If an artist paints a beautiful picture, and nobody sees it, is it still beautiful? Friend and fellow artist Ari Lankin passed along this snippet from an interview between Hans-Ulrich Obrist and artist Ryan Gander which I must address.
Gander is blowing up. His work is everywhere, he is recognized by major institutions and he is British… the accent always helps. We’ve never met, and I only know of him — but I will say, his thoughts above are exactly the type of thing you should say in an interview when you are hot. Not only does it make Gander sound cool, it is the re-affirmation for the artistic masses to take the “I will be discovered, forget this self-promotional crap” road — which in hand means less competition for the cool kids, like Gander.
I am here to say this out-of-context proclamation is horse pucky. Until an artist is “discovered” he/she must be their own best ambassador. Now, if Gander intends to form and finance a Utopian studio for talented artists who don’t want to Tweet, more power to him. Until then, I am here to tell the artists of the world to blog, make business cards and pimp yourselves out. Only a handful of the talented artists will be discovered, the rest must realize the road to full time artistry is paved through marketing and the good ol’ grip-and-grin.
So Ryan, if we happen to meet, I will be sure to shake your hand, give you my business card, plug Borbay.com and congratulate you on your recent success. Here’s to the arts.
What the writer really is saying is this; He want’s to discover you, and then rep the benefits of promoting the *new* artist themselves. Typical.
Which is why that model is broken. And artists aren’t as successful as they should be.
Apparently I have been going about this all wrong. Maybe the intersection of design and business is NOT actually often a beautiful thing… Perhaps when someone asks for my contact info because they appreciate work I have done, I should remove a piece of trash from the garbage can and scratch down my info. Or perhaps smugly reply as an artist I do not have such silly self promoting and self indulgent materials? True “Horse Pucky”.
maybe he should have been in the studio himself instead of doing this interview. sounds like a douche bag.
Because Dali and Picasso got it so wrong…
Ok they didn’t have websites but they knew how to exploit/publicise themselves shamelessly. People hated them for it, but correct me if I’m wrong, weren’t they the greatest artists of the twentieth century?
Well said Mr. Borbay. Who the hell is this guy kidding…self-promotion and success makes way for more art and discovery! Kick it “Biz”-card style, home-slice.