I took a CD of some of my work to a gallery yesterday. Being of an age and seeing time more behind than in front of me, I am keen for my work to be shown. Later I received an email from the gallery. It thanked me for submitting the work and explained that it did not fit contextually with their gallery. Having suggested when I left the work that any advice would be welcome, I received some. The suggestion was made that I ‘look at interiors magazine such as Homes and Gardens, House and Garden, Interiors, Elle décor (and) extract info regarding what is selling in the world of interior decoration. The advice surprised me. I would hope that the briefest of glances would make it obvious that Homes and Gardens is not for me. I hope that they didn't see something in my painting that I am not aware of.
There are so many galleries purporting to be Art galleries that in fact sell upmarket pastiches – vacuous decoration.
My error was not to research the gallery sufficiently. I am not disappointed, having now avoided a fate worse than…..
On the Paul O'Grady show this evening, John Cleese spoke amusingly of his experiences of critical misunderstanding of his work. He concluded that the longer he was in the business, the more he realised that nobody really knew what they were talking about.
But the business of judging is important. There must be a difference between knowing what you enjoy and knowing whether it has any value.
There is art which is honest, and work which pretends to be art.
It is reassuring when one's own preoccupations find an echo outside. I understand that Damien Hirst has a heightened awareness now of the passing of time. He is painting pictures! On radio4's Keskidee programme today, a black playwright whose name escaped me noted that in order to have a play performed, he had to submit it to a usually white middle class person who would decide whether they liked it. One sees acres of art which is essentially a confirmation of the shallowness of a certain powerful sector of the middle classes.
But what was really annoying was that on my way back from the gallery, I strayed into the Congestion Charging zone and had to pay £8 for the privilege.
