Thursday entry (for 10/29/09): Populist artists

Quote on topic by an expert:

"Artist? Says who? Critics, art historians and fine-art galleries cringe at the thought that any of these "populist artists" should be taken seriously. In the highbrow art world, accessibility and affordability are often inversely proportional to merit. The populist industry's aggressive replication strategy, on the other hand, is designed to move the merchandise. "Limited editions" from populist artists are often released in quantities of 20,000 and up, using a variety of formats that range from canvas to three sizes of paper prints. Throw in the T shirts, mugs and pillows with the same images, and limited looks limitless. "These guys haven't invented anything, they've just discovered an image that's salable, and they pump the market until they can't sell any more," says Herbert Palmer, owner of a gallery on Los Angeles' Melrose Avenue that sells works by the respected contemporary abstractionists Gordon Onslow Ford and Choichi Ida at prices as high as $200,000." --Dan Cray

Annotated bibliography:

Cray, Dan. "Art: Art of Selling Kitsch". Time Magazine. 10/29/09 .

In this article, Cray explains the phenomenon that is populist artists who are making millions of dollars by marketing their art and their name and reproducing their original artwork on a large scale for mass consumption. The artists he includes as way of example are Thomas Kinkade, Terry Redlin, Bev Doolittle, amongst others. Cray points out that these artists are successful not only because of their aggressive marketing but because the kitsch imagery they create appeals to the masses, thereby making them populist artists: artists whose work was created for and bought by ordinary people.

"The art-vs.-commerce debate isn't a new one--Da Vinci's Mona Lisa is said to be the most reproduced painting in history--but the corporate approach of Media Arts brings the argument to a new level. 'I have an N.C. Wyeth hanging in my office that was a tire ad in 1916,' says Scott Usher, president of Greenwich Workshop, a publisher in Shelton, Conn., 'and very few art critics are going to say Wyeth was just an illustrator.' Norman Rockwell battled the same demon, and Andy Warhol took heat for suggesting it was O.K. to have assistants do some of the work--a tactic several populist artists now use. Collectors such as Bob and Cathy Adorni, a Castaic, Calif., couple who own 58 Kinkade prints, view such techniques as an acceptable means to an end. 'You can't blame someone for earning a living with their talent,' says Bob Adorni. Or can you? 'People say I've sold out,' says Kinkade. 'But not reproducing my art would be like telling a writer not to publish a manuscript because it's one of a kind.'"

How this topic relates to my work:

The core of my concept is poking fun at all sides of the argument for and against kitsch art, which is an art form that appeals mainly to ordinary people without art backgrounds. I find it interesting that kitsch artists are deemed populists artists, which was clearly meant to invoke a negative connotation because their artwork is kitschy not only in subject matter but also due to the fact that their work is bought on a large scale by the masses.