Perceptions of Visual Artists and Their Careers
Artistsā lives are fascinating, complex and inspiring. Their āinner driveā and ambition bring out the key characteristics of artistic production , informing the artistsā image and reinforcing the myth surrounding their identity and behaviour . This book concentrates on visual artists based in Saxony , one of the five East German LƤnder and takes a fresh look at the intricacies of their careers, against the backdrop of the cultural, social and political changes triggered by German unification . It focuses on the perceptions and beliefs of individual artists, how these developed over time and how they are reflected in the contemporary cultural policy agenda. The study considers approximately the last 70 years, as covered in the lifetime of the oldest participating artists, situating them at the crossroads of ideological change as experienced through German unification in 1990. It covers how the artistsā upbringing and professionalisation were shaped under the ideological and political umbrella of the German Democratic Republic (GDR ), as well as their positioning in the democracy that was adopted after the collapse of the communist regime . Every book is unique but this monograph is a first in cultural policy studies surveying the identity and careers of East German visual artists as a longitudinal study following unification . As a result it introduces memory as a new perspective for cultural policy research while merging identity , myth and memory into an interwoven and fluid approach to capture the career trajectories of artists under the new framework of the professional class .
The title Artistsā Voices may at first reading be misleading as voices /sounds may not be immediately appropriate when analysing the careers of artists who embrace the visual. But instead of arguing about the fluidity of the senses as expressions within the arts or compiling a book of drawings, which would be outside my area of expertise, I settled on the notion of voices for a number of different reasons.
First, the results of this study show that not being listened to or hardly being listened to is what artists voiced consistently as a concern and one that resulted in misunderstandings and misinterpretation on their behalf. Hidden behind the frame and prominence of the visual expertise, the complexities of artistsā careers are embedded in the large-scale transformation that followed German unification . Starting with an upbringing and then embarking on a career under a totalitarian regime , followed by having to learn how to behave and operate in a democracy would be challenging enough, but having to deal with this on their very doorstep adds further complications. While multiple support systems were developed (see Chapters 5 and 6) and then implemented in cultural policy terms as part of the restructuring programmes after unification , these policies addressed the most urgent matters, leaving no time for in-depth engagement with the artists themselves. Later on, it was the ācan-do attitudeā of the transformation process that brushed aside the quiet and suppressed voices . Additionally, artists become entangled in polarised East āWest controversies early on in the transformation process , which overshadowed any ālisteningā projects. Over the years, artists expressed their concerns and demanded recognition , respect and reconsideration from the different stakeholders who were involved in art practices. But who would listen to them? This book is not about justification, but it does discuss and question approaches of justice and recognition throughout. As a result, a deep listening practice gathered from the narrative interviews carried out in this study has been turned into cultural policy recommendations in the concluding chapter.
Additionally, while I was writing the final parts of this book, politics in the form of the debates around the German parliamentary election results of 2017 provoked a painful comparison. The political media discourse mirrored a similar sentiment, and the notion of not being heard or listened to has been used to explain the surge of votes for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) . In Saxony , the home region of the artists in this study, the AfD became the second strongest party, gaining 25.7% of the votes, behind only the Christian Democratic Party . The underlying reason for this political shock was believed to be the disillusionment of East German voters, who chose the protest vote in the hope that politicians would listen to their concerns. They linked their sentiment to the recent arrival of migrants who, as welcomed as they were by large parts of the population and by leading politicians, ignited feelings of jealously among some of the East German population. The new debate about migration rendered the focus on unification in previous debates as finished. Petra Kƶpping, the current Integration Minister in Saxony (cited in HƤhnig 2017) quoted anecdotal evidence from her campaigning tour around Saxony as summarised in the slogan āIntegriert doch erstmal uns!ā ( We [East Germans] should be integrated first), emphasising that some sections of voters felt they had not yet been integrated into a unified Germany and this protest vote was a renewed attempt to raise their voices . The celebratory speeches on the occasion of the 27th anniversary of German unification in October 2017 tried to address these concerns, but at the time of writing talk remains the primary reaction.
The second reason that makes Artistsā Voices a meaningful title refers to the discourse surrounding the issue of the creative labour force and captures a concern that goes beyond the remit of German unification . Between the mainstream discourse of the creative industries and the increasing volume of writing on creative labour , the life, identity and career of artists in the traditional sense have been given little attention by either policy makers or critical researchers. While the growing critique of the nature of creative labour focuses on the issues of inequalities of unpaid work, freelance status and reduced social security rights , this book acts as a counterweight to previous publications and draws scholarly attention to artistsā career development and the continuous professionalisation process. It takes into account aspects of precarity , but views these as related to career development. It discusses the implications for the artistic profession across art fields, but pays particular attention to visual artists.
The third reason for focusing on artistsā careers and their profession connects the work of art to the artists. A seemingly obvious choice, but products such as works of art have also become marginalised in the creative industries , along with the artist as the producer. Chris Bilton (2017) argues in his book The Disappearing Product that in creative industries marketing , the old gatekeepers (critics, dealers and publishers) have been replaced by the new intermediaries, namely the large Internet-based businesses such as Google, Facebook and Amazon. Equally, galleries have adapted their hanging and lighting arrangement of art works to aid photography with mobile devices. The photograph is taken to memorise the experience of the viewer and for instant distribution on social media, as a result of which it reduces the work of art to a mere illustration of this moment. Museum shops such as those in the Tate Modern or the Victoria and Albert Museum in London have become shopping destinations, marginalising art exhibitions as convenient and fitting backdrops. Content and, as a consequence, the content producer are marginalised in order to serve the context. Bilton asserts that, āthe value of these products and the producer has been dispersed across a much wider range of services, applications and experiencesā (2017, p. 2). Furthermore, more and more art projects favour participatory approaches, in which audiences share the production , distribution channels and copyrights, and not just for funding reasons. Consequently, definitions of wha...