Lesson 13

A lecturer giving a tutorial once said that the student’s painting was “a bit all-over“. The meaning was that there was no focus, or knot of activity, and that the weight was distributed evenly all-over the surface of the painting.

The student nods in agreement with some understanding as to what the tutor was getting at.

As the student did not defend his position, which was in essence that it is perfectly reasonable to do an ‘all-over painting’, if that’s what you intend. The lecturer says “Well, make it more all-over!“

Similarly – “It’s a bit pink…well, make it more pink!“

Therefore, “It’s a bit abstract…Well, make it more abstract!” etc.

I was talking to the wife of a gallery owner and she was trying to convince me that they supported their artists to experiment and change. My position was that artists are ditched by galleries if they do not sell and change is discouraged if this potentially might move away from what does sell.

She said that they had a Eastern European artist who was “very political“. Presumably indicating the support of a political artist and that political art does not sell very well. I said that I thought to simply ask questions in the work was political and that I once taught Mark Wallinger when he was a student at Goldsmiths. She said that her artist was “more political than Wallinger“.

Can you be more political?

It occurs to me that you don’t evaluate politics in quantity but in quality, or type, that is, ideology. You have to be partisan when it comes to politics. Like football, you have to support one of the sides; it’s no fun otherwise.

For example – being political, was this artist more fascist?

So it’s not – “It’s a bit political…Well, make it more political!“

More like  – “It’s a bit political…Well, make it more extreme.”

Or,

“It’s a bit political…Well, make it more explicit“.

Stand by your convictions, be clear. You need to be something of an extremist if you are an artist. Extremism is ‘doing more’.

Only within a narrow understanding of Modernism is ‘less is more’ applicable.

As in the Baroque or Gothic, it is obvious that ‘more is more’.