In the past two hundred years or so, art has been treated as something we look at in clean, white, well-lit galleries and museums. It’s been made to seem passive: another tourist attraction to take a picture in front of before your move on. For most of its entire history though, art has been active: something that does thing to, or for us, that makes things happen. Holy relics in churches all over the world are said to heal. -
How to be an Artist, Jerry Saltz #31, Zettel 159
If you are stymied by some artists, keep their names on a list and keep coming back to them. You might start with Rembrandt, unflinching in depicting the physical weight of the world, every vulnerable. Or Constable, as elementally tactile as any artist who ever lived. Once an artist finally makes sense to you, take on a new one. You owe it to you yourself as a seeing machine -
How to be an Artist, Jerry Saltz #19, Zettel 158
A work of art cannot depend on explanation. The meaning has got to be there in the work. As Frank Stella said, “There are no good ideas for paintings, there are only good paintings.” THe painting becomes the idea…the artist can embed thought in any material.
How to be an Artist, Jerry Saltz #19, Zettel 157
Embed thought in Material. What does this mean? An artwork should express thought and emotion ( I contend that the two can’t be separated.) Your goal as an artist is to use physical materials to make these thoughts and emotions, however simple or complex, accessible to the viewer…Erick Fischl had said that he “wanted to paint what couldn’t be said.” All artists are trying, on some level, to do the same.
How to be an Artist, Jerry Saltz #10, Zettel 156
…serious artists tend to develop a kind of creative mechanism - a conceptual approach - that allows them to be led by new ideas and surprise themselves without deviating from their own artistic principles. As an artist, you’re always studying your environment, absorbing sensations, memories of how things work and don’t. The goal is to create a practice that allows a constant recalibration between your imagination and the world around you.
How to be an Artist, Jerry Saltz #6, Zettel 155
What’s the difference between genre and style? Style is the unstable essence and artist brings to a genre - what ensures that no two Crucifictions, say, look the same. Oscar Wilde said that style is what “makes us believe in a thing.”…A fresh style breathes life into any genre.
How to be an Artist, Jerry Saltz #5, Zettel 154
Oscar Wilde said, “the moment you think you understand a great work of art, it’s dead for you.” Imagination is your creed, sentimentality and lack of feeling are your foes.
How to be an Artist, Jerry Saltz, Page 76, Zettel 150
If you think that all art should be like High Renaissance painting, or like van Gogh, Eva Hesse, or Basquiat, think again. Human beings are hardwired to crave change. The universe is expanding; so are we, and so is art. Which doesn’t mean it’s getting better, or worse, only that all art was once contemporary art, in conversation with its time. yours is, too. Every choice you make - should serve not nostalgia, but your visceral present. You are an artist of modern life. That personal, specific urgency is what finds every successful work of art. - How to be an Artist, Jerry Saltz, Page 76, Zettel 150