Interview a Professional

We were to undertake an interview of a professional within the field of contemporary practice to assess the role of developing a sustained engagement with discipline and ideas.

I chose Andrew Curtis, A professional artist and abstract painter, an alumni of the Ruskin School of art, Oxford. http://www.andrewcurtis.com I selected Andrew due to an interest in his work and practice and from knowing him from my previous role as a gallery owner where he was represented.

I asked Andrew four questions as follows:

What is your definition of abstraction? – Abstraction is like getting underneath the skin of an object or scene, like getting under the skin. Similar to music, music in a film, the film is representational and the images are familiar but the music underlies the feeling and emotion of the work and can give it a sense of place. Abstract painting can also be seen in this way, you don’t have to depict a landscape to be able to feel it.
Can abstraction be representational? – That depends on whether you are trying to represent a real object or place in an abstract style or working with pure form or movement. Is the painting supposed to look representational? what were you trying to achieve.
How do you decide when an abstract painting is resolved or finished? – If it feels finished, its nothing to do with adding an extra piece of detail, an abstract painting is a feeling or movement, it is finished when you are finished with the feeling or the movement. If you are dithering around and trying to think what to add next you have probably gone to far.
What role does the artist have in society? – Artists are very important to society, possibly not the type who paint pretty picture for decoration but artists can inform the viewer of what was important to that artist at that particular time whether it be political, social, cultural or just highlighting an issue. Artists are not usually responding to an instant social media or newspaper scandal or topic, that will change almost immediately, their practice usually takes more time and is certainly more considered and arguable more valuable in time.

I was very impressed with the responses and felt it did enlighten my thinking of not what to paint but how to paint, the feeling and the movement is all important not the fiddly detail.