PLAYING TO THE GALLERY

The artist and designer Grayson Perry is giving a number of lectures that can be listened to on radio four. This series is called “Playing to the Gallery” and questions the “role and place of art in the global landscape of the 21^st century”. Grayson is asking about how we as a “society” “judge” the “ quality” of what now is “mainstream” “contemporary art” from his perception as a “practicing artist” himself, not simply, as he says, a “commentator” of “culture”.

The first lecture in this series was called “Democracy has bad taste”. Here he really divulges into the issue of “quality” of art and how and by who it is judged, is it through “financial”, “aesthetic” or “historical” values or now whether “popularity and quality” “interlinks too much”. He queries the meaning of art today and how it is seen as more of an “asset”, a “cash” symbol that represents wealth and “class”.

Grayson Perry pairs this “quality” with “beauty” of art, a “beauty” that he feels has to be “justified”, a “self conscious” beauty filled with “discomfort” and worry to meet the society’s “ideals”. This worry and doubt around artwork is due to there being a “consensus”, a “CV” of the perfect piece of art, created through a “validation” from “critics”, “curators”, “collectors”, the “media” and the “public”.  Grayson continues, saying that within this process of “validation” the “language” used gives art a “serious” tone that is described to only further difficult the relationship that we as a society have with art. The “international art English” used can make individuals feel “uneducated” around art and feel as though they are unable to fully “connect” and “engage” with the concepts and ideas within art.

The question is whether this then distorts all ideas of “quality” and “beauty” around art. If the full community within our society is unable to fully voice their opinions about art then surely this “consensus” is biased, false and unjustified? Art becomes largely “popular” when it enters galleries as here is it viewed by a large scale of visitors but “how” is this art being “chosen” and “who” by. If it is through this “validation” and because “enough of the right people think its good” then the art open to the public is bias that can only mean all opinions of the art are therefore also bias. The experience of art in galleries consequently is a pressured one.

“Taste has values”. It is important not to simply agree to a “consensus” yet question opinions and concepts, even our own. The lecture has made me really consider whether an art gallery like the Tate Modern is a real representation of contemporary art. What therefore is contemporary art and how can we find it in an unbiased environment?

I agree with the quote “history will judge quality”. Quality to me is produced through individual and personal connection. A piece of art should be chosen and brought due to an identified meaning not a price tag nor a name. Quality develops over time as a connection can grow. We need to open our eyes to what can be art and find ways that we can access the enormous world that is art.

Perry, G. (writer). (2013). Democracy has bad taste. [Radio series episode]. Playing to the Gallery. London: BBC Radio 4