This is from The Guardian, an article by Jonathan Jones: "Explanations are the traitor of art."
"It is a vice of second-rate art to come with its own eloquent explanationattached. If an artist can translate the meaning and purpose of a work into easily understandable words, it means one of two things. Either the artist is lying, in order to ease the way with patrons and funders; or the artist is a fool. And if dishonesty is the reason, that too is something that vitiates art. No serious art is easy to interpret. Nor is there ever a single valid interpretation of art. If art is good, there are many things to be said about it and much that will remain unsayable."
To quote one of my favorites, Ad Reinhart, "Art is art. Everything else is everything else." It seems silly to add this on, but the subject matter of visual art is the visual experience.
5 comments:
The artist statement is useful to further articulate some ideas about the work that is part of the artist's intentions, but when it becomes a substitute for the work and leaves no room for further interpretations that seems to be a problem and antithetical to the purpose of any fine art form. BR/BR/My figurative work and portraits are interpreted by viewers in ways I could never have articulated. BR/BR/Thanks for sharing...I will be interested in what other artists think.
I just get tired of two things, the viewers spending more time reading the labels and the statements than they do looking at the work, and statements with meaningless jargon and buzzwords like ontologicl and epiphany and deep philosophical stuff. This is an academic habit learned in BFA and MFA programs and critiques.
And here's another thought, the only language I have is English, however, I have been fortunate to looked at art abroad, where the labels and statements aren't easily accessible to me. I can tell you that at least at the places I visited, there weren't artist statements placed next to the artwork. Is this an American habit? Do I need to read those statements to gain access to the art works abroad?
Sometimes artists expect me to post a lot of explanations on the walls with their work at my university. I do not. I post the bare information and the PRICE!BR/BR/Statements are available in the gallery in tasteful binders. The art is the art...everything else is everything else...
Please visit my blog. I'm asking about self promotion for artists.BR/BR/joyce_owens_on_art
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