Something to Consider…
July 24, 2008
From Conscientious, by way of Geoff Smith.
Quote from Hilda Becher:
HB: What is an artist? Calling yourself an artist does not make you one, that’s for others to decide. It doesn’t make any sense to say: I am an artist!
July 24, 2008 at 7:16 pm
I read that interview this morning on Conscientious, and that was the quote that stuck out most in my mind. Last week I went to New York City to hear Sylvia Plachy give a lecture. Afterwards, someone in the audience asked Ms. Plachy if she considered herself an artist, to which she replied….”I don’t consider myself. That’s for others to decide.”
Two very wise women….
July 25, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Actually, I always thought that one of the cornerstones of post-modernism was that if you wanted to call your work “art”, then it was art. Of course, at that point, you had to accept the fact that you could be compared–favorably or not, and most likely not–to anyone else who called their work “art”, which is to say, Picasso, Cartier-Bresson, Titian, etc.
I would assume that that applies to calling oneself an “artist” as well.