Les Paul

Les Paul

Paul Johnson Exhibitions and Paintings at Saatchi-gallery

Paul Johnson was born on 1972 lives and works in London. Paul Johnson’s exhibition at the gallery in 2003 one had to peer through the diaphanous surfaces of his collages to collect the fragments of an unsettling tableau. Placed over the work was a translucent laminate surface that stood between the picture plane and the viewer and which sealed inside the illusionism of the picture.

As a result, the details of the intensely made collages were removed from close scrutiny and what was left were the after-effects of the image. The graphic qualities of the collages functioned in a remote, imaginary way. There was no narrative immediacy, instead a slow disclosure, emptying out into strange, imaginative worlds. For his new exhibition, The Glass Family, Johnson has removed the laminate surface from his work. What are shown are the intricately, detailed constructions of collages using a technique interlocking fragments of individually hand-colored paper.

His subjects, four portraits - two boys and two girls - and a stairwell, are recovered from old newspapers and magazines; a particular source of Johnson’s imagery is old skateboard and speedway magazines. Found in the work, also, are number of recurring motifs: esoteric badges, logos, marks of symbolism and orb-like discs. These crop up as pictorial, structural devices within the logic of the depiction and also as signifiers of other-worldly attributes and belief systems. He uses them, also, to create an idea of family resemblances and reinforces the notion of the family hewn from the show title. Whilst, they should be read as mental manifestations of the characters personalities, these motifs have an ability to introduce a spatial dimension to what are sometimes flat grounds of background color.

Johnson’s work is framed by an interest in outsider and visionary art. His exhibition follows on from a group of three shows he curated featuring outsider artists: Future Primitive, Prophet Royal Robertson and World B.

A two-sided work in the show mounted on a plinth, whilst allowing him to introduce a new device to explore facets of his own work through close ups and details, is also a reference to the tendency for outsider artists to use both sides of the paper.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2005

• The Glass Family, One in the Other, London

2003

• Studio d'Arte Cannaviello, Milan

• Second seed, One in the Other, London

1998

• A Short Show About Something,

• Red Mill Gallery, Vermount Studio centre, Johnson, Vermont

1997

• Grey Days & Dizzy Days, Gallery No.5 Temporary Gallery, Merchant City, Glasgow

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2006

• Black Moon Island, One in the Other, London

2005

• Introspective Men, Madder 139, London

• The Future Lasts a Long Time, Le Consortium, Dijon

• Future Primitive, One in the Other, London (curated by Paul Johnson)

• Faux Realism Part 2, Rockwell, London

2004

• The Future Lasts A Long Time, Tal Esther, Tel Aviv

• World B, Flaca Gallery, London

2003

• Arrivals, Pumphouse Gallery, London

• Friction, London Print Studio, London

2002

• Die first, One in the Other, London

2000

• Snapshot, Contemporary Museum, Baltimore

Conclusions:

Paul Johnson’s exhibition at the gallery in 2003 one had to peer through the diaphanous surfaces of his collages to collect the fragments of an unsettling tableau. Placed over the work was a translucent laminate surface that stood between the picture plane and the viewer and which sealed inside the illusionism of the picture.

What to Do Next...

If you want any information about Paul Johnson or looking for his paintings please visit us on http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/paul_johnson.htm

What is the point of getting a Gibson Les Paul Standard?

The 2008 Gibson Les Paul Standard Plus which is $2,600 has the exact same pickups as the $800 Gibson Les Paul Studio Vintage Mahogany. They can't sound much different, can they? What is the difference?

Okay, so if the pickups are the exact same, what is different?

C'mon, you should know that pickups don't *make* sounds, the "pick it up" from the vibrations of the strings. When strings are vibrating, what else is vibrating? The guitar, which is made up of many things that aren't strings or pickups.

In terms of the quality of a guitar's tone, the most important things to consider - the type and quality of the guitar's wood, how the neck and body are joined, the quality of the hardware, the level of precision in how the fingerboard and frets are installed and levelled, and lastly how it is finished. The last is a cosmetic issue, surely, but the coating will affect the tone - take that thick poly coating off of your guitar and put a few layers of lacquer on it, and see how different your guitar sounds!

I submit to you that the pickups are one of the least important factors to take into account when buying a guitar. You can always buy different pickups, but you can't change a bolt-on to a neck-through, and while you *can* swap that basswood or agathis body out for a nice mahogany body, you'll be paying one sweet premium to do so, and that's if you know how to do it, what body to select, etc.

As an aside, it's best to think of a pickup as a filter - they selectively let more of this frequency through than that one. They are complex filters, with time-dependent characteristics, but they are filters nonetheless.

Many of the Gibson bodies are made from very decent wood... that means they had to scrounge to find a good source, and had to pay a decent amount to get wood that was structurally sound, had good tone potential, etc. That is one reason why some Gibson guitars are more expensive than others. A lot of extra work went into getting the little things, the little details, just right.

...

Okay, with all that said, if you can't *hear* the difference or the difference isn't worth the extra money, get the cheaper one. Me, while I can appreciate the sound of many of the more expensive guitars (and appreciate their higher level of construction), I simply don't have the funds available to buy a 1000$+ guitar. To me, an Epiphone that has been set up properly, with the right pickups, is a perfectly adequate replacement for a Gibson.

Is an Epiphone as good as a Gibson? In general, no. Are they close enough that I don't care? Yes. Sometimes that's what matters.

Saul