<p>Lots of good points I think and a good discussion.</p>
<p>I think artsmarts is correct that abstract/non-representational art and realistic/representational art are like apples and oranges, and comparing the two does not work. Some people only like representational art, others only abstract, and others like both.</p>
<p>timkerdes, the Vanni paintings are colorful and pretty, but it’s just not my kind of art. Only one of them is somewhat representational, the nude, but it is missing detail, and for me, it’s just not an interesting piece.</p>
<p>artsmarts, you asked me if I thought an elephant on a car or a volvo was art. For me, art requires creativity and skill. A real elephant is no one’s creation other than its parents. A toy elephant would be the creation of whoever made it, and a Volvo is a creation of the Volvo car company. Damien Hirst’s shark in a tank is not creative and it’s not art. He didn’t make the shark. No question he is very wealthy and is great at marketing, but that doesn’t make him an artist.</p>
<p>I think timkerdes is correct about the majority of art showing in the largest galleries, and at the priciest auctions, being non-representational. This is the opposite of where it was 150 years ago. The pendelum is swinging back, and although I don’t think the biggest sales will return to only-representational art, there may be a better or different balance in the future. One of my daughter’s teachers and mentors, Odd Nerdrum of Norway, is a representational artist who has made it into this stratesphere. Most students of art will not get to this position however of making millions off of their art, so I am more interested in looking at the thousands of artists just trying to make a living, or making a very good living, but still not in that top stratesphere.</p>
<p>For students heading out to college, a big concern or question is, what can they do with their art degree? I’ve shared some annecdotal stories or evidence regarding young people who live in my area. No art school can guarantee solid employment in the arts for their students, although it may be useful to look whether some schools are better at it than others. It would be interesting to see a study.</p>
<p>I want to make the point to prospective art students that they should look carefully at the art schools they want to attend. What kind of art do they want to do? Will the school teach them how to do that? When my daughter was considering where she should study, she went online and looked up all the professors’ work. She wanted to be a representational artist, but could not find any work at universities that she liked, so she went to an atelier where she DID like the work she found online (both made by the teachers and by the students).</p>
<p>With the internet today, many artists can sell their own work independently. While I have no idea how many abstract art-type artists do this, I do know many successful representational artists who earn a very good living this way. They pay taxes–I do them for my daughter–but they have no need to go through galleries unless they want to. My daughter does both.</p>
<p>I do get an occasional PM about the ateliers asking for details, scholarships, etc. Some of these students have actually switched from art school to ateliers, or attended an ateliers after graduating, and have told me that they are very happy they did. What they all say however is that without my posts, they would never have discovered the atelier system, because as I said earlier, we have two parallel systems in place and universities do not normally mention or speak positively about ateliers.</p>