It’s a sentiment echoed by NYC artist Jeff Grant,
who says that the grad school art experience (in his
case, at Goldsmith’s College in London) was not
only the best experience of his life, but also the
experience that nearly ended his artistic career
altogether. “The criticism I received there was very
aggressive” he remembers, “and I was totally
shaken up by it. I reached a point where I almost
stopped making art, which was actually the best
thing that could have happened. It forced me to
consider why I was even making art in the first
place. That’s the real reason a person should go
to art school. The connections you make are one
thing, but you should leave with a sense of what
you and your art are all about. School challenges
you in ways—critically, creatively—that the real
world just does not. You just don’t get that kind
of intense feedback from your friends…unless you
have really mean friends.” The repayment term
for his student loans is somewhere between forever
and eternity.
Two things that “art” people tell me over and over.
The art world is 1) very weird, and 2) a big,
ridiculous, unpredictable business (with a forceful,
exasperating emphasis on the word business).
People make huge sums of money and lose huge
sums of money seemingly overnight. Kids fresh
out of art school become “the next big thing” one
year, only to find themselves ignored as a flavor of
the month has-been the next. It is a world where,
as one person tells me, lots of art is produced via
“hidden labor”--created by an invisible army of
interns and underpaid assistants—where famous
artists are able to create work that their own two
hands never actually have to touch (presumably
this is not true for painters). It’s also a world where
a young artist, fresh out of school, might suddenly
find themselves working as an assistant—for
years—to an older, more established (and possibly
rather be chosen on the strength of their work. inclination that seems to grow exponentially with
less talented) artist. In short, the art world—much
Still, kids living in a big city are luckier, because every year that I spend in New York), but as an
like any other world—is a creative cosmos ruled by
curators are always out sniffing around various often-struggling writer, I know what it’s like to try
it’s own particular set of rules and mores, many of
MFA programs.” and balance your creative life with a life that also
which change constantly. Unless you actually work
allows you to eat something other than ramen
within the art world, you’re likely to be confused
So, is it possible then to become a successful noodles and $2 hot dogs. I’ve also come to believe
or simply perplexed by it; and unless you actually
young artist without going to grad school or (because it helps me sleep at night) that ambition
went to art school, the experience is probably
living in a big city? Almost everyone I talk to has can be healthy and need not be synonymous with
similarly hard to fathom.
the same answer. It’s possible and it does happen, ugly, soulless careerism. When I look at a piece of
but it’s rare. Stay in school, y’all. art now, my first thought is usually “Wow.
While the clout and reputation of graduating from
Beautiful. How did they do that?” which is quickly
a specific school certainly helps young artists get
“I loved school.” Says Altmejd. “I really miss it, followed by some version of “I wonder if they can
a leg up in the art world, the success or failure of
actually. Even though it could be really bitchy and pay their rent with this.” I’m fine with that. /
many aspiring artists seems to have as much to do
competitive and intense, it was also incredibly
with the proximity effect as anything else. A kid
exciting. That kind of complete immersion in art
studying art at a small college in Kansas or Canada
and artmaking…it doesn’t happen anywhere else.”
isn’t going to have the same access to studio visits
as a kid studying at Pratt or CalArts. “We care
Above, Merideth, student. Museum School,
What, if anything, does all of this mean? I don’t
more about the work and the potential longevity
Boston, MA, 2008 Left Page, Studio
know, really. Does knowing the complicated
of the artist,” says one NYC gallerist (who prefers
machinations of the art industry make the viewing
to remain nameless), “Sometimes there are certain
of art somehow less pleasurable to me? No. Does it
programs that go through periods of being
make me more sympathetic to the plight of the art
particular hotbeds of talent, but we don’t seek out
student? Kind of. There will always be art students.
artists based on their school. That kind of buzz is
There will always be galleries that show art
often a media creation and I think the students
(hopefully), and there will always be rich people
resent that sort of thing anyway. Schools produce
who buy everything and control it all. When it
a wild diversity of students working in a diversity
comes to the pairing of art and money, it’s easy
of styles, you can’t really make sweeping
to become quickly cynical and dismissive (an
generalizations about stuff like that. Artists would
85 / 96
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100