Contributing writer for The Artifice.
Junior Contributor I
Digital and Traditional Art: Value in Gallery SettingsArtists are more and more turning to the computer as a tool in the studio process. Many artists use digital tools as mere processes in the creation of traditional work, while many other artists now produce the entire artwork on the computer. These digital artists are are left with one method of making their art creation into a physical product. This is the use of pigment-based printing technology, which prints out their work as as a digital print. This is sometimes called, Giclee, or Digital Pigment Printing. For these artists, this is a legitimate way of constructing artwork. But, there is a massive prejudice against digital prints by the art gallery community. Many talented artists who use digital technology are excluded from showing with these galleries. In a vast number of open exhibition calls, the requirements specifically exclude digital artists and their work. How can the growing body of artists who produce digital work gain a sense of legitimacy from both their audiences and the galleries who control the purchasing public?
|
The Controversial Art of Sally Mann | |
A nice narrative through the life of an artist whose work I have both enjoyed and also used as exemplars in my own studio practice. As an artist myself, whose themes relate closely to those used by Woodman, I can say that it is not always the case that what pervades the dark recesses of one’s mind is brought forward as content to the image. If one possesses an active and creative imagination, as Woodman clearly did, there are multiple layers of expression which both include one’s immediate misery, and which soar far beyond it. This phenomenon is easily seen in her available inventory of artwork. | The Art of Francesca Woodman: Haunting, Evocative, Personal |
I am surprised that the basic method for the evaluation and assessment of artworks has not been mentioned in this discussion. Originally formulated by Edmund Feldman, this system, called the “Elements & Principles of Design,” is a package that provides the viewer with the vocabulary and terminology of art criticism and a 5-step process for arriving at an interpretation and judgement of an artwork (based as as much objectivity as possible). The method is very helpful in providing terminology for all aspects of viewing, assessing, interpreting, and judging work. The method outlines questioning processes which lead the viewer deeper into the work, and ends with systematized ways to interpret and judge the work. All the processes are based on objective ways to see, analyze, and interpret visual phenomena. It provides a way for art critics to fully document and explain every statement they make about the artwork. I have worked with this system in my own art classes for over 30 years, and when it is used correctly, the whole concept of subjectivity in assessment is nicely subjugated to a deeper and more profound visual objectivity. | That's Just, Like, Your Opinion, Man: An Argument that Art is Objective |
It has always puzzled me how one can mistake artistic expression for pornography. In the former, the naked body is presented as an authentic and natural behavior, closely integrated with the immediate context of the narrative. In the latter, it is presented as a focus for seduction, an invitation for contact. Those who see seduction in the naturally authentic, impose their own layers of personal expression over those things which are innately innocent.