A day off from daubing today. Going to have a look at other people’s efforts. It’s the time of year that around and about my part of the world we have ‘open studios’. I say ‘we’ in the community sense rather than me personally as I’ve never done it myself. Not that I wouldn’t, it’s just that I’ve never had enough work to show, but maybe next year. So, having been through the book we’ve picked out some likely candidates for a visit.
Watched a programme featuring this year’s RA Summer Exhibition the other evening and it’s staggering just how many people there are out there producing artworks. All the more so as a lot of them are very good. Thankfully not all – too much competition otherwise - but then that’s where it gets interesting, because personal taste and preference is subjective. One person’s masterpiece is another’s piece of shite.
In another TV programme about the Pre-Raphaelites, now fully accepted into the art mainstream, it was amazing how much they were vilified by critical opinion at the time. The scorn and disgust that greeted their first paintings seemed to have no connection with the work shown on screen when viewing it today. But for influential critic John Ruskin who championed their manifesto, the ‘Brotherhood’ may have sunk without trace.
The Impressionists were a laughing stock. Even the name was coined as an insult. Now, who wouldn’t have an original Monet or Renoir on their wall given the opportunity. Not many I’ll wager. Van Gogh never sold a painting in his lifetime. His work must now arguably be the most recognised of any painter in art history. But the passage of time is not always a guarantee of universal acceptance in art. Picasso still generates controversy 36 years after his death, his vision still a step too far for many. I dare say the infamous ‘Tate bricks’ are still a pile of builder’s raw materials to the majority. And as for Tracy’s bed and Damien’s skull, I can only guess.
So, what treasures lay in store today? Will there be some undiscovered genius holed up in a garden shed just waiting for someone to pluck them from obscurity? If there is, it won’t be me doing the plucking. I mean, what do I know? One thing’s for sure. I know what I like.
