Artists have to be allowed to make unhealthy work
Right here is a clip of the artwork critic David Sylvester in 1969 on the BBC present The Visible Scene (the “Playing it Cool” episode) speaking in regards to the risks of artists working an excessive amount of within the public eye:
British artwork critic David Sylvester (he is also speaking about youngsters) pic.twitter.com/9a376a2Pb2
— Austin Kleon (@austinkleon) May 4, 2023
Artists have to be allowed to undergo unhealthy intervals! They have to be allowed to do unhealthy work! They have to be allowed to get in a large number! They have to be allowed to have dud experiments! They have to even be allowed to have intervals the place they repeat themselves in a moderately aimless, fruitless approach earlier than they’ll decide up and go on. The form of consideration that they get now, the form of environment of pleasure which attends immediately the creation of artworks, the best way that every part is finished an excessive amount of within the public eye, it’s actually an excessive amount of. The pressures are of a sort that are anti-creative.
This clip went viral on @davidrisley’s Instagram, clearly chatting with the pressures that many artists really feel with the rise of social media.
Seen within the context of the episode, Sylvester is speaking, particularly, in regards to the “professionalization” and “commercialization” of artwork, and mainly the hype machine of the artwork world:
There’s a tendency in our society to be wedded to the brand new, to be wedded to the thrill of novelty. I feel at present second that there’s an inclination — which I feel we’ve bought from America, and which I feel is a foul tendency, to measure each artist by his final exhibition. “So and so’s no good, have a look at his final present!” The truth that he had 5 earlier exhibits, which had been superb, doesn’t appear to matter. It will get forgotten too shortly. And in some way the snap judgement on what one has simply accomplished, this type of stress it places on may be very harmful, as a result of artists have to be allowed to undergo unhealthy intervals…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtqNZQsnN2A
On a aspect notice: Many individuals instructed me this clip was most likely one in every of Sylvester’s interviews with the painter Francis Bacon, particularly, Francis Bacon: Fragments of a Portrait. I watched the entire thing looking for the clip, with no luck, however I don’t remorse it, because the interview is superb. (John Berger quotes from it in his essay, “Francis Bacon and Walt Disney,” collected in About Wanting.) I’m now going to observe Sylvester and Bacon’s 1985 interview collectively, Francis Bacon: The Brutality of Fact.)
Filed below: bad art