
69 sex position Sixty-nine or 69, also known by its French name soixante-neuf (69), is a group of sex positions in which two people align themselves so that each person's mouth is near the other's genitals, each simultaneously performing oral sex on the other. T ...
: despite appearing to be made of plastic it is in fact cast in
bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
and painted to look like plastic. That year the prize was eventually won by Grayson Perry. On 24 May 2004, a fire in a storage warehouse destroyed many works from the Saatchi collection including ''Hell''. The brothers subsequently made a very similar, though more extensive, work called ''
Fucking Hell Fucking Hell is a German pale lager, a Pilsner, with an alcohol content of 4.9%. It is named after Fucking, the previous name of the village of Fugging in Austria; ''hell'' is the German word for 'pale' and a typical description of this kind of ...
''.


Disputes with journalists

In 2006, the journalist
Lynn Barber Lynn Barber (born 22 May 1944) is a British journalist who has worked for many publications, including ''The Sunday Times''. Early life Barber attended Lady Eleanor Holles School in south-west London. While she was studying for her A-Levels she ...
claimed that she had received a death threat from the brothers, following conducting an interview with them.Lynn Barbe
"How I suffered for art's sake", ''The Observer'', 1 October 2006, accessed 3 August 2008
In 2007, they were criticised by journalist
Johann Hari Johann Eduard Hari (born 21 January 1979) is a British-Swiss writer and journalist who has written for ''The Independent'' and ''The Huffington Post''. In 2011, Hari was suspended from ''The Independent'' and later resigned, after admitting to ...
for adopting an anti-Enlightenment philosophy, and for Jake Chapman saying that the boys who murdered Liverpool toddler James Bulger performed "a good social service". This followed a public media brawl between Jake Chapman and journalist Carole Cadwalladr in ''The Observer'' and on the internet the previous year. Cadwalladr told readers that Chapman told her she made him "feel sick" and threw her out of their studio "into the pouring rain", ordering her to "get out, just get the fuck out!". Chapman made two profanity-laden, ranting, poorly-spelled public replies; the first was addressed to Cadwalladr, making reference to her "hopelessly toothless" wit and making offensive reference to things he claimed to associate with her which he stated made him "quite queasy", including "kippers" and "frumpy laura ashley blouses reeking of stale mothballs" (sic). In the second, to ''The Observer'', addressing Cadwalladr's employers as "unobservant dullards" and making reference to Cadwalladr as "gwendalin silverspoongob" (sic), he claimed to be "laughing at the sheer arrogance in documenting such a forgettable meeting" and concluded "you may grace your readers with the meek tones of plum-mouthed middle-Englanders, but don't send them round to my studio I'll make ..mince meat out of them, ha ha ha."


Art by Adolf Hitler

In May 2008,
White Cube White Cube is a contemporary art gallery founded by Jay Jopling in London in 1993. The gallery has two branches in London: White Cube Mason's Yard in central London and White Cube Bermondsey in South East London; White Cube Hong Kong, in Centra ...
gallery exhibited 13 apparently authenticated watercolours painted by
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
, to which the brothers had added hippie motifs. Jake Chapman described most of the dictator's works as "awful landscapes" which they had "prettified". The central device and context of this exhibition were strikingly similar to those of the artist Ira Waldron in her project "Die Damen mit den Hündchen", first exhibited at the Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary art in May 2007. Waldron also entered into an artistic duel with Hitler, seen as a mediocre bohemian artist, by overlaying her motifs and colour on to expanded copies of thirteen of his drawings. Also included in the Chapmans' 2008 exhibition was ''Fucking Hell'' and a series of doctored eighteenth and nineteenth century-style aristocratic portraits in oils. In 2011, in their "Human Rainbow" and "Introspastic" series, the Chapman Brothers produced further works based on the same Hitler drawings of
Geli Raubal Angela Maria "Geli" Raubal (; 4 July 1908 – 18 September 1931) was an Austrian woman who was the half-niece of Adolf Hitler. Born in Linz, Austria-Hungary, she was the second child and eldest daughter of Leo Raubal Sr. and Hitler's half-sis ...
and his dogs which had been previously appropriated by Ira Waldron in her 2007 exhibition.


Letter to Culture Secretary

On 1 October 2010, in an open letter to the British government's Culture Secretary
Jeremy Hunt Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (born 1 November 1966) is a British politician who has served as Chancellor of the Exchequer since 14 October 2022. He previously served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport ...
– co-signed by a further 27 previous Turner Prize nominees, and 19 winners – the brothers opposed any future cuts in public funding for the arts. In the letter the cosignatories described the arts in Britain as a "remarkable and fertile landscape of culture and creativity."


Personal lives


Jake Chapman

Jake married the fashion model Rosemary Ferguson in 2004. They have two children together, Bliss and Blythe, and live in the Cotswolds. In August 2014 Chapman was quoted as saying that taking children to art galleries is a "total waste of time", stating that "children are not human yet." The comment caused other notable artists to speak out against Chapman's thoughts. BBC Art Critic,
Will Gompertz William Edward Gompertz (born 25 August 1965) was the BBC's arts editor before moving to a position as the Barbican Centre’s Artistic Director from 1 June 2021. Gompertz attended Dulwich Preparatory School, in Cranbrook, Kent. Gompertz was p ...
referred to a defining characteristic of the "YBAs" being their ability to manipulate biddable media to get attention: :The formula is simple: When you have an exhibition to promote, say something mildly inflammatory to the press, and watch the column inches (particularly in August) and ticket sales soar. :Jake Chapman's comment about kids and paintings is a beautifully crafted example of the art. It has generated loads of attention, reinforced the brothers' bad-boy brand, and alerted an "outraged" middle England to the Chapmans' new show. Job done.


Dinos Chapman

Dinos was married to Tiphaine de Lussy; they are now divorced. They have two daughters, Seraphine and Agathe, and live in
Spitalfields Spitalfields is a district in the East End of London and within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The area is formed around Commercial Street (on the A1202 London Inner Ring Road) and includes the locale around Brick Lane, Christ Church, ...
, London. Both are members of
Arts Emergency Arts Emergency is a UK-based charity that seeks opportunities in the Arts and Humanities sector for underrepresented young people aged 16-26. History Founded by campaigner Neil Griffiths (current CEO) and comedian Josie Long in 2011, Arts Emergen ...
, a British charity working with 16- to 19-year-olds in
further education Further education (often abbreviated FE) in the United Kingdom and Ireland is education in addition to that received at secondary school, that is distinct from the higher education (HE) offered in universities and other academic institutions. I ...
from diverse backgrounds.


References


External links

*
Jake and Dinos Chapman: Bad Art for Bad People
– exhibition at Tate Liverpool, December 2006 – March 2007
Jake and Dinos Chapman: Come and See
– exhibition at the Serpentine Galleries, November 2013 – February 2014

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chapman, Jake And Dinos Living people English people of Greek Cypriot descent Sibling duos British male sculptors British installation artists Alumni of the Royal College of Art Art duos 1966 births 1962 births Alumni of the University of East London British contemporary artists