I was reading an unusual “interview,” between Taffy Brodesser-Akner and the A.I. actress “Tilly Norwood,” including interviewing the creator of Tilly, Eline van der Velden, the chief executive of Particle 6, a production company that creates media content, sometimes using A.I. The article was interesting from the perspective of how A.I. “actors” or “actresses” might one day replace human actors. But the part of the interview that grabbed my attention, and that I identified with as a visual artist was this: Brodesser-Akner was referencing another interview with Bradley Cooper, in which he explained that he didn’t understand why anyone would want to know much about his personal life, as opposed to his work. Brodesser-Akner’s response was that when people see something that touches them – in his case, his acting, but I’m going to extend this to visual art and perhaps even music – that this situation of being touched by the art, people want to understand where it comes from. She writes: “This is what great art inspires in people,” and “to understand the person who made the art, which is just as essential as the art itself.” (my personal emphasis with italics, because this line struck me the most)
This ties in to messaging that another artist made to me recently, commenting that my Instagram feed, shows my art, but doesn’t really reveal anything about me, the artist. She said “it would be nice to see your personality show up and some behind the scenes or process reels.”
My first reaction was: I want people to appreciate my art, I don’t need the focus on me, let the art speak for itself. But I certainly understand her thinking, I guess it’s more a question of what my comfort level is. Then there’s this quote from the Tilly Norwood interview that I just shared in italics, understanding the artist is just as essential as the art. Then I think about some of the artists I like, and do I just appreciate Basquiat or Van Gogh on their own? No! Everyone likes the story of how Basquiat, poor and unknown, barged into a restaurant and interrupted Andy Warhol and Bruno Bischofsberger’s lunch to show them some small works, and Warhol’s interest then helped elevate Basquiat’s position in the art world. And of course Van Gogh is the obvious example, everyone is intrigued by the fact that he only sold 1 painting in his lifetime as he struggled, fully dedicated to his art, and other well-known biographical aspects of his life.
The idea of developing a “mythology” or something unique about an artist’s life that adds interest to the work, one can argue that this can be found throughout art history. In my use of the word “mythology,” I’m not suggesting the idea of creating anything fictional, or doing things for the sake of trying to seem interesting, but again it almost goes hand-in-hand with art history. Jackson Pollock peeing into a fireplace at a party, and the fact that he made paintings with liquid paint and “dripping” the paint; Robert Rauschenberg taking a De Kooning drawing and erasing it; Michael Heizer devoting 50 years of his life to creating a land art sculpture spanning 1.5 miles long in the remote Nevada desert. Would you agree the biographical details increase the level of interest in the art?
So where do I go with this? I don’t know. I could share the story of realizing Jackson Pollock’s girlfriend who survived the car crash that killed him used to walk the desolate streets of Santa Fe at night in the neighborhood where I lived in the late 1980s, and when I came back to NYC and happened upon her biography at the Strand Bookstore, it was an autographed copy. Does that count? It’s a good story, but I can’t say it affected my art making.
I guess this whole thought process and my interest in revealing more is still in progress; we’ll see where it goes from here.
P.S. I wasn’t sure what type of picture to post to accompany this, and came up with the unusual personal experience of finding a restaurant in a cave in Mexico near the pyramids. Does that really apply? Maybe not. But it was a cool experience. Read more about my travels in Mexico here.