I wrote the rant following the video below after reading my friend Claire's post about Lynch and commercialism vs. artistic merit over at
ENCHANT AND DOOM.
The above video is of some commercials by
ROY ANDERSSON.
Here's my rant-comment from E&D:
Nothing makes me angrier than the "ARTIST or SELLOUT" debate.
When I first started doing ads after getting a degree in Fine Art, I lost some friends because of it. I got so paranoid of being a sellout that I thought people were against me that weren't.
Because of this I did a ton of research on commercial artists versus "pure" artists. There are very few who have been able to live without producing commercial work (especially those in Canada who are under a conservative regime at the moment).
Kenneth Anger is someone who has remained a "pure" artist, and even he has said that he regrets being such a renegade because now people just rip him off and he gets no credit or money for what he created.
TONS of people who are very successful filmmakers and photographers and artists have done commercial work. Wes Anderson (of course), Nan Goldin, even Roy Andersson (who directed
SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR) have done lots of commercial work (Andersson directed at least 300 commercials between his first film (which flopped) and
SONGS).
Look at the old
UNITED COLORS OF BENETTON ads, or a million other ads that so-called "pure" artists have produced.
Anyway, point is, the people I had lost now think I'm crazy for even taking a break from advertising. Turns out I took too much stock in the opinions of those people. Turns out it doesn't matter what the people think, you just have to do what you want or need to do and you have to separate your passion from your practical needs (such as food and shelter). Turns out I lost those friends because they judged my career choices instead of supporting me, not because I chose to do commercials or because I felt I was disapopinting them. I even thought my boyfriend at the time was dead against me doing anything commercial and that I was letting him down.
The idea of a "sellout" comes from the hoi polloi's own insecurities OR your own insecurities. I considered myself a sellout for a long time. Then when I thought I would just be an artist wasn't able to eat for days at a time and decided that that really sucked and I would rather be a "sellout" than dead. Even artists sell their work.
So good for Lynch. He has his priorities straight. He does commercials for products and does a damn fine job (I'd rather watch a Lynch or Andersson or Anderson directed commercial than 99.99% of the shit commercials that are on TV anyway) and he directs amazing films with
NO PRODUCT PLACEMENT!
Sorry for the rant. Maybe it's cause I just drank a whole bottle of champagne and ate a batch of cookies instead of having dinner.
Apparently Ingmar Bergman says Roy Andersson's commercials (posted above) "are the best in the world".
Accept it.
Labels: BAD DOG, BOOKS MOVIES AND OTHER CULTURALISTICALITIES, DESPERATE AND SAD, MAYBE THE FUTURE WILL BE BETTER, NARCISSISM
3 Comments:
I love the life you breath into my comment section. Thank you.
10:55 AM
sellin!
2:00 PM
hey graydon, good post,
I actually use my "career" in advertising to promote some of the aesthetics I promote in my art. I even ran an art gallery for Nike in Kensington Market!!! That said I rarely listen to critics and I DO sometimes get hate mail.
Commerce is a context just like any other. I believe great art can exist in any context and can probably name a few ads that are actually fantastic works of art.
We should start an Art Ad Agency or AAA and call it a performance art project. Seriously, we'll make money and build cred.
4:36 PM
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