I was part of an artist talk this weekend where I reflected on and took questions about one of the pieces from my new homage series. Which got me thinking about the role of the discourse” in shaping what gets labeled Art, and our collective role in perpetuating International Art English (that’s a good link fwiw) since I used elements of it to describe and discuss the piece.
I decided to decide on some words about words when reading a social media post- after the talk- by a fellow artist who, while not in attendance, questioned what the Art world would look like in the absence of the artist statement phenomena (which, according to Wikipedia, is recent phenomena). Written statements and Artist talks are not the same thing and also yes, they are- intertwined at the least.
To answer the question “what would change about the Art world if International Art English disappeared” (link is different content from above and a pdf btw), one should unpack what purpose artist statements serve. I would argue (as would Wikipedia) they derive from the seemingly unbreakable relationship of Art (in the US) to academia; their purpose is to point the viewer towards the artists’ intended relationship to Art history, just like we’re sitting in crit, or seminar, with our profs. The existence within and dependency of the Arts on the academic Ivory tower (again- in the US) is no doubt the reason the majority of opines to the above referenced social media post were, approximately, “everyone is entitled to an opinion with or without academic credentials” (a very individualist, anti-establishment viewpoint that is a) Modernist and b) the reason the Arts retreated into academia… ooops).
I’m not sure I agree all opinions are informed with equal rigor and substance and frankly “we all have our opinions” is a boring hill to die on. I’d also suggest nothing perpetuates this part of the experience of taking in Art more than artists ourselves. We are. Always. asking each other “what is your work about???”
I argued for my part that one of the biggest challenges with letting go of verbosity is that postmodernism is not actually an “ism.” Said differently, we don’t have the type of shorthand in the visual arts that musicians have; for example, one might declare “it’s not boom bap, it’s trap music” and little more would need to be said. In the visual Arts… at best we can throw out references to other Artists. One of the disadvantages of painting after Art is dead is the lack of easy hooks to quickly create or at least glom onto collective meaning.
Even with my quip about music categories considered one should probably recognize that people still have words about music they love (thank you Pitchfork, Okayplaya, Stereogum at el), because good Art inspires.
Do I think the visual Arts are better with or without statements? I’d say they are here to stay and if that isn’t what motivates you to view Art thanks for showing up (especially to Artist talks) for whatever reason motivates you. Outside of that, well… there’s the title of this essay.
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