Over-produced Artists' Sites

During the past few years, I have looked at thousands of artists' sites. The least successful in my opinion are those that are the least straightforward. Such sites are often built with Flash and require the viewer to spend time waiting for things to load. While those are loading, the viewer gets to look at a progress bar which shows the percentage already loaded. Although the amount of time for each message is not really that long, the cumulative effect is that the viewer is more likely to be left with an impression of that progress bar than with the work itself. It's as though you were telling a story and before each line said:"OK, here is the next sentence."

This is not the reason the sites are problematic, it's merely one of the symptoms. Artists understandably want to sell their work, but if the site looks more like an on-line store, with constant references to shopping carts or an exercise to show off a website designer's bag of tricks, it is likely to annoy serious viewers and drive them away in less time than it takes a progress bar to finish.

What was it?

Questions from a young artist:

What is the relationship of existing values to the "rightness" of a contemporary creation? That is, at least within a particular society, how much like the old does the new have to be in order for it to be acknowledged as art?

Also, are there any values that are universal? Any symbols that are understood by all societies in general?

Art Brings in the Bucks

Public Interest cannot be put in jeopardy; the arts are an education for the spirit; expositions ought to be accessible to all without restriction; one cannot ensure that everyone will benefit from them, but no one should be excluded and there is as much injustice in closing the door of annual expositions as there would be in having paid admission at the Louvre or at the Bibliothèque Impériale . --Anatole de Montaiglon, 1855

Not only were M. Montaiglon's protestations ignored, two years later, the Salon added a café. Museum shops started showing up in the late 1950's and by the 80's were discovered to be big businesses, with fancy catalogs and branch offices in shopping malls, and by the late 90s, websites.

The British Museum, the Tate and the Tate Modern, and many other superb London Museums have no entrance fees. Unfortunately, this allows them to be filled with people who are interested in the art and students, lots of students.

New York's Museum of Modern Art charges a $20 entrance fee. To be fair, the aforementioned London museums are publicly funded and MoMA is not. At any rate, stiff fees help keep out the riffraff and the people who would only look at the art and not spend big money in museum shop. Museum stores are important to the income of museums. In many cases they bring in much more money than do admission fees. Sales figures for the MoMA gift shop weren't ready available, but the SFMOMA, in a city 1/12th the size of NYC, pulls in $30 million a year.

Some other admission fees:
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (publicly supported): $25 for recent Pompei show
Seattle Art Museum: $15, more for special exhibits
Philadelphia Museum of Art: $16, plus special exhibit fees
Chicago Art Institute: $18

Medicine on Canvas

Interesting collection of paintings concerning medicine, including Rembrandt's brilliant "Anatomy Lecture of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp," 1632, and Eakins's two Clinic pictures.

From call for public art for new medical examiner's building

From the call for public art to be placed in a new medical examiner's building in downtown Orlando:

"[seeking work] that will embrace grieving families in a calming and soothing atmosphere as they come to deal with the passing of a family member.

"Site located on the intersection of two streets – Michigan Street and Bumby Avenue. The other corners hold an electrical substation, a storage facility and a strip mall with a pizza shop."
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Yeah, that was Mom's body all right -- at least I think so. Kinda hard to tell with it all flat like that. I want all you kids to understand exactly what this means: Pizza!! Let's go!!

An Artists is an Artist is an Artist

Definition of artist according to the San Diego Municipal Code,Chapter 02, 06Division 07, Section 26.0702:

Artist means an individual generally recognized by critics and peers as a professional practitioner of the visual, performing, or language arts, or a combination thereof, based on that professional practitioner’s body of work, educational background, experience, past commissions, exhibition/ performance record, publications, and
production of artworks.

Barely-related quote: If that's art, I'm a Hottentot. -- Harry S Truman, in 1947 after viewing a group of paintings the State Department had bought for an overseas tour meant to demonstrate to non-believers that artistic creativity flourished best in America, under American capitalism. The works were hardly radical; none were abstract, let alone Abstract Expressionist.

Web Design Warning

Because of the prevalence of malware sites, many surfers have JavaScript turned of by default. This means that if you have a JavaScript front page, these people will probably pass you by. Flash presentations on the home page are also problematic as people without high-speed connections will turn elsewhere.

It all depends on the function of your website, of course. Each site should have a specific primary purpose. If yours is to serve as a portfolio for potential collectors or high-end galleries who are likely to have the latest computer systems, and whom you send there, then a Flash presentation on the home page might be OK. Still, if a busy person has to spend too much time waiting for what they came for, they may move on. In general, you want your site to present your work with the same respect a good gallery would present it.