Earl Brunner on wed 17 dec 03
That's about as inconsiderate and unprofessional as it gets. There is
absolutely NO excuse for that kind of behavior......Period. Find a
different gallery AND give us the name. Do the clay buds a favor and
save everyone else some grief.
-----Original Message-----
From: Clayart [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG] On Behalf Of David
Beumee
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2003 9:01 AM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: pots and gallery shows
In april of this year, I asked and received approval for a showing of
my
porcelain pottery at my gallery in Boulder for the month of October. I
prepared 30 major pieces and, upon arriving at the gallery some days
prior to
the show to pick up announcements to distribute, saw that that my name
wasn't
on the invitation. The show had been given to the painter I had been
told I
was to show with, and two of his friends were on the annoncement, both
painters. I was shocked and asked to see the gallery director, who was
not
there, and I asked quietly about the matter, leaving the gallery
extremely
upset. The next day, the gallery director arrived at my studio, as we
had
previously set up an appointment for her to help me pick out the show.
She got
out of her car, hesitant to come in until I made the invitation. She
apologized for her oversite, saying things were busy in the gallery and
she
had forgotten about our arrangement, and then came the bombshell. She
said,
"we don't generally put three dimentional people on the invitations." I
tried
to recover quickly and asked if there were a time in the upcoming year
when I
might be given a show, and she agreed, but has since left the gallery.
Were it ever thus, or is this kind of treatment of potters unusual in
the
gallery setting?
David Beumee
Earth Alchemy Pottery
Lafayette, CO
Craig Martell on wed 17 dec 03
Hello David:
No, this isn't the way a gallery should treat anyone who has been asked to
participate in a show. One man, two person, group exhibit, it doesn't
matter. You are devoting time, money, resources, and creative energy to
make the best work you can for their event. You deserve to be publicized
and represented. You've done your work and their job is to promote you and
anyone else who has taken the time to grace their gallery with work.
The best thing to do is get all this stuff in the bag before you wedge one
pound of clay. You tell them how many pieces you will make, when you will
have them at the gallery, etc. They agree to cover the cost of publicity,
the opening reception, and anything and everything they should do to hold
up their end of things. If they don't agree, find someone who will.
The best venues that I deal with are owned and operated by potters or other
craft people. They treat me well, they pay on time, and they don't give me
anything to feel bad about. That's the way my wife and I run The Fire's
Eye Gallery too. We've been making stuff for almost 30 years and we
appreciate anyone who does. With time, I guess we all edit, and weed out
galleries and shops that give us the blues. It takes time but in the end,
you will be happier.
I'm saddened to hear how you were treated. This has happened to me too and
I didn't like it at all. This gallery in Boulder needs to cultivate some
sensitivity and an appreciation for potters. Either that, or just show
paintings and leave the clay to people who know it's worth.
regards, Craig Martell Hopewell, Oregon
David Beumee on wed 17 dec 03
In april of this year, I asked and received approval for a showing of my
porcelain pottery at my gallery in Boulder for the month of October. I
prepared 30 major pieces and, upon arriving at the gallery some days prior to
the show to pick up announcements to distribute, saw that that my name wasn't
on the invitation. The show had been given to the painter I had been told I
was to show with, and two of his friends were on the annoncement, both
painters. I was shocked and asked to see the gallery director, who was not
there, and I asked quietly about the matter, leaving the gallery extremely
upset. The next day, the gallery director arrived at my studio, as we had
previously set up an appointment for her to help me pick out the show. She got
out of her car, hesitant to come in until I made the invitation. She
apologized for her oversite, saying things were busy in the gallery and she
had forgotten about our arrangement, and then came the bombshell. She said,
"we don't generally put three dimentional people on the invitations." I tried
to recover quickly and asked if there were a time in the upcoming year when I
might be given a show, and she agreed, but has since left the gallery.
Were it ever thus, or is this kind of treatment of potters unusual in the
gallery setting?
David Beumee
Earth Alchemy Pottery
Lafayette, CO
Janet Kaiser on thu 18 dec 03
Sorry to hear you are feeling kicked in the proverbials, David.
Sadly it is not an unique experience for 3D artists, let alone
potters... You know the old "you make the stuff we bump into /
fall over when stepping back to admire the real artwork" stance?
Oh, sure, it is alive and well in the Art World. The whole
attitude is disappointing and frustrating because so many
curators do think in those terms, no matter how much the clay
community scream and shout about making full-blooded Art every
bit as powerful/meaningful as paint sloshed on a canvas... Yeh,
yeh, yeh...
Even Grayson Perry categorically stated, "I am not a potter. I am
an artist" last week... I imagine the Turner Prize will magically
open the doors of galleries otherwise closed to him in the past,
but they will continue to turn their noses up at other, lesser
(ceramic) artists, let alone potters. Like the old proverb: "You
can take a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink".
But please do not think that is how ALL galleries think and work.
