Art Is A Business
An Art Critique
As an aspiring professional artist, you feel you have no choice, but to go up the ladder of the art world. You start with small galleries in your local area and slowly move up hoping to garner the attention of the art world. At the same you enter many art competitions, by being a finalist in some of these competitions you may be part of a group exhibition. The way the art world is built, is not by artists for every person to enjoy, but by an small art elite who have a great deal of power. These people are not artists, but come from a privileged and elite part of society that controls the art world. They proceed to critique your art work in both negative and positives ways. People look some art that receives high critical acclaim and say to themselves I can do this as well. They can and anyone can. It is hard to feel confident in winning an art prize when judges haven’t proven a capability in distinguishing whether an adult or a three year old has painted the artwork. In Australia, there was a famous case for a prestigious art competition. The prize is specifically for painting that represents the Australian Landscape. The issue was the artwork bared a close resemblance to a 17th century artwork, painted in Italy by a Dutch master. In 2010 this created an great furor and was highly publicised. Judge for yourself, because I am not claiming it is a copy, as there are differences.
Taken from the Sydney Morning Herald article titled https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/double-dutch-for-our-sam-20100413-s7kx.html
The people that judged this prize also judge the Archibald Prize. This is a prestigious art prize in Australia with one hundred thousand dollars awarded to the winner. These judges are some of the most elite and privileged people in Australia, with one artist who has gone through the system joining the board for two years. I know very well, that my comments will not be acceptable to the art elite. It seems to be a small elite group of rich people who have yet to find the next Mattise, Vermeers or Van Gogh’s. Maybe there is a reason for not finding the next great artist, the art world at the top may be fine, other then mistakenly trusting an artwork was not a painting of an Australian Landscape. Until now the only way the art world had to know an artist was serious was by them going up the ranks of the art world. Now there are more possibilities for artists to be discovered and to finally be in control of their career. It has been seen that the upper echelons of the art world are accepting of these artists.
Art is a Business
An artist should be in charge of their career. Social media and blogging has given artists many opportunities to grow their brand. This is a journey that I have started originally on Instagram, before going to Twitter and now am starting on Pinterest. I am learning how to run an art business. The artists that I see who are making a solid living on Social Media, all have one thing in common; they are fully in control of their business. They are not waiting for anyone to discover them. If you build a fan base, interesting galleries and other opportunities will come. With money, you can make a book of your art, make prints and hire a place to have your own exhibition etc. What I am doing is getting my foot in the door. I have researched how art is a business and am trying to put what I have learnt into practice. It is something I will write about in the future, but I believe you have to practice what you preach.
