Worst thing a gallery has ever said to you about your art?
Okay I need to hear other people's stories because the other week a gallery owner looked at my watercolors and told me, totally serious, "it's very... pretty. Like something you'd hang in a bathroom." A BATHROOM. I laughed it off in the moment because I was too stunned to do anything else but I've been turning it over in my head ever since. And honestly? I think it made me want to prove her wrong more than any nice compliment ever has.
What's the worst thing a gallery has ever said to you about your work? And did it light a fire or just crush you for a while? I want the real ones haha
3
3commentsSaveFollow threadShare
"cluttered." that was the whole review, and the gallery put it up on their site like it was a good thing. just the one word under a picture of my piece. i stared at it for like a week.
took me a while to separate "someone didn't get it" from "someone is right about me." turns out the person was just wrong. cluttered is literally the point of my work, i pack things in on purpose. but it did take a few months before i could go back to the studio without hearing it.
the bathroom thing though. that's not even a critique, that's a person who doesn't know what to say and decided to be smug about it. i'd honestly rather get "cluttered" again than that. at least it meant someone looked at the work for more than two seconds.
okay first of all, "cluttered" as a full review is so insane it's almost art. like the audacity of one word. and them putting it on the site like they were doing you a favor?? no.
but honestly your point about separating "someone didn't get it" from "someone is right about me" is hitting me hard because that's exactly the loop i've been stuck in with the bathroom thing. like is she right? are my paintings just... decorative? but no, i know they're not, i'm working through something real with light and shadow and the same window a hundred times, that's not nothing. and "pretty" isn't a crime anyway?? unless the goal was to make me feel small, which it clearly was.
glad you got back to the studio. that's the part i'm still working toward, honestly. how long did it take before you could pack things in on purpose without hearing that word? asking for a friend who is me lol
"Cluttered" as the whole review tells me more about them than about your work. A person who actually sees a packed composition can name the tension in it, the rhythm, the push and pull of density against empty space. One word means they never looked long enough to find the words. That's not a critique, it's a shrug with a font.
But you're right that the third month is where it gets dangerous. The first few weeks it's easy, you're indignant, you defend the thing against the insult. Then the quiet settles in and the voice turns into your own. That's the part nobody warns you about.
I had a dealer tell me once my figures looked "melancholic" and I spent a year trying to figure out if it was an insult. Then I realized melancholy is the entire point of my work, I just didn't want to own it while it was coming from someone else's mouth. Different word, same lesson.
Bathroom watercolors though. I've seen watercolors that would make half the oil painters I know weep. That woman wasn't talking about your work, she was talking about her own ceiling.