THE STATE OF M.A. ART...

When I look at many of the images and articles that frequently appear on various sites over the web and in contemporary art magazines including ‘a-n mag’, I can feel my whole artistic being and personality sinking into some sort of hopeless psychological swamp or pit. I feel that the kind of stuff I produce as artwork – paintings that are well drawn and painted, sometimes abstract, sometimes figurative depending on what ideas I am investigating, is not BAD or POOR or NAFF enough to be accepted as ‘contemporary art’. I feel I am being hammered by a soft but heavy object called ‘POOR QUALITY’ and no matter how much I try and develop my own art I get the impression that it’s all not worth the effort. ‘The Emperors New Clothes’ psychology is everywhere, ‘Dross’ is readily acceptable because it is presented with pseudo-intellectual babble. And it is seen at all the galleries and establishments that want to make a trendy name for themselves, we have a few them in Wales. Just having seen some ‘Dross’ on various sub-pages within the AXIS website as selected items from various M.A. shows/courses has pushed me into writing this letter. We all know that M.A. studies cost lots of money to pursue, so for the lucky individuals who do have the chance to engage in study at this level, so-called ‘artistic life’ is relatively plain sailing. “Hand over £3000 or so – thank you very much prospective great artist!” “Forget about notions of quality – developing and applying a skill along with intellectual and psychological growth! You can off-load these ‘old fashioned’ ideas of critical evaluation whilst we [‘art school’] use your money to keep our staff in a pension and you try on our ‘Emperors New Clothes’ – we’re sure they will fit you!” There’s so much visual rubbish around backed up by bull----, whatever happened to the notion of ‘visual presence’? I was once asked by the Head of an Art School in Wales to interview prospective students for a foundation sort of course in Art and Design. He advised me to remember that it did not matter if these poor youngsters did not bring any evidence or an interest in art – drawings? [gosh, fancy an art school not wanting to see any drawings?], what was important was to secure them as ‘bums on seats’, to make up the numbers, especially if they were from outside the EU… as they may attract more funding! Perhaps I should have given up then, got a job as a security guard for minimum wage and ceremoniously burnt all my paints! [I dare say if I had filmed the process, I may have been awarded a grant, especially if I had decorated the written application with references to how it contributes to the critical debate on death and despair in contemporary art]. No matter how much I ‘winge’ there will always be so much rubbish out there masquerading as quality produce [I even find it difficult to use the word a--].