Short answer: I don't know. "Great" is a social approbation. No one is a great artist until the artworld, with all its various and contentious outlooks, says so. And then no-one is truly convinced. "The jury is always still out".
Interjection: Greatness in art can be had in two ways. First in strong traditions unified by a set of standards, the best artists are visible. In traditions where each generation is expected to overturn the values of the preceding generation, greatness is awarded to the breakthrough artist, the one who convincingly overturns the best previous art ideas. This person may be regarded as inept or a faker simply because the new always looks so vulgar. Personally, I think we are still in the second type of tradition but it is splaying out into a multitude of little traditions. Thus no-one can overturn a big tradition anymore. Long answer: I did have several extraordinary students over 40 years, maybe 6, most of them during the 25 years I taught graduate students (MFA candidates) almost exclusively. So that means they came in with quite impressive records and had already been "discovered" (that's too strong a word). All of these students are now well established in the artworld, with all of the usual trappings -- gallery shows, awards, "buzz", etc. It remains to be seen how well they do in the long haul. I think all of them are very, very good but to be frank, it's scarcely possible to say "great" in today's art context because it's impossible to separate the "professional" from the genius. Nowadays professional artists are very hip about the art culture and know so much. They're tacticians. That's not necessarily a criticism, just a fact. Today's university bred artists are smart in marketing and being in the right place. As a teacher, and even now, I always look for the driven souls, the ones who don't have a good reason to be artists. They just have to do it, no matter what. As always, it's a calling, not a profession. God help them. If the spirit of our age flows through them and if they're very smart and very workaholic and don't die too soon and never give up let's call them candidates for that elusive greatness. wc ________________________________ From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 9:29:59 PM Subject: The teacher's dream > William writes: > [Given that most art is bad, and most of the bad stuff is terrible, and so very little is any good and almost none is really good, I'm always ready to be impressed by those rare examples of really good. I like a work that BANG, hits you before you begin looking at it seriously. A good piece of art is like a bandit, a mugger, who surprises you before you realize what's going on." > Given that most art is bad, and most of the bad stuff is terrible, and > so very little is any good and almost none is really good, I'm always ready > to be impressed by those rare examples of really good.] > This is not a bait query, William -- I just want to hear a story. During your teaching career did you ever encounter in a new student a raw, astonishing talent of such quality you felt you were were looking at the early work of a future great artist? If so, what happened to that person? (I know you mentioned in the past a student of yours who eventually became an eminent teacher.)
