The Terrible Toll of Art Anxiety

In today's New York Times there is an interesting article entitled, The Terrible Toll of Art Anxiety. It specifically discusses the experience of collector looking for art to purchase but who are overwhelmed by not understanding the content of the work they see in galleries. There has been a growing gap between artists and those who collect and appreciate art. It is the same gap that exists between specialists and lay people in any discipline. This of course is not a new idea and people have been arguing about it for over a hundred years now. Fifty years ago it was the anxiety of the artist that was the major concern and their was much discussion of the anxiety of art or to use the critic Harold Rosenberg’s term in referring to art objects, “The Anxious Object.”

While this is a multifaceted issue with no one cause or solution, there are two issues I think would be good places for beginning a discussion. First, has to do with the artists, I specifically have in mind painters but this may apply to other disciplines as well, the problem here is when the theory comes first and the visual second. The other issue is the need to recognize that painting requires time. It is not like advertising that needs to reveal its message in 5 or 10 seconds. I think both of this issues open up great topics for discussion. [...more]