Less is more

21.12.2022

Text: Marina Alvitr

Less is more

Less is more - I often come across this phrase today, but it does not look like the trend of our epoch. “Less is better” is a phrase that has long become part of the culture. Why is that? Today we will talk about it from the point of view of art and the representation of cell phones by the artist.

In my consultations, I often analyze portfolios. As usual, this happens: the artist adds EVERYTHING to the portfolio, absolutely all of his different years ... If you're lucky, you can also see student ones. As a rule, and in chronological order, it starts the earliest and not always the strongest. What does this lead to? The curator may simply not scroll through the entire document to see the last series. The reason for the appearance of such a Portfolio is approximately clear, the logic is: I will show different things, and there may be something. At the same time, the general impression seems to remain behind the scenes.

The same can be said about posting your art on various platforms. I talk a lot about the "platformization" of art, about the disappearance of the intermediary between the artist and the collector. The consequence of this trend: the artist decides what, where, and how to show. On the one hand, it's cool. We are talking about horizontal connections in art, the democratization of the market, and so on. On the other hand, the trend requires new competencies from the artist, namely, the ability to evaluate their works from the outside, select them for display on different platforms, and form their image based on the main theme of the research and vision of the world. It's not an easy task, and often a curator's or expert's …


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