Comments on: Subtlety in Contemporary Art

By: MK

MK — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 04:28:39 +0000

Richard Tuttle comes to mind as an artist all about subtlety. His work does not translate on the computer screen either. So, you’re in good company.

By: lisa

lisa — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 04:45:35 +0000

yes, yes, i know what you mean, these days my work has gone minimal, inspired by agnes martin and changes in life. the work does not always read as well
as I’d like and i continually try different ways of lighting and tinkering with photo-shop (which sometimes doesn’t feel right)
also, for some reason these days it seems that the way
you illustrate your work with words serves nearly the same purpose as the actual visual.

By: Cath Sheard

Cath Sheard — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 01:46:17 +0000

I think you raise some very valid concerns; we do judge via the screen and, as you say, so much is lost. I guess it makes it all the more important to talk about our work, and to have a really good artist’s statement. Beyond that, I guess we have to rely on the integrity of the viewer and a little luck.

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:09:40 +0000

You are smart not to change what you do based on how it can be captured with photography. The most important thing as that you believe in what you are doing, everything has to follow from that.

I deal with the same issue but not to the extent that you do. Images can at least capture the color and form of my work, but there is no way to translate the depth of the figure in the wood — the sense of three dimensionality, or the movement that you see as you walk by a piece. My strategy for over-coming the limitation of photography is getting the work in front of as many people as possible by doing art/craft shows.

By the way, photographs of Rebecca Purdum’s work are completely worthless. Part of the problem that when the work is scaled down, you loose all the detail, but another part of the problem is that the color changes are very subtle. You have to be very close to really appreciate them.