Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

.........I'm not gonna hide the fact that these days I don't even think or have to even worry bout this door to the art of showing your visual creations....I guess the last time I entered a juried show was back in the late 70's memory serving me well.....back then in '79.....and a big then it was I became a member of the Madams Organ Artist coop in old D.C. whose staunch philosophy was totally anti juried.....I also made a point of putting my works into any and perhaps all open shows that came to my attention over the past 25 years......I am also an active Member of the SoWeBo arts community here in my adopted home of baltimore md.
the one philosophy we cling to with regards to the visual arts at the festival here is all art and artists are welcome to show at the festival and create a poster for the festival, these posters get a lotta visibility by being shown at a venue before the festival and then auctioned 2 weeks later at a high exposure event.......just wondering how some of you all feel about the juried process?????????????wired...........

i say, blue ribbons for all! or, make that fuscia (or is that fuchia?) ribbons for all.

.......blue ribbons and a bunch a roses.....for em......wired

Dear WIREMAN:

I have, like the rest here, been in and out of juried shows.

I have even ( I confess, in my younger days) sat in judgment on a jury ( there were five of us).

In Art School part of the curriculum required us to "sift through" the undergraduate art for Fall and Spring shows. Every MFA had to do it, though I tried to decline.

I've commented on my role as an editor elsewhere on this board, and, of course, as a "University Professor" ( I use the quotation marks to mock the title) I had to judge student work.

Judging talented people can be a deadly process. The most wonderful artists ( like Van Gogh and Blake, to name only two, though I could quickly add Henri Gaudier-Breska, Henry Darger, Nancy Spero and her socially-involved husband, Leon Golub) have had to struggle constantly for acceptance by "the jury."

R.B. Kitaj, one of my favorite artists, did a great satirical painting called,"The Billionaire in Vincent's Chair" showing a smug bankroller smiling while sitting in Vincent's yellow bedroom wicker chair.

Juries tend to bring out arrogance, since the artist doesn't get a chance to "face his accusers."

Oddly, those accusers seem to enjoy the privilege of not being accusers at all.

I don't think, however, that "the general public" which might prefer Norman Rockwell or (horrors!) Thomas Kincade to Francesco Clemente or Nancy Spero, should be making all the decisions about what is hung where.

It's a tricky proposition, juries-- sending and receiving those vibes.

This is a great question, WIREMAN.


--Zlatko