Marketing Mondays: 10 Tips For Writing a Clear Artist Statement

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Last year in this column I wrote about a new way of thinking about the artist statement. I talked about keeping it short and avoiding artspeak, but mostly I focused on the presentation of the document. My suggestion was to give it a title, since everyone knows it’s an artist statement, and more importantly, to give it an image. Use the  page. 

What I didn’t do was talk much about the statement itself. I just assumed that after art school everyone has figured out how to write one. But I got a lot of requests to talk about the writing.


This is a recent statement. I'm not just telling you about my work, I'm showing it to you, too

So, OK, let me put my editor’s cap on—I wore one for two decades in my day job—and offer you these 10 tips:

1. Start with good work

That's the basis, because all the explication in the world won't make it better. As a corollary, you also need good images since that’s the way your good work will be seen by dealers and curators until the studio visit or the gallery exhibition.

2. Write about it in plain English, in your own voice

The common wisdom is that your work should speak for itself, but if you want it to be understood on your terms, you have to speak for it. When you aren’t there to speak for it, your statement does. Eventually your dealer will speak on its behalf, or a curator, but even they will be helped by what you have to say about it.

3. Keep it brief, up to three short paragraphs (about 150 words)Some artists have taken an unconventional stance—a poem, a list, an anecdote. Well, OK, there are many ways to convey what you wish to say. However, I’m not a fan of using quotes by other artists, writers or philosophers. Considering how little time a reader will spend with the statement—maybe a minute, but more likely just a few seconds—why have the takeaway be someone else’s words?  (Then there’s the belligerent, “If you can’t understand it, I can’t help you.” That’s an art school posture. Say something.)

4. What is your work about?

What themes, issues or ideas are you addressing? You may allow your feeling or emotion to come through, and you may align yourself esthetically with a particular artist or school, but keep your opinion out of it; that’s a job for the critic or essayist. So while you may think you are a worthy successor to Mike Kelley or Louise Bourgeois, or that you're the art world’s next Cindy Sherman, allow Jerry or Roberta or one of their colleagues to make that pronouncement.

5. Why are you doing it?

Yeah, yeah, you’re making art because you have to create. Now tell us something we don’t know about the work. How does it relate to a previous body of work? How does it respond to a situation or movement? Why is it coming out of you in this way at this time? Ideally—and without being pompous about it—you will help the reader understand where the work fits into landscape of contemporary art. 

6. How are you doing it?  

If you address this question, don’t get bogged down. If your work is process intensive, or if you work with an unusual technique, acknowledge it, explain it simply and directly (if you think it needs explaining) and then move on.

7. Mention medium if it’s relevant

I see this with newbies, with artists working in a process-intense or technically demanding medium, or with mediums that are unusual. But keep this thought in mind: The medium is simply the means to express your ideas. It’s not the reason for the work. Silverpoint, for instance, has a long history, but you are a contemporary artist, not Leonardo. Encaustic is luminous and beautiful, but it doesn't have magical powers; it's just pigment suspended in wax. If your medium is talking to you, talk to a therapist.

8. Edit what you’ve written

Edit it again. Put it down, then come back and edit it once more. You not only want to catch the typos, you want to smooth out the phrases that cause a reader to stumble.

9. Ask another artist to read it for you

That person should be able to read through it once, in two or three relaxed breaths, and understand exactly what you mean. If they have to re-read it to get it, or if they don’t know what you are talking about, go back to Step 2.

10. Get good at it

The statement speaks on your behalf, so it will need to change as the work develops. And your work will continue to develop for your entire life.

As an ongoing project, read about art in various literary forms:

. First-person comments: See how artists let you into their work via statements or interviews. The best and clearest statements are not just easy to read, they convey a lot of information gracefully and economically. 
. Reviews: Critics write objectively and analytically. Criticism should be more challenging than an artist’s statement. Someone else besides the artist is looking at and thinking about the work.
. Essays: These are think pieces. Essayists typically balance observation with critical thinking, often connecting the dots between artists and/or genres. If you're hiring someone to write an essay about your work, choose the writer carefully. If your work is included in a catalog essay for en exhibition, make sure the writer has your statement (or make sure it's accessible on line).

. Features: A feature writer may incorporate all of the above in some measure, typically in a more conversational tone, with personal facts, and typically with pictures.

. Profiles: Typically brief, it offers an aspect of an artist’s life and work. There’s usually less about the what and why, more about the who.  

. Biography: This is the province of art historians, who will offer the full view, warts and all. (Different animal: If your dealer or a curator asks you to provide a bio, it's a resume in narrative form. Info here.)

. Academic writing: Thesis writing is its own genre. Stay away from it unless you are working toward a degree.

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