Fashions

The art world (the galleries, museums, critics and their artists) is governed by the whims of fashion.  Right now cynicism and spectacle making are in style; Jeff Koons and Damion Hirst rule.  The current art world is like a nuclear arms race, everyone attempting to be preemptively innovative, relevant and original, except without any actual art.  Empathy, courage, hope, joy, grief, despair and sorrow are always relevant, but not to the art world.  An artist has to make something “new” which means something in fashion. 

Several credible news sources published articles* about the link between the CIA and Abstract Expressionism  which revealed that the CIA was integral to the founding of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the success of the Abstract Expressionist movement.  When I read the first headline, I thought it was nuts, but it actually explains a lot.  The plan was to create the myth that the US has a superior culture to Europe and Asia in that it is innovative, creative and energetic.  The myth of American ingenuity was bolstered by artists happily innovating away, supplying the newly created demand for American Art.  It was all about money.  It always was just about money.  The crazy thing is that it worked.  

It’s true that in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, painters and sculptors were lumped together with goldsmiths and potters as craftsmen.  It was all about the money then, too.  They got paid for their craft and that was it.  A kid with an aptitude for the craft was apprenticed young, trained by the master and accepted into the guild after producing a “masterpiece.” There was no such thing as an “artist”, as we know it today.  The guild system gave way to the academy system.  A kid with an aptitude for painting, drawing or sculpture went to an academy, studied with a master and started a career as an artist after being accepted into the academy exhibition.  I think what's happening now is all the Impressionists’ fault.  They got disgruntled and fed up with the academy system and started a movement away from academic studies.  And look what happened!  We have monumental stainless steel balloon animals.
  

deborahdendler.com

www.facebook.com/DeborahDendlerSculpture


* <https://www.nytimes.com/books/00/04/23/reviews/000423.23joffet.html>
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/25/modern-art-was-cia-weapon_0_n_3156994.html> <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-weapon-1578808.html>
<http://www.openculture.com/2013/04/how_the_cia_turned_american_abstract_expressionism_into_cold_war_propaganda.html> 

Shipping your work

Indestructible, detail

Shipping your work to exhibitions and buyers sounds scarier than it is. Artists worry about their work being damaged during shipping, but I ship small, lightweight sculptures all over the place and I've never had a problem. The only problem I've ever had with a shipped sculpture was a porcelain relief sculpture that was dropped and cracked while it was being installed in a show in NYC, which could have happened even if I'd delivered it myself; it was dropped by someone working in the gallery. That being said, don't ever use the USPS for shipping art. The USPS is great at a lot of things, but shipping art isn't one of them. The USPS has limited insurance for art (<$1,000) and they're not careful with packages marked "Fragile", which is why many galleries and museums will not accept work shipped via USPS. FedEx and UPS are much better. With the ability to create and print shipping UPS and FedEx labels at home, the whole process is pretty painless.

Of course, you want to double box your shipment with 2" of packing between boxes and 2" of packing between your work and the box in all dimensions. Use bubble wrap instead of peanuts because many places don't accept work packed in peanuts. Use new boxes and the strongest possible packing tape. Get insurance. UPS won't insure a box that is old, battered or badly taped. If you do a lot of shipping, you'll start saving thick foam sheets and pads whenever you find them - new appliances, computers, TV's, electronics, etc. often come wrapped in great stuff.

If your work is too heavy to ship in cardboard boxes, hire a carpenter to make shipping crates for you. For framed paintings, drawings and prints, use Airfloat boxes.

Another thing artists worry about with shipping their work to exhibitions is the cost. While it's not cheap, it isn't too bad if your work is relatively small and light. I usually figure it will cost around $200 per show for shipping and handling. This is where it becomes critical to chose your shows wisely. There are hundreds of exhibitions and not all of them are right for everybody. The way I think of it is that each line of my resumé represents the expense of at least $30, which is a standard exhibition entry fee, just to exhibit my work. If I have to drive a long distance delivering and picking up, that's additional expense. I prefer shipping my work rather than driving if the distance is more than a couple of hours each way because gas is expensive and my time is valuable, too.

