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V.Codec Online Forum Apr.25.2006: Panelist Gretchen Bennett
Forum Moderator:
(Question for Gretchen Bennett) Is the artist more important than the art in contemporary visual art criticism?
Forum Moderator:
(By the way, many thanks to Gretchen for acting as forum savior. When I was kicked out, Gretchen saved the forum behind the scenes...)
Gretchen Bennett:
(Phones are great.)
Forum Moderator:
(Phones rock.)
Gretchen Bennett:
To answer the question, things can cross lines of definition, become performative, artists become celebrities at times. For me, the art is the main form of communication, but I don't know if it's more important.
Gretchen Bennett:
In the moment, the artist is the most important, especially if art's hooked in to the everyday, if making art becomes like living. And I think it has to.
Gretchen Bennett:
But historically, maybe the art endures, and that's great.
Gretchen Bennett:
I think art making is a form of living, and the critic gets that, too.
Gretchen Bennett:
(Done for now.)
Forum Moderator:
Cool...fade to FREEFORFORM...
Corey Smith:
Marketing and having someone saying the art is good may be more important than the art these days. What do you guys think?
Eva Lake:
Whistler. The artist has mattered for a while now. Great work, notorious man.
Regina Hackett:
I like the idea that art is a way of living. I know a collector who has no mirrors in his house. He lives through the art around him.
Gretchen Bennett:
Well, words do propel people into the spotlight.
Regina Hackett:
Words propel, but the art seizes the attention and holds it.
Regina Hackett:
Criticism is like the spider's web. Not useful without the spider.
Gretchen Bennett:
I think if Jerry Saltz discovers someone, he is also captivated by the artist...
Eva Lake:
All I know is if the art is great but the artist is a jerk, no thanks. And I learned that the hard way. So personality can matter in terms of relationships...
Regina Hackett:
I don't care if the artist if a jerk. Not at all. Not even a little bit. And i think Jerry Saltz would agree.
Eva Lake:
This comes to when I curate for a gallery. There are months involved.
Corey Smith:
Sometimes I hear people talk about artists like...
Gretchen Bennett:
Corey, I lost that sentence.
Corey Smith:
Whoops, like they describe the artist's personality before the artwork itself, like he's so crazy or eccentric or whatever.
Forum Moderator:
(One minute left in freeform...)
Regina Hackett:
Oh, well, for a gallery, jerk artists are a drag. Got that.
Corey Smith:
Does that matter?
Regina Hackett:
Yes, and that's crap.
Forum Moderator:
(Time's up, any stragglers...?)
Gretchen Bennett:
I just want to mention Dieter Roth.
Regina Hackett:
(Crap refers to the discussion about artist personalities, not whether it matters or not.)
Eva Lake:
I meet the family, I get thirteen emails a day from them, they go crazy when it comes time to show. Everything changes. I had one artist in a wheelchair, another in prison. All things are considered...
Forum Moderator:
Thanks again, all...on to our last panelist here...
