Justifiable aversion to art shows

[Lon Haverly]

Agreed, Mary, the public needs art shows to water its desert. My life is nothing but art, and an art show is like black forest cake which, if you eat the whole piece, leaves you wishing you had not eaten the first bite.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

I think taste or the lack of it, is very personal and varies in degrees from one person to another. Looking at the positive side of things prevents us from turning into bitter prunes!

I agree with Mary on a lot of points she has made. We as artists need to set high standards for ourselves and our work and by showing it to the public we can, to a degree, influence what the perception of real art could be. Show the public mastery of the craft and if they can afford it I am sure they will buy it and appreciate it.

I would like to see the following change in the way juried shows are handled:

• 1. Do not disclose artist's name.
  2. The work should be judged without any consideration to title.
  3. The frame/matting should only be taken in consideration if it is part of the work. (Some artists incorporate the frame as part of the painting.)
  4. Jurors should not be allowed to confer with other jurors. I like to see them partitioned off, so they can't even see the mannerisms and expression of the person next to them.

I would like the creation of an environment were judging can be truly objective and done by people who master their art. If a work wins that I happen to find inferior, well then so be it. I will congratulate the winner and go on with my career.

[Timothy C. Tyler]

All that most artists want is a fair shake. It actually does sometimes happen that an art show is judged by 3 or 5 skilled and experienced artists (judging separately by number value voting) and one ends up with a show in which the "dumb ole public" and the artists in the show, as well as artists looking at the show, all generally say, "Well, this show was well judged".

It's that most shows are put together by non-artists and they think non-artists are somehow smarter than the people who actually make art. So assistant curators and "organizer-types" judge the contests and the results are as one might expect.

As for Kinkade, what skilled and knowledgeable artist could hawk his work w/o embarrassment? Better that someone that was selling cars last week sell them. It's ok to say it's crap. Say it loudly! It's crap. I used to like the puppies with the big tears in their eyes but I was 7 years old when it was all the rage. Crap happens. Honest art comes from honest artists. Let's be honest here. It's really OK.

[Jim Riley]

Mary,

Thanks for your thoughtful post. You are guilty of being part of something and learning/gaining from actual experience. It's to my great dismay that so many artists wish to ascribe and describe the success of others as owing only to some unwholesome agenda.

You also reminded me of an experience that I had many years ago and have been guilty of retelling many times over the years to fellow artists and students alike. In the early 60's I visited the Carnegie International Show in Pittsburgh with a group of gifted artists skilled in "traditional" and "modern" art. (I still continue these high risk behaviors)

The show strongly favored the "modern" art movements of the time and in the previous week Time magazine had displayed several paintings from the show. Among those was a square painting that for the most part was a mass of cobalt blue paint that stopped just short of the edges of the canvas. A broad cadmium yellow line ran through the lower third of the painting. Looking at the magazine did not prepare me for the viewing experience since the painting was very much larger than I had expected and had a strong impact that commanded your attention. (It could have been an abstract banana on a blue table)

Nearby was a painting much smaller in size by Andrew Wyeth. It may have been "Brown Swiss" or another of the paintings of the Kuerner house that featured the house on the hill and its reflection in the pond below. As powerful as the first painting was, the Wyeth held its own and more. Anything else would have been blown away.

The overall impact and ability to command your attention was inspiring. As an abstract composition it was second to none and has had a lasting effect on my ability to appreciate and encourage the overwhelming need for students to develop paintings which demand your attention through concept and design. It's my reminder to strive for the same

It would be worth many fruitless trips to other galleries to have an experience like this one.

Not to jinx myself, but I don't know where all these "snobs" are found. Do they hang out with the "dumbed down"?

[Mary Reilly]

Here is an interesting thought to throw forth. Perhaps some of these committees don't know who to ask or where to find a judge. (Obviously, I am referring to the local shows. The national shows are a whole other story.)

I happen to share a studio with another artist in a public location. As a result, we've been asked to judge shows at the local schools, and recently we were contacted to judge the local art guild show. Various times the committee asking us have mentioned that they really appreciated us being willing to judge since they had trouble knowing who to ask. Sometimes they had asked people who turned them down.

When I used to be active in the local art guild, there were times that I had to help find a judge and believe me it was not easy. We always tried to find artists as our first choice, but that was not always possible. Most often there is only so much money to offer a judge. In addition, there is still a major limitation in that you have to find someone close enough that travel expense will not have to be factored in.

Next problem is how to find an artist. Quite often many of the local artists are IN the show so that eliminates them. Also most artists have their studios in their home, so unless you know about them, if they only advertise out of the local area then they are not known and that eliminates most of them. Then there are these "art experts" (ha, ha) that make themselves known to all and tell everyone that they are the best judges of art. So there you have it. The committee now "knows the best" and that is who they hire.

Perhaps we as artists need to let the local schools and guilds and other organizations that have shows know that we are willing to judge art shows and exhibits. We might be doing everyone a favor.

