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National portrait gallery doors
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Message
Posted
Looking at those portraits, my immediate thought was how untalented they appear. Reading a little further into the story, I feel that I ought to recognise the artist's intention and achievement, above and beyond just the aesthetics.....
Research says the panels are:
Emin's "....response to the historically marginalised role of women in art collections....",
and she states:
"I didn’t want to depict specific or identifiable figures. .....the doors ... should represent every woman, every age and every culture throughout time."
So I think that if they were any more realistic, they would risk appearing 'recognisable' , where viewers would 'see' someone real... so I actually now empathise with the style, in order that they portray women in general and do not appear to be of actual specific people. If that then stirs a conversation about the marginalised role of anyone that is marginalised, then it's done it's job.
Whilst I think that paintings such as 'Like A Cloud of Blood' are not expressions of aesthetic talent, I do recognise that some artists are about evoking responses, about inciting conversation, about using their platform to make statements and stir debate in society....(all for the good, hopefully)....all creatives have done this through the ages, be it musicians, sculptors, poets etc, and I think some feel they need to be antagonistic in order to get those reactions. If they are doing it for the betterment of society, they have my backing, but if they are doing it because they get a kick out of stirring a reaction, then not as much.
That particular painting raised money to "subsidize artist studios and artist residencies" with a free arts education programme, including free lectures and tutorials. That, alone, has to be applauded.
If I were to debate the aesthetics of her work, you would hear me express strong opinions, and most would not be complimentary, but I see this particular artist as more than just a producer of visual media, but instead someone who has been clever enough to 'play' a certain way, and I kind of commend that ability, as I say, if it is for the betterment of society.
Posted
In their day, much the same was said about artists ranging from Whistler to Kandinsky, Cézanne to van Gogh: Ruskin, among other things a huge snob, accused Whistler of "throwing a pot of paint in the public's face". Now - that proves exactly nothing! Even so - I'm happy to leave it to posterity to assess Tracey Emin's work as a whole, over a 40 year career. The bronze doors are likely to be in place for a very long time, so our grandchildren (well, your grandchildren: I don't have any) will form their judgements in due course, and good luck to them. I'm not drawn to Emin's work - not being a woman might have something to do with that - but at least I think she has a generally serious purpose; unlike one or two others who so often get brought up in these conversations. (Smith and Jones may disagree/But those doors are for eternity..... you get poetry here as well! I'm just too good to you.)
Posted
She's a Royal Academician who has found world wide fame and fortune and yet we're debating whether or not she can draw? We're trying to justify her
drawings through some arty farty statement she makes about 'not wanting to depict specific or identifiable women' blah blah blah or it's her linear style etc, when the truth is she can't draw that well. I'm waiting for the usual 'well if I wanted to draw realistically I'd use a camera,' that old chestnut often bandied about by those who can't draw very well either. I have no axe to grind about her success, good luck to her, but please the evidence is in front of our eyes, she cant draw for toffee.
Posted
Professor of Drawing, you'll note - just to throw more petrol on the fire.
It's hard to defend someone you don't like very much, and I think I'll stop trying. The artists' statements that we so often see nowadays appear to be encouraged by the art colleges - I have very rarely read (actually, make than never) one which made any sense at all - other than one I wrote myself for another artist, who suffered from a severe disinclination to flatter herself; I stripped out all the adjectives, basically. Trying to explain paintings, when you get beyond an artist's line, sense of colour and tone (all of which ought to be bleedin' obvious; if they're absent, writing about them isn't going to help) gets to be a bit like trying to explain wind or sunshine: you wonder why anyone would, and what the point of it is supposed to be.
Tell you what; in a final attempt to come to an agreement, let's get Dawn to commission a coach trip to the NPG so we can all have a look at these damn' doors.....
Posted
Age has made me more charitable. Previously, the words, "art" and Emin went together like kippers and custard. Then again, why should Tracy Emin worry or care about what I, indeed anyone thinks. That said, if I had submitted some of her work I'd have been tarred and feathered..or maybe just ignored. With the current topic there is always the odd chance that "Jim Morris" and "Doors" might have generated a new fan site and made me famous......(-:
Edited
by Jim Morris
Copied and pasted these...not an Emin fan but woukd like to see them in situ.