Dump your art.

November 24, 2014

There are arguably more people making art now than ever before. You can’t move for the stuff and most of it is bad art.  Eg. Since the bbc featured the open entry art exhibition, the Royal Academy Summer Show, the application has risen from something like 5000 works to over 20,000. So many the RA has no room to store them so the first round is now judged online via laptops.  Most of these artist are untrained. I know what some of you are thinking. Some great artists had no academic training? Sure. But they are rare. It’s like saying my uncle Reg smoked 50 fags a day, never got cancer and died at 110 yrs old. For every uncle reg there are thousands dying of lung cancer every day. You’d be daft to use Reg’s example  as a reason to carry on smoking.  If you’re serious and good at your art how do you get it seen above the sea of dross?

Could there be a kitemark for art?  How would it be judged?  I have a suggestion:

THE DUMP TEST

Take your art to the local tip. Throw it on the pile. If it blends right in and doesn’t stand out like a sore thumb then chances are your art is rubbish.

ARTIST