In a recent article in London’s Financial Times, the cross-dressing potter (and Turner Prize winner) Grayson Perry bemoans the rise of the ‘conceptual’ in art at the expense of craftsmanship, something that VoCA has been bothered by for quite some time.
Artist Grayson Perry among his pots. Image: smh.com.au
“Perry launches into an impassioned discourse on our responsibility to hand down skills to future generations and the importance of taking pride in the execution of a work of art. “There is too much slap-dashery in contemporary art,” he says. “It’s as if it is enough to knock up some sort of stage set that basically illustrates ‘the idea’.”
To Perry, “the idea” is an odious, puffed-up term. It suggests quickly digested, quickly forgotten sound bites, quite at odds with his slow, careful creations that require slow, careful consideration. I ask him if he feels that there are any other contemporary artists who exhibit the sort of technical mastery he admires in the work of Grünewald or Brueghel?”
Grayson Perry, We’ve Found the Body of Your Child. Image: artfacts.net
Read the full article HERE.
More on Grayson Perry HERE.
Perry refers to the British artists Jake and Dinos Chapman, whose famous ‘Disasters of War’ series re-created scenes from Goya’s ‘Disasters of War’ etchings.
A detail from Hell by Jake & Dinos Chapman. Image: commentisfree.guardian.co.uk
Works by Lucas Cranach the Elder are on view at London’s Royal Academy through June 8. One of the most versatile artists of the German Renaissance, Cranach was influenced early on by one of VoCA’s all-time favorite artists, Albrecht Durer.
Lucas Cranach the Elder, Venus, 1532. Image: z.about.com
Lucas Cranach the Elder, Apollo and Diana c.1526. Image: suite101.com
The incredible attention to detail in his paintings and etchings is truly awesome, and the figures are possessed of a colourful and highly modelled expressiveness.
More on the Royal Academy exhibition HERE.
It’s about time contemporary art turns away from it’s obsession with the ‘idea’ – which is, in many contemporary instances, simply an excuse for mediocre art – and back toward craftsmanship. Of course, such craftsmanship requires dedication, courage and conviction, qualities that, according to the brilliant art critic Waldemar Januszczak (in the Sunday Times) Grayson Perry has got.
As he points out: “You do not turn yourself into a laughable caricature of a woman and totter about the international art world…if you lack courage or conviction.”
VoCA says, let there be more courage and conviction in art.
Andrea Carson writes on contemporary art, architecture and design...
5 comments ↓
I love Grayson Perry and am certainly in favour of good craftsmanship and courage in contemporary visual arts, but I’m not sure that I’m totally with you when you say that contemporary art’s “obsession with the ‘idea’… is, in many contemporary instances, simply an excuse for mediocre art”. Without a strong central idea that has traction, good craftsmanship will fall flat and lead to the piece being sold in a gift shop rather than being exhibited and written about (unlike Perry’s vases, which are aesthetically pleasing, well-made and loaded with fascinating referents to and reversals of long held art tropes – or ideas).
Plus, I’m not convinced that conceptual art and well-made art are mutually exclusive. I’m thinking of Micah Lexier’s highly conceptual, very rigorous time- and language-based projects which are still gorgeously executed. Or David Altmejd’s incredible installations, which are pretty messy and not particularly well-made, but stand up to critique because he is doing something unique, conceptually different and still approachable.
Maybe I’m missing your point, though. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this and maybe see more examples of the work you’re thinking of.
That FT article is hilarious – especially at the end:
2 x chargrilled squid with harissa………. £16.00
1 x lamb fattee………………………………………£18.00
1 x sea bream………………………………………. £18.50
1 x bottle of sparkling water……………………£2.75
1 x Diet Coke…………………………………………. £2.00
2 x filter coffees……………………………………..£5.00
Total £62.25
Oh, don’t get me wrong! No one is saying that conceptual art and well-made art are mutually exclusive! I certainly didn’t mean to suggest that – and I don’t think I did.
What I mean is that art that becomes too focused on the idea – obsessed – at the expense of craftsmanship, is in trouble. And I’m sure you can think of many examples floating around today.
I also don’t think it necessarily has to be either or; both craftsmanship and concept can be integrated if it is a part of the work that the artist wants to express. I can create drawings and objects with detailed craftsmanship but because of my awareness of art, craft, art history, society and general creativity, I sometimes choose to work less with craftsmanship and more with expression and/or ideas. Is that then anti-art or anti-craft? I think it is just a part of reality available to explore. Art can be seen as a dialogue and through that dialogue a lot of work doesn’t necessarily hold up over time. Sure there is a lot of work out there now that is not crafted well and is also not conceptually quite there or doesn’t feel aware or sincere. Some of it is being celebrated through a sense of failure or reduction, but I think the fact is that some artists’ work isn’t necessarily ‘good’ but fits into these categories. Does refinement of form really allow a work to communicate more effectively?
I believe that craft and concept need not and should not be mutually exclusive, but I do agree that there is too much “slap-dashery” in the art world. Many have embraced the “idea” over the “craftsmanship,” as a means to justify their lack of ability. Everyone at sometime or another has a good idea, but that doesn’t make them a fine artist. What separates the two is the ability to create that idea in a way that communicates in a clear and deliberate manner. Refinement does allow a work to communicate more clearly.
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