I caught a link on We Make Money Not Art to this Artworld Salon article that contemplated the criticism of an increasingly professionalized art world. The article questions, “What’s wrong with professionalization?” after citing examples of back-handed comments towards the MFA and PhD in the arts. The questions it raises are: does “professionalization” make artists less creative and provocative, more generic and safe? Is successful art the creation of safe, professionalized art? why should provocative art necessitate a lack of financial or institutional security?
Author Archives: Liz Filardi
"Oblique Strategies": Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's "How to Win" card game
Brian Eno, the father of ambient music and Peter Schmidt, an English artist, created this deck of cards called Oblique Strategies in 1975. It is now in it’s fifth edition. Via Drawn!:
Oblique Strategies is a deck of cards created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt after thinking about approaches to their own work as artist and musician. Each card presents a question, dilemma, or new way of attacking the work you are doing as an artist. By drawing a card, you are given the chance to rethink your process.
Sample cards include:
- Don’t avoid what is easy.
- Humanize something that is free of error.
- What do you do? Now, what do you do best?
- Do the last thing first.
- Use an unacceptable colour.
Posted in How To Win
Tagged art example, brian eno, oblique strategies, peter schmidt, pop culture example
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"People Are Strange": a night of multimedia performance and projections
Marisa Olsen’s upcoming show is about “an active artist’s earliest creative efforts and they
provide evidence of an obsession with music, genre, psychology, and personal narrative that shines through in her more recent artworks.” It is an exhibition to celebrate the release of her book, Poems I Wrote While Listening to the Doors, 1992-1994 (Before I found the internet).
Olsen’s latest work makes a couple success-establishing gestures: the artist publishes a book, and the artist illuminates early creative endeavors in an exhibitionist fashion. The implication of success is multifaceted. First, the artist’s current work has achieved a level of polish so that the contrast between early days and current work is illuminating. Second, her work is successful enough to warrant public attention to the early stuff. The funny part is that it isn’t a pretentious or aggressive move because the content is so utterly embarrassing.
As the press release states, “The evening will continue Olson’s ongoing interest in public humiliation and the aesthetics of failure, from which she believes we can learn more, politically and personally, than from success.” Olsen’s retrospective glance into her teen years is humorous, nostalgic, and almost universal to teenage Doors fans. Perhaps another aspect of success is the ability to publicly and gracefully embrace early fledglings.