Visual Experience

Came across this commentary by Roberta Smith in a 2008 review of an exhibition of work by "emerging" artists. "Emerging" = unrepresented in this context, and she cared for precious little of it.

Although I am not sure I would agree with all of her examples of the pieces she describes as working if I saw the pieces in person, her concrete analysis of what can lead to a less than engaging visual experience was both sweeping and focused -- well worth keeping in mind:

• "Some non painting efforts come into focus with time, but the first impression is a telling lesson in why painting doesn’t die; it is at the very least a good way for young artists to grasp the kind of density of expression that any art medium requires. (It helps to remember that most of the first generation Conceptualists were educated and began their careers as painters.)"
• "Perhaps an over familiarity with Conceptual Art and especially the theories it inspired can leave young artists with no sense of how to make an artwork that holds together as an experience. You can sense the lack of connection to either materials or self in their statements, which appear on the wall labels beside the work."
• "They mix overblown, one-size-fits-all art speak with quite a bit of wishful thinking about their work’s impact, as if they could control the meaning or effect of their work."
• "Not much else here will slow you down."
• "Aspiring artists need to expose themselves to the sheer intensity and variety of art, to learn what they love, what they hate and if they are actually artists at all. New York’s galleries and especially its great museums offer ample opportunity for this kind of self-education, which leads to self-knowledge."
• "Anything is possible when artists set to work knowing they have something they urgently need to say, in a way it hasn’t quite been said before."