Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Business or pleasure?
Was interviewed on the radio yesterday and the subject of art/business arose. Its really weird but seems there is the perception that artists should be impoverished and that there is somehow a stigma with actually being paid for your work. In the corporate world people who are successful are highly rated, but somehow the minute you put art and business in the same sentence the perception seems to be that this is not in keeping with the archetype of an artist. As the presenter carried on pushing the point, it occured to me if she would have been doing the same were she interviewing an architecht, plumber or a interior designer. ie questioning the tainting of art, with the word 'sell.' As if to sell made one less of a 'true' artist? In the days of patrons this could have applied but a bunch of starving artists means a bunch of people focused on the need to exist rather than the opportunity to create. What's your view?
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I had an email in my inbox this morning and the following quote I think says it all
ReplyDelete"I earn my living from my paintings so, like any skilled worker, I'm entitled to some reward for my labour.
Hi Anne. Thanks for your new book "Making your Art Work". I found it to be an excellent read, very motivating, inspiring and well explained. Going forward I hope to put some of your words of wisdom into practice. Thanks again, I really enjoyed it!
ReplyDeleteI think for too long artists (and include writers, poets etc in this) have mistakenly taken on the mantle of impoverishment as part of their "being", almost as though is were chic or romantic... Think of the image that's been propogated of starving artist in a garret in Paris...
ReplyDeleteAnd then there's a world view that says art is not a necessity but a luxury, so you're second best. Ha! Without art and writing, without creativity where would civilisation be? We are, after all, creative beings.
The fact is that we sell our work and ergo, ourselves, horribly short in not ascribing value to what we do.
Clambering off soapbox now.
Yes indeed. In history art did not equal poverty. I believe creativity in whatever form it takes is essential to our well being. If we all did what we were passionate about, the world would be a happier place.
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