I’ve barely finished clearing up after my Worcester exhibition today when, as I sat down for a few moments of relaxation with one of the art magazines to which I subscribe and a coffee, I noticed the section advertising forthcoming events. The main interest of this is, of course, the notices of open competitions into which I might submit pieces of my work. I haven’t made anything like a decision as yet, about either of them, but they are both exhibitions for which I’ve had work accepted in the past. Naturally I found my mind turning to the possibility that I might have something to offer them this time around.
As I was mulling over this question it struck me that these two competitions, both fairly prestigious opportunities for successful entrants, will be operating with quite different criteria of what constitutes “good” work. In the case of one of them the focus of the final exhibition will be the quality of work in a particular medium …. in this case, pastels. There will be little attention given by the judges to whether or not the works they select have any great commercial potential. Their purpose will be to further the reputation of pastels as a medium to be taken seriously in the art world more generally. In the other competition I know (from having seen the exhibition of selected work last year) that they will be alert to the saleability of the pieces they choose. It will be important to them that the event is a commercial success, so that the sponsoring body will be able to make a healthy profit from the sale of the pieces on show.
Although in principle the event is open to any medium and any genre, I am prepared to bet good money that the majority of the entries ending up in the final exhibition will be landscape pieces, this being the kind of work which sells most regularly to the general public in this country. I doubt that I will see any portraits, because these are normally commissioned and don’t enter the market generally. Nothing that is technically innovative will be on show, because that would involve taking a commercial risk in an art market that tends to be pretty conservative.
I’ve got a couple of ideas about what I could possibly submit for the pastels competition. One the other hand, I feel very “iffy” about another line I’ve been following, which from the point of view of both its medium (tempera) and its subject-matter might well be viewed as out on a limb when it comes to assessing its commercial potential. I need to think about this one.