It is common for artists to be told of the importance of developing a consistent and coherent style. Galleries of course like this since it makes marketing so much easier if an artist can be nicely packaged up. I've never been entirely convinced of this - at least from the creative perspective. In a comment on this I said:
I regularly see advice to 'develop a consistent style', but I still don't see the benefit to me as an artist. If I have to keep rehashing the same old thing to please buyers I stop developing and stop growing as an artist. I make art because I am driven to do it. If I have to make art to please other people then I'm not making art, I'm running a production line. I'll leave that to the Chinese...
I raised this issue on Etsy, provoking this response from artist Victoria Webb:
Ian, I'm with you on the idea of experimenting as an artist. While some of that article by Ms. Woodward has good advice, the notion that to get 'seen' by gallerists or collectors requires a stand out 'style' is just nonsense. The best artists change all the time, and that includes giants like Picasso.
This conflict between artistic creativity and the demands of the gallery system has affected some major artists.
It wouldn’t be too far off the mark to say that pretty much every professional relationship that I had cultivated throughout the 1990s collapsed as a result of what happened to my work in Mayo. When people looked at the paintings their jaws dropped. It was as if I’d betrayed them. How dare I take another path?
Stuart Shils about the problems he had when his style changed following a visit to Ireland in 1998.
The artist Patrick Heron had similar problems after a change of direction.
[The gallery director] wrote to Heron complaining that he was just beginning to find a market for his still lives and now Patrick had to hit him with this. Most artists have to put up with gallery owners who would like them to stick to the latest selling line…
Patrick Heron by Michael McNay, Tate Publishing
Related Post
- Are you selling your art - or you? The problem with selling art online is that we have to find a form of words that others will use when looking for art, that match up to the work we ar...
- Etsy and Art There has been a discussion going on for a while on Etsy they could can improve its coverage of art. The basic premise is that when Etsy refers to art...
- What's it worth? The collection (and hence the sale) of digital art is yet another topic that has been hotly debated since the art form began to register o...
- Expressing your influences I have to accept, that without any formal art training my knowledge of the work of other artists is patchy at best. I tend to see a piece I like, or s...
- Blog giveaway I am giving away a free print to the 3rd, 9th, 14th, 17th and 24th people to comment on the blog after this post appears. Conditions* The comment can...
Well after all, most gallerists are in the business of selling. I think the ones whose passion is art, are more open to their artists developing, along with changing styles. No one stays the same in the arts - if they continue to challenge themselves.