On not owning the meaning of one's artworks

I found an interesting quote on Ed Winkleman's blog. What struck me about it was that while Ed emphasized the first sentence in a paragraph of a review by Roberta Smith (this, of course, because of his subject matter), I thought the last sentence needs to be looked at, too (independent of subject matter): "Ms. Horn's work has both benefited and suffered from being what might be called "curators' art." Curators' art is indisputably, even innocuously, elegant -- with clear roots in Minimal and Conceptual Art and not much else. It tends to be profusely appreciated by a hermetic few, curators, artists and theorists, who fetishize its refinements and often take its creators pretty much at their word. Ms. Horn has always had a lot to say about what her work means and how it is to be viewed, and some of it is quite interesting, but artists don't own the meaning of their artworks."

There it is, and I'm glad to see it in print: "Artists don't own the meaning of their artworks."

This is tremendously important - especially so, I think, in the area of photography where so many people still talk about "the artist's intention", or the "meaning" of a photography (and where it might come from) - with the idea that the intentions (by the artist's fiat it would seem) automatically overrules all possible interpretation. No, they actually don't.

No TrackBacks

TrackBack URL: http://jmcolberg.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/476

Support this blog

Monthly Archives

Advertizing

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Joerg Colberg published on November 10, 2009 11:35 AM.

Don Denton was the previous entry in this blog.

'Evelyn Hofer, Subtle Photographer of People and Places, Dies at 87' is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Links

(this list is out of date - the blogroll will be updated when the redesiged version of the blog goes live)
1000 words blog
2point8
5b4
ian aleksander adams
american suburb x
blake andrews
timothy archibald
asia photography blog
elizabeth avedon
juliana beasley
jen bekman
dawoud bey
bildwerk3
bint photo books
the black snapper
bldblog
bloggy
bps research digest blog
david bram
buffet (andrew phelps)
daniel bühler
daniel campbell
cigarettes and purity (mel trittin)
c-monster.net
consumptive.org
contact
nina corvallo
coudal partners
mrs. deane
digressions (daniel shea)
dvafoto
amy elkins
expiration notice
exposure (aperture)
exposure compensation
the exposure project
eye curious (marc feustel)
flak photo
elizabeth fleming
fraction magazine
from this moment
fugitive vision
gazpachot
gmtPlus9
shane godfrey
ground glass (cara phillips)
the guardian - art section
heading east
andrew hetherington
horses think (ofer wolberger)
hippolyte bayard
hotshoe blog
i heart photograph
the independent photo book
japan exposures
japan photo
journal of a photographer
hee jin kang
kottke.org
liz kuball
la pura vida blog
vincent laforet
shane lavalette
lens culture
lenscratch
love oliver
magnum blog
melanie mcwhorter
modern art obsession
heather morton art buyer blog
muse-ings
new photographics
notes on politics, theory and photography
obvious
ocular octopus
ostkreuz agency
colin pantall
pdnedu
photo book guide
the photobook
photographs do not bend
photography collection
photography lot
a photo student
susana raab
40 watts (shawn records)
richard renaldi
jonathan saunders
seesaw magazine
shooting wide open
the sonic blog
alec soth (archives)
state of the art
amy stein
zoe strauss
telephoto
that's a negative
thingsmagazine.net
too much chocolate
mark tucker
brian ulrich
uncommons
verve photo
vvork
wan.der.lust.ag.ra.phy
wassenaar
greg wasserstrom
we can shoot, too
we can't paint
shen wei
edward winkleman
women in photography
wood s lot
year in pictures (james danziger)
zoum zoum