Artist's statement

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An artist's statement (or artist statement) is a brief text composed by an artist and intended to explain, justify, and contextualize his or her body of work. Artists often have a short (50-100 word) and a long (500-1000 word) version of the same statement, and they may maintain and revise these statements throughout their careers. The writing of artists' statements is a comparatively recent phenomenon.^{[citation needed]} In some respects the practice resembles the art manifesto and may derive in part from it. However, the artist's statement generally speaks for an individual rather than a collective, and it is a form not as strongly associated with the polemic.^{[citation needed]} Rather, a contemporary artist may be required to submit the statement in order to tender for commissions or apply for schools, residencies, jobs, awards, and other forms of institutional support.

[edit] Negative aspects of an artist’s statement

Artist statements can be viewed as having a negative and/or detrimental effect on the artworks and art world. In a contemporary art setting it is usually a requirement/necessity to have an artist statement to accompany the artwork. When an artist is required to use text to explain his or her artwork it could be seen as an argument for the language of art being inferior or unable to convey those ideas: using text to help the viewer understand the artwork makes a statement that the artwork is unable to be understood. Attribution theory predicts that if a person is told long enough that they are unable to interpret or perceive art that they will begin to believe and agree.