Of course, having said all of that, we need to be ready to be the person that will be blamed when someone is not happy with our choices.

Mary

[Chris Saper]

I am at least as cynical as any of you. What I have to share though, is the one truly unbiased experience I have had, which was being considered as an author for the book I ultimately wrote for North Light Books.

The acquisition editor for North Light Books, Rachel Wolf, wrote a clear RFP (Request for Proposal) to which I responded. I can assure you she had never heard my name nor seen my work.

She was unbiased by "names" (I certainly didn't have one) and focused on the task at hand, which was getting the book accomplished. I am grateful for her objectivity, and what I most certainly presume is NLB's philosophy. In fact, here's an excerpt from my thanks section:

...to Rachel Wolf, for her humor, intellect, and willingness to take a chance on a painter from Arizona.

If any of you have the chance to work with this company, go for it.

P.S. I often get my work rejected from my local art group. Sometimes it's the same piece that wins a national award. You just can't take this stuff to heart, either way.

[Lon Haverly]

Jim, with all due respect for your excellent work and training, it is hard to believe that you have never seen the politics in art shows. Perhaps, and I say this respectfully, you are too close to the forest to see the trees. I also cannot believe that a man of your education cannot see that most of our schools are lacking in solid art education.

You can read in the October 2001 edition of the American Artist Magazine where Steven Doherty, editor in chief of the magazine, writes of the "lack of solid academic education in most universities, colleges and art schools, and of reports of students frustrated by programs that don't adequately teach drawing, anatomy, composition, color theory and painting techniques." And that is just the higher education. Our secondary schools have never taught fundamentals to children other than crayola moments. THAT is where the fundamentals should be introduced.

Our country has a very very weak understanding of art for the most part. IMO, dumbing down is not even applicable to our society - it was never art-smart to begin with! There are so very few people in this country who know what you know about art. You are a part of a very, very small and fortunate minority. I agree that it is valuable to learn from galleries. I wish there were some in my community worth attending.

[Jim Riley]

Lon,

I have no idea how you were led to believe that I've never suspected politics in art shows. Who or how was this implied? Most dissatisfaction with art show judging seems to focus on the "modern" versus "traditional" but I wonder if members think portrait society shows are any less vulnerable to the politics of judging? As unfortunate as this may be, the public usually doesn't care that much and the results don't ordinarily launch or stifle careers.

I also don't know what I may have said to suggest that art education programs broadly are all that they should be. Most of my responses on this Forum have simply questioned a lot of assumptions that, in my mind, reflect the frustration of artists who don't believe their school and style of art is as appreciated as much as they would wish. This often leads to comments suggesting that overt and covert efforts are employed by some vague "establishments" to diminish an art form so very dear to them. Apparently the belief is that the same devious efforts are employed to mislead schools, teachers, museums, galleries, and the public. This often results in "dumbing down" comments.

With due respect for Steven Doherty I would like to see something weightier than his opinion and the grumbling of frustrated students as the basis for making any substantive evaluation of art education/training at college/art school level. I for one am in no position to judge and remain surprised that others on the Forum are so confident in their judgment of academic demise. Are we talking about the quality of art education in its broadest sense or the training of specific and specialized skills? Are we talking about education? Or how to render? Again, as I have mentioned in an earlier thread, I have had the experience regionally to see elementary students work, play, study, experiment with materials and subjects that will give them, in my opinion, a good grounding in the visual arts. And, again, I suspect this will not satisfy those that are convinced that the only "good" course of study is that which will prepare them to be a classical realist painter. How narrow. There is a difference between teaching and indoctrination. I'm happy enough that they have been stimulated and trust they will find their role as artist, designer, or patron and will find one of the many professional schools available for artist today whatever interest.

I previously recommended Robert Henri's book "The Art Spirit" and one Forum response was "Why read his book if I don't like the author's paintings?" He and John Dewey (writer of "Art as Experience") were two important authors offering practical and philosophical insight into the arts. Of Mr. Dewey, the book jacket said: "Art As Experience has grown to be considered internationally as the most distinguished work ever written by an American on the formal structures and characteristic effects of all of the arts: architecture, sculpture, painting, music, and literature".

If these two writers were here today they might be the ones asking just who is too close the forest to see the trees?

What other countries have better programs and how is this evidenced?

[Timothy C. Tyler]

Seems to me, American Artist could feature more artists that are "skilled and trained" and less of the photo slaves that have been the mainstay of that magazine for as long as I can remember. I can't remember an issue that did not have some article featuring naked bodies painted with bad color drawn from photos.

This magazine could walk the walk and lead the way (by example).

[Steven Sweeney]

An art publication as part of the dumbing-down conspiracy. Now there's a new one. Here I thought it was Cosmopolitan and Guns & Ammo.

All the pieces are falling into place. Why haven't we received an eRumor chain-letter petition about this?