becoming visible -- emerging audiences

‘Lots of things are invisible, Joey,’ said Dennis the Menace one day in the comics, ‘but we don’t know it ‘cause we can’t see ‘em.’ True dat. There are some things invisible right out in plain sight, and that’s more complicated. For years around here, representational paintings weren’t seen in juried exhibits, weren’t reviewed in media outlets, and couldn’t get a grant for any reason, period. Representational art was being made, studios would come and go, but officially what they were doing was destined to be invisible, out of bounds, not worthy of serious consideration. This continued for decades.

Of course, there’s no real opposition, abstract or referential, and no defining line between. Each artist chooses the form that best conveys their particular personality and point of view. They all have an audience in mind, and in front of the easel they labor to create an image that will be ‘seen,‘ at least by some of the people, and favored enough to receive support, a basic requirement for making more. There are numerous examples of artists who struggled throughout their lives, only to find great success among later generations, art’s oldest cliche’. Why is that?

It must be, that while the art itself didn’t change, the eyes that saw it did. What was once invisible had over time resolved into meaning and immediacy, as the worldview of citizens changed gears. Van Gogh’s artwork was severely inappropriate for the eighteen eighties, too ugly to look at, too distorted and crudely made. He was crazy and it showed in his work. Ten years after his untimely demise, at the approach of a new century, he was already recognized as the obvious precursor to the concerns of modern art, and his paintings began to blaze on the wall.

Art is not a one-way street. The painting itself is inert, a construction of cloth and wood with colors applied, and it says nothing in an empty room. Somewhere on its surface the artist has left a hook, some visual strategy that beguiles the attention long enough to speak, to whisper a personal message into the inner ear where no translation is necessary. For this to happen, the sensibility of the viewing public must become receptive, and sometimes that can take a while, up to several decades. It won’t change overnight, but it can seem that way, with many individuals responding before artwork becomes generally ‘visible,‘ and it might not happen at all.