There will be one or two around who do at least combine different
media in their exhibitions. 2D and 3D, Pots 'n' Paintings,
Textiles 'n' Tureens... Whatever. Not as cheesy as those titles,
you understand, but you get the idea? They may not know too much
about pots per se, but at least they show willing and will
exhibit what they recognise to be high quality and work strong
enough to hold its own vs the art on the walls.
Believe it or not, that takes some considerable skill and not all
galleries/curators are up to the task. Pots are easily "lost" in
a gallery space, because they are overwhelmed by the other work.
Size, colour, shape... All have to be carefully juxtaposed so
that the one does not detract or distract from the other. So
often I hear people who have just been around a gallery talk
about the 2D, but when I ask about the 3D work which I happen to
be more interested in hearing about myself, they will look
blankly at me. The last time that happened, I howled... They had
only "over-looked" a considerable body of work by one of the most
well-known potters in the UK!
And so there are very, very few galleries (as opposed to shops)
which specialise in ceramics or put it on a par with other media.
Forget the craft versus art debate -- this is fine art versus
decorative art. No good shouting and kicking... That is just the
way it is and the reason so many do the craft fair circuit or
push their studio sales for all they are worth.
If you start out on the gallery trail, you just have to be
extremely selective about the galleries you choose to approach in
the first place. Look at their exhibition history for the past
couple of years and around the space. If you do not see evidence
of 3D (any medium) then forget it. If you see very little
evidence of ceramics, you may find it better to talk to other
local makers about the venue first... If they have exhibited
there or not? What sort of attitude does the gallery have? And
whilst you are at it, are sales and feedback reasonable?
Just because a gallery agrees to exhibit your work, does not mean
it will sell. If the gallery is better known for, say, large
contemporary "office art", then the clients on their mailing list
are not going to get too excited about an exhibition of pots.
Just common sense.
I upset a lot of people a while ago by referring to "little brown
pots". It is my own short-hand for work which (amongst other
things) is extremely difficult to exhibit and promote in a
gallery setting. Let alone sell. And The Chapel of Art is a
"specialist ceramic gallery", were just about anything goes!
All of which is why, if I was sitting down chatting to you over a
beer, I would first be asking you what was the work of those
other artists? Also how well-suited was your work going to be in
relation to the rest of the exhibition? It is extremely difficult
to give an objective answer to that as the maker yourself, but it
is something you have to take into consideration and try to see
from the gallerist's perspective.
As for the "we don't generally put three dimensional people on
the invitations", well there can be a lot of reasons for that.
Numero One reason around here, is that most 3D makers have bloody
useless photographs, even if they have taken any at all over the
past 20 years! I was not offered one single image of any of the
locally made pots currently on exhibition or even other recent
work by those makers... The only reproduceable photos I have at
my disposal are from potters and makers further afield, like
Avril Farley, Janet and Frank Hamer, David and Margaret Frith,
Daiva Kojelyt=E9-Marrow, Jan Beeny... That is about it at
present, but notice that each of those makers is pretty well
established and their work IS on exhibition at galleries all over
the country as well as in books and periodicals.
Not just a paltry couple of examples which can only be left
cowering on a back shelf either. Full displays... Avril`s
maco-crystalline porcelain is twinkling and shining away like
sunlight on frost flowers on an early winter's morn. A beautiful
and uplifting display... No gallerist worth their salt would not
include an image of her work on an invitation. However, they are
not going to send out a photographer to do the honours and had
Avril not provided the photos herself... Well, you get the
picture?
Another reason for 3D not "usually" being included is lack of
layout skills when faced with, say, two paintings and one pot or
a single pot and a painting.
Another is bitchiness and rivalry. You would be very, very
disappointed and probably quite shocked to hear what some
painters or so-called fine artists would say about their work
being placed anywhere near a pot! In print too? Horror of
horrors! An absolute no-no! Before a gallery has to coax a
prima-donna artist out of a severe attack of the sulks, they will
take the easiest way out of the situation. As there is a pretty
well-established precedent for this type of behaviour (and
believe me there truly is!) guess who will be ditched before they
even fire the starting gun? An unknown potter too boot? No big
name? Well forget it...
So take heart, David! You do not have to write off the whole
gallery scene because of this one bad experience, but you will
have learned a little from it. Maybe if you first accept you are
not going to be on the invitation, but hey! at least you are
showing your work could be a good enough start? A foot in the
door? And I hope I have cast a little light on the situation for
you? YMMV and all that jazz, but there are all sorts of ins and
outs to conquer when it comes to peddling pots. Just as many as
making them!
Bon chance!
Janet Kaiser -- off for a Doppler Test tomorrow... Good old Doc
couldn't find a pulse in my feet! No wonder they look dead...
Cold and numb like an Eskimo's ... too!
*** IN REPLY TO THE FOLLOWING MAIL:
>In april of this year, I asked and received approval for a
showing of my
>porcelain pottery at my gallery in Boulder for the month of
October. I
>prepared 30 major pieces and, upon arriving at the gallery some
days prior
>to the show to pick up announcements to distribute, saw that
that my name
>wasn't on the invitation.
> She apologized for her oversite, saying things were busy in the
gallery and she
>had forgotten about our arrangement, and then came the
bombshell. She said,
>"we don't generally put three dimentional people on the
invitations."
