We are meant to experience art, not consume it.

In this new world of "experience", rather than "ownership", it could mean troubling times ahead for the struggling artist, especially for those who class themselves as "painters" 

Sales of paintings in the art world are falling, as well as their prices. only recently a Picasso painting sold for a third of the price than was expected. Why?

                                                                      

The idea of art as a commodity is dying.  The millionaire elites have brought this upon themselves by making art into a game that only the rich can play.  In one way I am somewhat happy about this and it is because art was never meant to be for that. However, it does mean consequences for the struggling artist, especially for painters, such as myself. At the same time it could also mean an opportunity to revive what painting really is about, and for. 

VIEWING a painting IS AN EXPERIENCE.   I see an opportunity to once again awaken the viewer to the idea that viewing a painting is a valuable experience. The artist/painter, should engage the viewer to look at work as though taking a journey, or watching a movie. And at the end of that journey/movie, you come out the other side with new thoughts, ideas, as well as inspirational and motivational energy. Or simply another experience to add to you data-base of experiences to remember, or indeed even forget. There are many paintings/art works that I have not enjoyed but I do not regret the experience of seeing them because I learned more about myself, in particular of what I DO NOT like. 

How can you smell a flower when you are driving a car at 100mph?  Personally, I want the world to slow down. Human beings are not machines, nor algorithms. We have feelings and five senses, and as such we need to use the full spectrum of these gifts in order to experience all that life/existence, has to offer. 

Art is about the world of the slow, not the fast. My own paintings take months to do, therefore how can someone possibly "see" them at a glance? In my view, the only paintings you can see quickly are those that were painted quickly. We should not mix the two. An intricate painting is meant to be a treat for the eye. Treat it as a taking a slow journey, or walk. to thrill the eyes in order to take in the detail slowly. 

Have you any idea how many millions of years of evolution it took to create the eye? How much detail the eye can can actually see is astounding. And then we insult it by glancing at things?

The art of the "quick thrill".  This kind of art has dominated the art world for over two decades now. I think this has partly happened due to everyone trying to keep up with the speed of technology. The viewer has become brainwashed or coerced, into believing that everything must be instant. This is all to do with the concept of novelty. As Picasso once said "Novelty is the curse of art". 

This is why I dislike all those speeded up films of artists creating a painting. The internet is full of them. I mean what is that all about? If you are making a painting then surely it is the finished image that matters? Why do you need to show how you did it? And why speed it up? Are you afraid the finished work is not interesting enough?  Or is it your intention to capture the viewers attention because you in fact already know the world has speeded up and are giving in to the pressure to keep up or bend to its will?  

What exactly are you saying that is important or interesting about your work? Is it he process, the technique or showing the process being done at speed?  If it is the process, then showing it at normal speed would make more sense. If it is the speed, them why not paint as fast as you can? Making a speeded up film of yourself doing a painting might be interesting for the viewer, but then when the film is finished they forget to look at the painting. Therefore all you have done is reduce your painting to a piece of cheap entertainment. A novelty. 

 "We come to nature will all our clever theories and clever techniques, but then mother nature knocks them all down dead" Pierre August Renoir

Something real stands the test of time but novelty steals away our time. Novelty items soon wear off but the wonder of nature does not. There is an old oak tree in the forest at the back of my house. Every so often I walk there just have a look at it. Every time I see it I notice something new. It is magnificent and I never stop admiring it. Good art should be like that. It should have that same affect on us. It should make us feel we have seen something real. Picasso´s Guernica does that. This is why it has stood the test of time. Every time you look at it you find something new. The detail is astounding.

 In this close up of the mural, (below)  you can see there are lots of lines. These represent newsprint in a newspaper - as if seen from a distance. This was because he first read about the atrocity in an English newspaper. The article told of the Nazi luftwaffe bombing of the small Spanish town of Guernica. It was utterly obliterated, killing thousands of innocent lives. Picasso wanted to capture his hate of the Nazi´s in those lines because the felt hate when he read about it. However, he gave the task of making those lines to one of his lovers Dora Maar. Dora had a vicious sadistic nature and so Picasso knew she would do a better job at expressing hatred than he. Every single stroke of those lines was carefully made. Dora literally scratched every stroke with the sensation of hate. It took ages. Thus each line contains incredible human energy. Now I ask you, did Picasso intend for us to see this at a fraction of a second?    (full image of Gurnica below this detail)          

                 

If Picasso were alive today he would be horrified at how fast life has become. Of course he could never had for seen the internet which is partly responsibly for the feeling of life being speeded up. Before we know it we will be heading fast to the graveyard.

Art is a love affair with the experience of being human. Real art is about sharing that experience with others. It can be good or bad, positive or negative. But for the viewer to fully "feel", or "connect" with that experience, they need to slow down. When we watch a movie, we do not speed it up to see the end. 

We need to re-learn how to enjoy taking in a painting. It is rather like standing on a rock to see the view. When you have bothered to climb up there, you don´t then look for two seconds and then get back down again. 

So the next time you visit a gallery. Think to yourself, I have taken the time to come in, I might as well take time to take in the view.

We are meant to experience a painting, not consume it.

Sources: All images/opinions/comments/quotes, are my own; except for the Picasso image.

1st picture I painted in 2009 and is called  "Trying to hold onto water" Acrylic on stretched paper - 30x40cm 

2nd picture is of me working on one of my smaller paintings.

3rd picture: Guernica detail../.wordpress.com/2012/01/fallenwarriora.jpg

4th picture Guernica_main_wide_image/public/89422592.png

 5th image.  Me standing on a rock at a local mountain top in Western Norway