Lately I have been staying up late glued to my Netflix account watching the
Art :21 Art in the twenty first century PBS television series. If you are even mildly interested in creativity, fine art, or just the inner machinations of the hiccupping brains of artists, this is worth the watch.
I honestly had no idea this series existed and was heading over to watch Art & Copy when I stumbled across this gem. Some of it, gets a bit dry and sleepy in places and some of it is just plain inspiring and enlightening. I think the dry and sleepy parts for me are either A) late night hours or B) An artist that just doesn't grab my fancy, although all in this series have my respect.
While watching this series I have come to the realization that there are 2 typical responses that come about when an artist is asked about their work, a series, or a piece of their art.
The first response is the expected one. It's an "educated" ramble about the deep meaning and struggle of the artist around every single piece they have ever created. Some do this to the point where you find yourself looking away, up and around thinking, "This HAS to be a sales pitch at this point." The talk runs on for so long, and is loaded with what seems like practiced vocabulary that everything suddenly seems a little bit contrived and you may be falling into a trap.
The second response is when the artist might say some sort of terribly brief thing only a sentence or so long, and ends with, "I think the work speaks for itself."
Louise Bourgeois was one of the latter. She spoke very strongly about the passion for her work, but put it simply by saying something to the effect of, "If my work says nothing, then I failed."
That quote may be a bit off, my memory is failing a bit at the moment. The point she was making was, that if her work conveyed no message, no meaning, no feeling to the viewer... then she failed.
I hope to pool myself into this latter category of artists who, when asked about their work, let the art be what it is. I personally feel that if I make a piece, and need to stand next to it and speak for 10 minutes to explain it, it has failed. (Or it has now become performance art)
Some artists create wonderful works, and in my humble opinion need to stand aside, and let the viewer experience the art, without the artist prattling on with a practiced speech gleaned to perfection from an art opening or a masters degree in the art history.
Sometimes people like art because it is nice to look at. Or uncomfortable.
Sometimes people like art for no reason at all.
Just let it "be"
That long speech with all the big words to describe your inner struggle or the "deeper meaning" of the piece can be explained bit by bit to those who ask specifically about these minute details.
Some buyers DO want to hear that stuff, and they will harass you until you spill those big words.
I think generally when presented with an opportunity to speak about the work an artist should give a general detail:
This piece is called __________ It is oil on wood panel (or whatever medium) __feet by __ feet. Making it represents an important piece in this showing of work, I hope everyone is enjoying the show.
If there is more to be asked, such as from the media, there will be follow up questions.
Very few artists who do speak seems to know when to turn off the stream of verbiage when it comes to their work. Sometimes more IS wanted, but it becomes mis-read by the artist I think and assumed EVERYTHING you can think of is wanted!
There seems to be no happy medium. The artist will either tell you it speaks for itself, or they will spend the next 10 minutes describing a tsunami of emotional adjectives, psychological terms, and art critic jargon that brushes upon used car salesman at some point.
It's a rare artist that finds this mid ground and a place I will strive for in the future, with the intent of the brief, "I think the work speaks for itself"
Recently I was asked about my work. It was a friendly sort of conversation, and I found myself asking, "Do you want a real answer, or an art gallery answer?"
Perhaps more appropriate goal would be to find the polite way for the artist to ask that question. Just like sometimes viewers like art because it's nice; Sometimes artists just paint birds because their nice.
Sometimes we make a painting of a flower, because we just wanted to paint a flower.
Sometimes the art has to just "be" and the answer just hast to be "because"
-Lloyd M
