A satirical study by art history professor John Seed. To wit:
“If the great European artists of the past were alive today, what kinds of statements would they need to write to explain and justify their work?”
Artist’s Statements Of The Old Masters (Amazon)
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Deadly.
OR
“The local bishop paid me a shed load of money to paint something for his house. He liked Caravaggio’s still lifes of flowers so I cogged those”.
They would probably say, oh look, artists and critics have developed a highly specialised language to express the concepts, ideas and techniques within their field. Like any other specialised field does. Booyah.
There’s no probably about it.
Having dated an arts curator for a number of years I can confirm that that is exactly what they do do.
…and that’s not my interpretation, I was told that that is exactly why the pretentious language is used.
Giorgio Vasari was already doing was doing this way back then. His Lives of the Artists is a great source if anyone’s interested in insights into the brat pack of the time.
doing doing doing