Andy Warhol is overrated
December 24, 2009 by Portrait Painter
Filed under Impressionist
Is Andy Warhol overrated? In the assessment of art, and in the assessment of pop art in particular and any style considered “modern”, the artists often get criticism from the public. Since there is an Andy Warhol exhibit currently in Memphis, where I live, I have heard several negative comments about his work recently.
Before we can make claims that an artist’s work is “overrated” or “bad” or makes no sense, we first need to try and understand what the artist was trying to do and what the culture was like when he began to work. All artists are influenced by these things. The pop art movement was an attempt to make artwork that iconized the things which were poular at that time. It began in the sixties and carried over into the seventies. It frequently used bold colors and almost cartoon like images. Warhol experimented with things such as soup cans, yes, but his portraits are the images for which he is best known. He began the soup can style when he was working as an advertising artist. He began his career drawing shoe ads for department stores. The portraits are primarily done as silkscreens, and were influenced by the famous people of the era as well as the bold, pscydelic colors of the fashion world he had worked in. Even more interesting however, are the portraits of people such as Mozart that he also did portraits of.
Part of being “known” as an artist is to develop a recognizable style. Warhol certainly attained this goal. Famous also as the person who coined the phrase “everyone has fifteen minutes of fame,” Warhol created work that seems to be ‘too easy’ to be considered ‘good.’ Frequently the general public associates ‘good’ art with complexity of the subject or the amount of detail the artist uses. What needs to be understood is that most of the work we as a public generally like, the Impressionists for example, was once considered inferior or overrated.
Most people who have not been trained in art and art movements want art to be “pretty.” Thus, we tend to put down or dismiss the work that is perhaps not stunningly beautiful, but is “interesting.” Beofre we call an artist’s work “overrated,” we need to study all of the body of his work and try to understand what he might have been trying to accomplish. In Warhol’s case, he was tring to epitomize the people and objects that popularized his era and the world he lived in. He was not afraid to play with color, to try a new style and to break out of the accepted mold.
Overrated? Perhaps. Probably not.
Art Collecting: Improving Your Art Collecting Skills
August 24, 2009 by Portrait Painter
Filed under News from the Artworld
Being able to collect good art is one exceptional talent. Although you may think good art collectors are born, this is not the case at all. The truth is, the skill of collecting art can actually be learned! Yes, and that is one good news for you. So, if you want to improve further with your collecting skills, here are some things that you can do to attain such goal.
Get Some Exposure
Getting some exposure on different disciplines of art is one way to enhance your collecting skills. There are a lot of national and international art expos and art fairs that you can attend to. Try attending such kinds of events to broaden your horizon on different kinds of art disciplines and forms.
This is also one way to discover not so well-known aesthetic pieces that have potential on getting a huge value in the future. However, most importantly, it is one way to see artworks that can move you and probably be part of your collection in the near future. Know Your Kind
Although collecting art can be a personal endeavour for you, there is nothing wrong with talking to other art collectors and knowing more about them. In fact, doing this can be beneficial to you, since you can learn more about how other collectors started and what other helpful information they can give you.
They can also give you recommendations like galleries to visit, events to go to, artists to see works of and other art related things. Some art collectors even have clubs or organizations that you can join in.
Read On!
Reading in any aspect can take your knowledge another level. Thus, reading books about art history and art collections would definitely improve your skill. There’s a lot to learn with collecting that you can actually find not only by looking at pictures, but also through reading texts about so.
Reading old published literature on the subject is good, since you can learn the basics of the field and the essentials of collecting. However, it would still be better if you are up-to-date with your reading materials. If you want something fresh and new regularly, then subscribing to some art magazines would do the trick!
Magazines, just like books, are helpful resources where you can learn more about collecting and collections. However, these magazines standout since their content are always up to date and new, unlike with books that may contain faced-out and irrelevant data.
Reviews: Seeing Another’s Perspective
Seeing art in the perspective of another person is bad at all. Remember that art is relative, thus, something may be beautiful in your eyes, yet ugly for another’s and vice versa. That is why you should learn to utilize reviews done by international or local art critics and channel them into something positive. Instead of being too much influenced by what they say, try learning from them and see if what they say about the artwork is true. You should also learn some points on how they critic a piece, since being able to critic is yet an important skill to develop collecting skills. Get Some Help
A little bit of guidance would not hurt if you are really interested on learning how to make a great art collection. You can work with a professional art consultant / art advisor, if you please since for sure they know what they are doing. They can also teach you about collecting and even guide you to the whole process of buying art.