August 8th, 2007 admin
Local photographer Cole Thompson’s recent newsletter contained an interesting article. It was written by Robert Genn. After reading it I thought it was worth passing along:
Dear Artist,
Did you ever wonder about the difference between a piece of art in someone’s basement and a piece of art in the National Gallery ? Did you ever wonder just exactly what constitutes “good” art?
Readers may be familiar with the recent experiment done by the Washington Post . The brilliant violinist Joshua Bell , fresh from a performance at the Library of Congress with the Boston Symphony, busked for free during the morning rush at a Washington Metro station. Of the thousand-odd passersby, only a few stopped, or even paused, to listen. Small change fell infrequently into his open violin case–the very case that holds his $3 million 1710 Strad. Most were oblivious to some of the most beautiful and difficult music ever written for his instrument. Interviewed after leaving the building, it seems few commuters even noticed the guy in the baseball cap standing by the frequently swinging doors. Thinking back, Bell believes some thought his efforts offensive. The nearby skin mags, shoeshine lady and lotto ticket machine got more attention.
Bell, when playing in more conventional venues, is a guy who makes about a thousand dollars a minute. Much has been written of his Metro debut. My take is that the Metro is now and will forever remain an inappropriate place to hold a concert. Any concert. Quality art deserves and needs a proper frame to be fully recognized as quality art. In art, perception and context are all-important. “Art pity” is not a significant generator of fans.
Many visual artists who read this will never see their work in the National Gallery. While there’s a complex mix of machinations that needs to happen in order to be there, we can often make the choice to be in better venues. Quality mags beat scandal sheets. Commercial galleries beat barber shops. We can be selective about our galleries, too. The unfortunate truth is that it’s better to be on Lord Bluffington’s walls than on Joe Blogg’s on the other side of the tracks. People who pay big bucks to put their bottoms in the front row are just a wee bit more likely to be enthusiastic. It’s human nature.
Best regards,
Robert
PS: “I was oddly grateful when somebody threw a dollar instead of change.” (Joshua Bell)
The rest of the article can be found here.
And while your clicking you should check out Cole’s site here. He does amazing work with black and white photography. You can read ZAF622’s interview with him here.
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