Sunday, February 3, 2013

My Fantasy Art Show

I have mentioned a couple of times to fellow artists my idea of the perfect art show...here goes. A jury would select out of all the applicants, only the top 100 artists that applied to be in the show. Each applicant that was accepted would then paint on the same sized canvas, any subject that they desired. All work would then be submitted to the jury with only a number (1 though 100) identifying who the artist is. No signatures on the work. No frames. No photos. No digitally enhanced work. No copies. No giclees that have been painted over. Just watercolors, oils, acrylics, pencils, pastels. The judges would then rank the works submitted from one to one hundred, with 1 being the best work in the show on down to 100. The show would then be hung and the names of the artists later identified.
I would like to see a jury (not just one judge) rank the work. I know that this is difficult in order to get judges to come to some kind of consensus, but it would be nice to have the results of the show not be dependent upon only one person's view. I would also like the see the work just as it is, which would mean, no mats, no frames, no glass, etc. Just the work.
I would like the work to be evaluated solely on the work itself; not on the age of the artist, not on whether the artist is well known in the area, male or female, black-green-white, not on how well their work sells, or whether it is simply "clever" or "shocking", but just the work.
I know that I dream of all this in a world where things are judged. We all "judge" and make evaluations of just about everything. Our judging is often simple; good or bad, hard or easy, soft or hard, sweet or sour...
but somewhere there is an ultimate truth in all of that that I wish fervently could be found in the world of art. Don't we all pretty much agree that Monet's haystacks are lovely? Don't we think that the Mona Lisa is indeed mysterious and beautifully painted? Maybe not...but in my dream world, life is fair and just and I wish that people were the same. Sadly, they are not. They see life through their own lenses, with some seeing things in a more distorted way than others. An Alternate Reality, where blue is green and red is pink. Maybe one day, artwork will be evaluated at competitions like the reality show, "The Voice" and the artist is not viewed as a "package" but rather seen as simply, an artist.

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