Painting History
The other day in my painting class, my classmates and I were having a stimulating conversation with our professor about the history of art and whether it is important to us in regards to our own artwork that we create and how we talk about it. This conversation began after delving into the topic of the ever changing art world and the significance, or lack there of, art history within contemporary artwork. There seemed to be a large disconnect with the way that us four students thought about this topic versus my professor’s thoughts.
My classmates admitted that art history was not extremely important to them when discussing their own artwork and relating their current practice to classic practices of the past. In addition I had a similar response to them. In regards to my own practice, I do not feel like I am often thinking about traditional painting history or famous artists who have paved the way for me as an artist. I am inspired and influenced by current topics of my generation as opposed to the past. I began to explain myself by stating that I view our current art world in 2016 as constantly evolving and accepting of much more types of mediums and what is considered to be artwork in the first place. This is not something that happened much in traditional painting history, which my professor was speaking about.
I believe that the culture we live in today is far more progressive and will only continue to evolve in the future. The fact that labeling oneself is now considered such a fluid idea goes to show the evolution of what is acceptable within society. Although gender fluidity and labeling is a completely different, in depth topic, I related that aspect of our culture to the art world and what is considered acceptable. I feel extremely lucky to have the opportunity where it is not necessary to label or categorize myself as a female painter who focuses on one specific type of medium. Of course, I will describe myself when necessary, but I do feel like I have the opportunity to flow in any direction of the art world that I please, while creating anything. With that being said, when I am making my artwork I am definitely not thinking about art history. I am thinking about where I am at, today, in this contemporary world that I am living in.
My professor seemed a bit shocked at my response, which then also surprised me. I brought up the fact that my professor and I probably have two totally different opinions because we are from very different generations and have had completely different life experiences that have shaped us as artists. I definitely think I had a bold response to the initial question, but the time that I have grown up in has shaped my ideas and views entirely differently. I do not want to say that I do not respect the extensive, beautiful history of painting in our culture, but quite frankly it is not my main focus of influence.
