I was recently asked to be the juror for the "Celebration of the Arts" exhibition at Western Kentucky University's - Kentucky Museum. The show opened March 1st 2013. Last weekend I drove to campus and looked at over 300 works of art and selected pieces to receive awards in several categories. I was asked to write a Juror's statement so I have decided to include it here.
Jurors Statement
Feb 2013
"What do I ask of a painting? I
ask it to astonish, disturb, seduce, convince.” (Lucian Freud)
The work presented for selection at
the US Bank "Celebration of the Arts" was as diverse as it was
interesting. In the many categories, I found work that was technically
good, work that was conceptually interesting and work that was both.
My objective in assigning awards was
to determine which works had both integrity and uniqueness to which there were
many. I looked for works that seemed to put an idea forward and then
asked the viewer to consider it. This is one of my teaching maxims, as
most any of my art students will attest, a work is more interesting the more
questions it asks of the viewer. The kinds of questions a work might ask
is a different matter. The questions I
found in the work for this show range from “what does this mean,” to “how did
they do that” to more specific questions about the way we look at objects and
what we value as object makers and viewers of those objects.
I was asked to award 1st, 2nd and
3rd for each separate category. This is a difficult task because in
reality there is no “best" or second best. All a viewer can do is to
establish a set of parameters that they ask an artwork to conform to.
What did I ask of the works in which I chose? I asked them
to astonish, disturb, seduce and convince.
