Comments on: Give me a number, please!

By: What is a body of work? — Art Biz Blog

What is a body of work? — Art Biz Blog — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 21:30:15 +0000

[...] can’t give you a precise number of pieces that are within a body of work. I can’t even give you a number on [...]

By: Stacey Peterson

Stacey Peterson — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:49:10 +0000

So Alyson, do you think an artist needs to have this many available works in the studio at any given time? I’ve done landscapes long enough to have what I feel is a coherent body of work. I don’t have any problem pulling together images to send to galleries etc., but I never have more than maybe 5-6 finished paintings in my studio at a time. They’re always at galleries or in shows, and if I start to have more paintings in my studio than that, I start to think I need to find another gallery or something. So when I have a show, I have to spend a couple of months painting to have enough works… Do you think an artist should have enough work available to put on a show at any given time? Should I be trying to catch up and have a large in-studio inventory?

By: Linda

Linda — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:48:50 +0000

I’m really new at this, so this may seem a bit simplistic, but if I’m creating sculptures to supply my galleries and preparing for summer art fairs and preparing for a group/or solo exhibitions, I find myself robbing-Peter-to-pay Paul–and sometimes ‘breaking up’ what might have been a ‘body of work’ for a solo or group exibition, but needing to make sure the galleries have what they need. Any ideas that will help?

By: Alyson B. Stanfield

Alyson B. Stanfield — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:34:14 +0000

Laura: Why, yes! Santa and I are tight. Sandra: I’m not sure about separate names for styles. Maybe separate names for different lines. (One more commercial, the other more “serious.”) Philip: Exactly! Work through it. Keep making art. Michael: Quite often I’m wrong. It just took me many years to admit that. Thanks for the story about Dunn. Also, note that Picasso worked through his styles. He never really did the Rose Period alongside Cubism. He worked through the Rose Period to get to Cubism. So we can see his progression. It’s harder when the work is being done simultaneously. Bonnie: Thanks for sharing your question.

By: Bonnie Hurst

Bonnie Hurst — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:00:37 +0000

Thank you for taking the time to answer my question! I believe I have a better idea of what I need to do to have a body of work to show. I have also been encouraged by reading the comments from other artists on the same subject.

By: Jonathan Howard

Jonathan Howard — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 07:05:35 +0000

Creating a body of work. Here’s my strategy and it works fairly well. I’m very much into music, so I started thinking of preparing a show as a rock band or composer would write and album. I’ve also learned to work on several canvases at a time. Some how this keeps the work closely linked together. I’ve also learned to let motifs, color , characters, buildings, and collaged items be shared throughout the works. You’ll notice when listening to some musical albums that drum beats, guitar lyrics and song lyrics may be referenced from a previous track. Each solo show for my work represents a cohesive body of work rather than thematically selected work.

By: Tracy

Tracy — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:23:12 +0000

Wonderful post (and newsletter), Alyson. This is something I’ve been working on. Doing lots of related themes, but having trouble staying on track after about 9 months of still life. Craving to do some landscapes now that the weather is springtime pleasant. I know my subjects are all over the map, but I’m trying to keep cohesiveness with strong common elements. Thanks for the food for thought!

By: Michael Lynn Adams

Michael Lynn Adams — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:03:08 +0000

Alyson is right (when is she not?). Quality and not quantity is what will determine a gallery’s willingness to hang a solo show. Naturally there would be a certain minimum number of works needed to make it a viable business decision for a gallery to put on a show. Karen’s comment reminded of my grandfather’s good friend, Alan Dunn. For over twenty years, Dunn was a very successful cartoonist for New Yorker and known for his sophisticated humor and coarse charcoal drawing style. My grandfather told me about Dunn’s other side. He and Dunn would go on watercolor expeditions. He knew that Dunn deeply wished to also be know for his watercolor paintings. His watercolor work was exquisite and subtle, having little in common with his cartoon work. The public wasn’t interested in the watercolors. They wanted what they expected from Alan Dunn and nothing else. Maybe using a pseudonym would have worked for him. On the other hand Picasso was able to work in several visual languages a time and find an audience for them all. It is fascinating, and frustrating that there are no hard and fast rules in what makes art appealing to an audience. I hope that learning my craft, doing the best work I know how, and being true to my vision will bring coherence to my body of work. I know I have to make choices in the subject and approach in order to consciously (sometime not so consciously) guide where that body of work is going. I sometimes wish could have a solid vision of what that body of work will look like in the future. But I don’t. That is part of adventure. And whether the market will be embrace or reject the work – well, I will do everything that I know how to let the world know my work is out there. The rest is in God’s hands.

By: Philip Koch

Philip Koch — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:27:22 +0000

A coherent body of work happens naturally, It takes time- sometimes a long time for an artist to find his or her way there. The best way to hurry the process along is to be honest with oneself about which themes strike the deepest chord in you. You have to go down more than a few dead ends along the way. The worst thing would be to decide ahead of time “this is what I am interested in”, crank out a body of work, have some commercial success with it, and THEN discover you’re bored stiff at the prospect of doing more work in a similar vein. There is a tension between building an authentic creative vision and the demands of marketing it. But this is nothing new- the artists from the past we admire today faced the same challenge. If they managed the juggling, so can we.

By: Sandra Lynn Gray

Sandra Lynn Gray — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:54:57 +0000

Would you recommend having separate names for each style that an artist does? Many artists do not stamp out piece after piece of the same stuff and never venture into other styles and techniques….. and even other philosophies. If the public has trouble handling that kind of exploration (which I am assured that it indeed does) should the artist think about choosing a different artist’s name and statement and, perhaps, even a different website for each definable style?