Why I Write

I wanted to start a blog that talks about art from a different perspective from what one usually finds. For starters, I want to acknowledge the big chasm that exists between the conversations of art insiders and of everybody else.

For instance, while a host of names are familiar to art insiders -- names like Warhol, Hirst, de Kooning, a search of internet trends finds that Andrew Wyeth (whose existence art insiders have barely acknowleged) is still the best known American artist. Young art students just coming out of art school may still be completely unacquainted with him, but a trip to the art section of the book store is all that is needed to bring them up to date. Andrew Wyeth, though I think he is a great artist, is widely known because he depicted a world that people of an earlier generation found both beautiful and accessible -- and he did so in a realistic style -- something whose magic still appeals to most art outsiders.

But do some comparisons and you find surprising results. Andrew Wyeth, while very well-known, seems to compare very well with both Jackson Pollack, the art world's sweetheart of the 50s, and with Robert Bateman, a well-known wildlife artist from Canada. In Canada, Bateman is much more widely known than Wyeth even though none of the art insider types (this writer included) considers Bateman a "fine artist." How either artist compares with the widely watched tv artist Bob Ross, I don't know. But for many people who have never visited a museum or opened an art book, Ross is their picture of a "real" artist -- perhaps the only professional artist whose work they know at all.

All that said, Van Gogh is the big artist of the day. Van Gogh beats out almost every other artist with which I compared him (using Google's "hot trends" search). I must admit, however, that I did not compare him with Picasso. Van Gogh's paintings are probably known to many of the people who know his name, too -- at least in some sketchy way.

That raises another interesting point. While lots of artists names are familiar to people, they don't always know the images associated with the names. And indeed Van Gogh may be more famous for the thing about the ear more than for his painting. But visit any of the Van Gogh block buster exhibits and you find ordinary people transfixed before his works -- looking, discussing, enjoying, studying -- and all without the benefit of the ever present docent! -- though the electronic docent in the form of headphones might be buzzing in the background. But even still, deeply intranced ordinary folks can be observed in significant numbers just figuring things out for themselves!

Anyway, this blog is different. Because Wyeth shares space with Richard Diebenkorn and even with Bob Ross and Robert Bateman (though we will probably hear less about the two latter artists as things get going).