I plan to spend less than $1,000 a year on entrance fees and shipping. If you're on a budget, it's important not to blow your budget on shows you'll never get into. Rejections hurt your budget as well as your pride. I think of entry fees for shows I didn't get into as part of my ongoing education.

deborahdendler.com

www.facebook.com/DeborahDendlerSculpture

Giving it away

September, oil on paper

The first time somebody asked me to give away some of my work, I was horrified. I was infuriated. It was a painting that wasn't dry yet and I wasn't even sure the painting was finished. At the time, I was having trouble with actual, physical theft of my paintings so I felt very protective of my work. That was more than forty years ago. Naturally since then my opinions have changed and my feelings about giving away one's work have evolved.

Over the years, I've been surprised at how often artists are asked to give away their work for charities, nonprofits and fundraisers. Are jewelers also asked to donate their merchandise? Shoe stores? Dress shops? It has always seemed odd to me that artists are hit up for donations. For one thing, artists are not allowed by the IRS to deduct the value of donated art work, only the cost of materials of the work. So why ask artists to donate their work? Does it look like we're making big bucks? Most artists barely make enough to pay for materials. Plus, the problem is that giving away anything lowers its value, unless its value is zero.  So, asking an artist to give away work is kind of like saying "your work isn't worth anything, why not just give it away?" The other problem is that an artist giving away work (theoretically) devalues the work of other artists trying to sell their work, just as one seller lowering prices has an impact on the rest of the market.

All of that notwithstanding, these days I give away some of my work, on purpose. I've found that it's very freeing and liberating, so every year I do a couple of pieces that are specifically for donation to nonprofit fundraising events. Also, there are a couple of organizations that accept donated art, Art Connection and Rxhibitions, and I'm definitely sending some of the overflow their way. And I participate in various events and fundraisers. The art market has managed to survive the shock.

deborahdendler.com

www.facebook.com/DeborahDendlerSculpture

Show off: Solo and Juried Exhibitions

To state the obvious, there are basically two kinds of artists' shows:  solo and group.  A solo show is a big deal. Exhibiting the work of one artist, a solo show focuses on the most current work the artist has produced. A special kind of solo show is the retrospective, showing many years and periods of the artist's career. Typically, an artist has a solo show every two to five years. It's a huge amount of work and the acid test of artistic success. A subset of solo shows is the duo show, where two artists share gallery space, hopefully because their work complements each other's.

Group shows include invitational, non juried and juried shows. Invitational shows are what they sound like - an artist is invited to show work in a particular show. Juried shows are exhibitions that are judged by jurors. Artists submit their work and the jurors decide which pieces to include in the exhibition. If the show includes awards, the jurors decide what piece gets which award, usually after the show is hung but before the opening. Non juried shows are usually first come, first serve - when the show is full, they accept no more entries.

All of these shows can be useful. With the many online listings of hundreds of calls for entry, it can be hard to decide which exhibitions to enter. An approach that helps me is to think of each work I want to exhibit, not in terms of "Oh, I hope this gets into the Blah Blah Blah Show," but, "What's the best exhibition for this?" or "Where's the best place for this?" I'm convinced that there's a venue for everything I want to exhibit, I just have to find it.

Online shows are a new type of exhibition that haven't been around very long. It's still too early to tell what place they'll hold in the art world in the long run. Like everything else, there are good ones and bad ones. Don't dismiss all of them because of the bad ones. For a sculptor, online shows can be very beneficial because shipping and handling, which can be prohibitively expensive for sculpture, are eliminated. An online audience can be anywhere in the world, as Google Analytics demonstrates on a daily basis, so an online show can reach new audiences, broaden your following and enlarge your group of viewers.

Awards are an integral part of exhibiting and artists need to win them. The jurors have their own tastes and preferences, often incomprehensible. It's helpful to look at past exhibition catalogs and see what sorts of things were included in the show and what won awards. If you hate everything that won awards, stay away from that show. Also, check out the jurors. There's no point subjecting yourself to a hostile juror. If you dislike the work of a juror, chances are quite high that the juror won't like yours, either.

It's really important not to take any of this personally. Try to see the humor of getting what I think of  "The Rejection du Jour". You have to have thick enough skin for none of this to upset you; winning, not winning, being accepted, being rejected - it's all in a day's work. Every artist, at whatever level, wants to be working at a higher level, showing more, winning more awards, getting better press coverage, selling more. There's always going to be somebody with a glitzier portfolio and resumé than yours.

It's never too late to become the person you were meant to be.

deborahdendler.com

www.facebook.com/DeborahDendlerSculpture