When I see the work of someone like a Phyllida Barlow with an installation endlessly taking over a gallery space there is a distinct feeling of amazement because what has characterised my art from the outset has been the self-enclosed limiting factor of the edge of a canvas or sculpture with a definitive outline.
I think it comes down to the society we have created where the expectation of something for nothing pervades every aspect of the retail market
This all begs the question though of the value of drawing in this day and age. When McLuhan wrote that the medium was the message back in the 60s he also noted that we were still using the ideas of the mechanical age to evaluate the present. Linear perspective obviously falls into that category as does tonal rendering in a throwback to the Renaissance. Given how many artists and the general public still use these measures to evaluate the worth of art you have to wonder if anything has changed in the half century since McLuhan. Is drawing as a concept a universal norm, a learned technique or something else?
Any and every artist is in the end self-taught and open-ended learning is a cornerstone of creativity.
Sure, the abyss is great for staring into. But if screaming is your thing, you’ll want to go with the void [anon]
Given three hundred years from now the baby boomers, millennials and Gen Z will be long gone and the ultra-rich will be camped on Mars thumbing their noses at the have-nots. ‘Comedian’ may well be an apt description.