>Were it ever thus, or is this kind of treatment of potters
unusual in the
>gallery setting?
*** THE MAIL FROM David Beumee ENDS HERE ***
***********************************************************
The top posted mail was sent by Janet Kaiser
The Chapel of Art : Capel Celfyddyd
8 Marine Crescent : Criccieth : Wales : UK
Centre of Excellence for The Arts
Home of The International Potters' Path
Tel: ++44 (01766) 523570 http://www.the-coa.org.uk
Open: 13.00 to 17.00hrs : Tuesday to Saturday
************** AVG Virus Protected ********************
sdr on thu 18 dec 03
David said:
....upon arriving at the gallery some days prior to
> the show to pick up announcements to distribute, saw that that my name
wasn't
> on the invitation. The show had been given to the painter I had been told
I
> was to show with.....
Galleries can be, and often are, remarkably rude to the artists. And,
often, 3-D artists are least valued. However, many galleries do know
which side their bread is buttered, and welcome ceramics exhibitions
because 1) traffic picks up enormously; b) they actually SELL a lot of
the work.
The University of North Texas gallery has been the setting for the
Ceramics USA show for several years now, and it gets more traffic
and MANY more sales than any other exhibit all year. BUT - the
gallery director hates the show, dislikes ceramics and potters generally,
and would not put the show on at all if the Dean did not demand it
(contributors to the School of Art love the show, and money comes
in, attention for the ceramics program, etc).
It's a pity re: your bad experience. But don't let it disturb you more
than it need. Your value and your work are not diminished by the
behavior of idiots.
regards
Dannon Rhudy
Lee Love on thu 18 dec 03
David,
Sorry to hear about your bad experience.
My experience here in Japan is very new. But in my two
experiences, a contract was involved with laid out the responsibilities
and expectiations of both the gallery and the artist. Here in Japan,
there is not much of a distinction between potter and painter. Actually,
my Jean's prints and monotypes piggybacked on my functional work.
At woodblock print club today, we looked over the agreement.
Our Sempai, Murai-san, speaks pretty good english and translated and wrote
out everything for Jean and I. There are at least 4 of us in the club,
who are potters. So our club's spring show is going to have woodblock
prints on the walls and pottery on the tables. Only three of us will
show potter. One of the three will show both. The potter who is the
wive of the master kilnbuilder will only show pots and not prints. I am
just learning, so I won't show prints until next time. Our teacher is also
a potter, but birds build a nest in his noborigama and he doesn't want to
disturb them. He has mentioned that he would like to build a smaller
kiln.
I don't think this is a craft vs. art issue. The gallery
behaved in an unprofessional way. Next time, make sure everything is
layed out on paper.
--
Lee In Mashiko, Japan
http://Mashiko.org
$B1W (B Mashi = storehouse
$B;R (B ko = little
My main personal stamp is:
$BM{ (B ri, Chinese pronunciation li It can also mean sumomo, or western plum
tree. Literally, it is the character for tree over the character for
little
Snail Scott on thu 18 dec 03
At 07:40 PM 12/17/03 -0800, you wrote:
>...the gallery director...said,
>"we don't generally put three dimentional people on the invitations"...
>...is this kind of treatment of potters unusual in the gallery setting?
NOT standard, and not acceptable! And puzzling, too.
Whether a gallery sees pottery as a 'second-class'
artform or not, if it sells for them, they'll give
it display space, and promotional attention. If it
doesn't sell for them, it'll get neither. The notion
that they'd show the work, but not publicize it, is
faintly bizarre. Are they thinking that they'll
bring in the people to see the paintings, and expect
them to buy un-looked-for pottery once they're there?
It can be a tough graphic-design challenge, to put
together a postcard for a multi-person exhibition,
and even tougher if some of the images are of 3-D
objects, but the usual 'easy out' is to put NO
photos on the card, and use text, graphics or a
picture of the gallery instead.
The fact that your NAME was omitted is the relevant
part. Names aren't a graphic-design issue. They
apparently took the show away from you, and were too
chicken-hearted to tell you to your face. (They were
still willing to show the work, though, and to collect
their percentage on it?) I can understand them
forgetting that you had a show lined up. (Truly, I
can...things can be honestly confused in a verbal-
agreement situation, when stuff doesn't get written
down. Unprofessional, but plausible.) But the
statement that they wouldn't have put you on the
card anyway is inexplicable and disturbing.
Demand equal treatment in the future, and a specific
show date IN WRITING, with some statement of the
number (and type) of other artists involved (if any)
and who pays for what. It doesn't need to be an
iron-clad legal contract, but the existence of an
agreement on paper is a wonderful aide-memoire to
those who (intentionally or honestly) forget. If
they refuse, you may have to decide whether to keep
that gallery as a sales outlet even without formal
shows (and respect), or to take your work elsewhere.
(My preference: don't tell 'em to get stuffed until
you have another gallery lined up. At that point
you've got real bargaining power, AND a fall-back
position.)
-Snail
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