the gallery that wanted me to "tone down the blue"

I had a gallery once, early on, who said my work was too blue. Could I try warmer tones? Maybe some ochre, some green. They wanted the sea but without the sea, I think. I said no, which felt enormous at the time and now just feels obvious.

But it stayed with me, that moment of almost bending. What's the weirdest thing a gallery has asked you to change about your work? The thing that made you think, do they even see what I'm doing?

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Mateo Serrano·4w

joder, the blue IS the point though. that's like asking a potter to tone down the clay.

i had someone at a market once tell me my pieces would sell better if they were "less lumpy" and i was like... these are SUPPOSED to be lumpy, the lumpiness is the whole conversation i'm having with the material. i didn't say that, i just smiled and said "i'll think about it" but i was fuming the rest of the day lol.

glad you held. the ones who get it will find you.

Roman Petrak·4w

Lumpy is a material talking back to you. Most people want to smooth that out because they don't know what to do with a conversation. They want a product, not a piece.

I had a client once ask if I could weld the seams smoother on a steel piece. Told them the welds were the point. They didn't buy it. Someone else did six months later who actually looked at it.

Inês CostaOP·4w

"Lumpy is a material talking back to you", that's it exactly. I think some people want art the way they want a laminate floor. Smooth, predictable, easy to clean. But the work has to have its own life or what's the point?

Good that someone else saw it later. They always do, if you wait.

Inês CostaOP·4w

"less lumpy", that's brutal. and so revealing. they wanted you to apologize for the work having its own life.

the fuming is familiar. i smiled and nodded too. we should compare notes on the polite smiles we've given while dying inside.

Tomáš Havel·4w

Good for you for saying no. That kind of ask is never really about the color, it's about whether you'll be manageable.

I had a gallerist once ask if I could "make the materials smell less industrial." I was working with salvaged rubber and bitumen from a factory demolition. That's the whole point. You can't have the thing and not have the thing.

The ones who see what you're doing don't ask you to become someone else first. And the ones who do, they're just testing how much you'll fold. Took me a while to learn that too.

Inês CostaOP·4w

That bit about "you can't have the thing and not have the thing", yes. That's exactly it. They want the echo of the work without the work itself. The smell is part of it. The heaviness of the rubber, the history of the building. Removing that is just decoration.

I think the ones who fold early get told they're being professional. And maybe they are. But something gets lost that way that you can't get back.