Reading #1

In Linda Weintraub’s article, In The Making, she discusses the freedoms artists have when making art in today’s society, but also the responsibilities that come with those freedoms. She lists six points that artists face including: scoping an audience, sourcing inspiration, crafting an artistic self, expressing an artistic attitude, choosing a mission and measuring success. She stresses that all of these components of artistic freedom are unique to the contemporary art world we live in and attributes those freedoms to the demise of the medieval guild system and powerful institutions.

I found most of what Weintraub discussed to be interesting especially after the Post-Modern art history class that I took last semester. In that class we gave credit to Marcel Duchamp for some of the artistic freedoms Weintraub discusses but I think she makes a valid argument of it beginning with the end of guilds and institutions like those found in Italy and France. Duchamp may not have made the impact he did if those institutions were still in place because of the monopolies they held, but his ready-mades definitely stretched the conversation of what is art, who can make art and what is the value of art.

The part of the article that I was the most drawn to was what she had to say about sourcing inspiration. She notes that “inspire is associated with the originating breath that infuses an organism with an energy that is so distinct from mundane experience.” That particular quote really struck me. As an artist, I know that I experience this when looking at other art, reading certain literature or after an event that has sparked an emotional response inside myself. As I continue to make art and figure out what my senior thesis show will look like I keep coming back to inspiration. What am I interested in? What will I work on this semester? WHY am I making the photographs that I’m making? I want to be hit with the energy that Weintraub talks about because I feel like something so distinct is what allows really great work to be made.