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of the problems every artist faces again and again is the question,
"Who am I working for?" It's a problem that has plagued artists probably
ever
since they started selling their work. There are basically four audiences for whom an artist might work. The first is his or her self. Strangely enough, this is a rather new audience. In ancient times, artists worked for others, often during their entire careers. It's conceivable that for many of them, it never even occurred to them that their art might be for their own personal gratification. Yet today, many artists consider this audience first. "Personal fulfillment" or "self-expression" has come to be so common in fact, that it's become almost trite. Another
audience is other artists. If one creates primarily to enter juried
competitions, then first and foremost in their mind as they work
is the thought, what will other artists think of my work. The positive
side of this is that such work often rises to very high standards because
the artists knows his or her peers are the most demanding of strong
creative and technical
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A third audience, of course, is that of the well-informed buyer, the man
or woman with the fat checkbook who knows art, who shops the big galleries,
sometimes for investment purposes, but usually for the den...or the dining
room...something eye-catching yet not overpowering, and as always, something that appeals to them on more than merely an intellectual level. Strange as it may seem, this is often the easiest audience to please because often their likes and those of the artist coincide. After all, they are both basically art-educated connoisseurs with fairly sophisticated tastes. And
finally, one of the more difficult audiences for many artists is that of
what we loosely term "the general public." Many artists never
work for this audience. They wouldn't stoop so low. It
is this attitude that gives rise to the incredible gulf that has varied
in width and depth to some degree over the years, yet still manages to
alienate a vast number of individuals who like art but don't
know art--hence the old saying, they don't know what they
like they merely like what they know.
And to make matters worse, many artists also consider it beneath them to
try to in any way educate this element of the art buying
public as to what they are trying to do and say in their work.
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The
result is a sort of artistic snobbery, sometimes (but not always) inadvertent
on the artist's part, yet nonetheless a real barrier to the greater art
appreciation of those for whom art is not a primary element in their
lives.
(I have not mentioned the artist working to fulfill a commission because obviously this could fall into any of the four categories.) Ideally,
an artist should endeavor to create for more than one of these audiences.
In fact catering to only one audience could well be an avenue
to an early burnout. Most artists, whether they are conscious of
it or not, usually do consider more than one audience, perhaps
not in the same piece, but
in their work in general, some are for self, some for peers, some for
sophisticated tastes, and hopefully some for the masses. And if the
artist can appeal to more than one audience in the same
work, so much the better. To my way of thinking, a successful painting
(my being a painter) is that which
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