Susan Sontag, American writer, critic, and public intellectual, wrote about the interpretation versus the appreciation of art. Perhaps that dilemma is inevitable when the question ‘what does it mean?’ presages any appreciation as though what is perceived is in fact a mask to the true meaning of which even the artist may not be aware. This practice extends well beyond visual art and into literature where unresolved patriarchal or misogynist issues, noxious political views or unfortunate affiliations may lurk. Without that knowledge, apparently, the audience cannot approach the work of art with any confidence or understanding. Kafka, the Russian writer, has been endlessly analysed for instances of social allegory and the insanity of bureaucracy, Freudian psychoanalytic castration impulses and the inexorable justice of God and alienation in a religious context. In the visual art world, Pollock’s gestures just had to derive from swaying plains of wheat to make any sense at all.

The speaker at an exhibition opening has to balance any number of aspects of both the art and the artist.  Audiences come to openings hoping to come to grips with the work of the artist and expect anecdotes that impel understanding or at least, recognition that artists have lives beyond the gallery walls. The implication that all art is narrative or in some way a self-portrait drives what many see as valid interpretation. That art is narrative and reflective of the life lived may well be true of some artists. Picasso, Chagall and Kahlo come to mind. However, that doesn’t account for the Minimalists, for one, or the whole gamut of abstractionists – at least on the surface. Art doesn’t exist in a vacuum – or shouldn’t.

So, just what does the audience at an opening need or expect? It depends to an extent on who is delivering the address. Recently I listened to a half an hour of ego-driven personal memoires and an account of a train trip from a personality in the Arts, but little about the art on the walls. At the other end of the scale were the endless superlatives, bordering on recognition of genius, from a friend of the artist at another opening who gushed for some time. The artist to her credit blushed all through the speech. If you have an acquaintance in the art school sphere you may well get something quite different with a survey of contemporary art in Artspeak and an attempt to position the artist in the pantheon. Often the speech is then delivered to the artist as a paper or digital testament to innate cleverness and something to be included in the next grant application. There is however a whole other category. The artist himself/herself delivering the speech in the belief that no one else knows what it’s all about. This could amount to an account of process, a personal history or something approaching self-interpretation. There is nothing inherently wrong with artists introducing their own work or conducting artist talks but the questions that inevitably follow about how long a painting took to do, the materials in question, or attempts to categorise the art skew the intention.

What information perhaps shouldn’t be imparted? Amongst the fraternity of classic artists there are at least three murderers, paedophiles, womanisers and fraudsters. With the work of Caravaggio, for instance, knowing that he killed someone and was pursued by the authorities, doesn’t help in the least in understanding his paintings. His brushwork, use of chiaroscuro and extreme tonality could all be interpreted as signs of aggression but no doubt if he was exhibiting today – not that he ‘exhibited’ then – his connection to God might be emphasised.  If anyone however suffered unfairly from his background overwhelming his art it is van Gogh. The number of posthumous treatises devoted to art and insanity are testament to that. I don’t know who spoke at the last exhibition of van Gogh’s work but art dealers of the day had a vested interest in selling a positive edited outlook to potential buyers and acknowledging the status of both the assembled gentry and the artist.

As an exhibiting artist I am always conscious of what is said on my behalf after the welcome to country, the pointing out of the fire exits and indicating the direction of the guardian of the till and the toilets – all of which take precedence.  The speech for my upcoming exhibition is being delivered by a friend however my role will be to demonstrate a sage nod at appropriate moments and ignore the interpretive comments as to what the paintings are about. I leave that to the audience.