Hanna’s Art Blog 3: Going Round in Circles:

Alice Neel was a very social artist who painted portraits. Her apartment was an open house where people came and went freely. Often, she asked random people from the street to sit for her for hours and days as models for her portraits. The portraits are impressive and lively. One day, a journalist walked in and interviewed her and then did a piece on her in the newspaper. This interview was what started her to become famous. She was discovered! I would love to do what she did! I love doing portraits! But I’m a very reclusive person. So, it wouldn’t  work for me to have an open house like she did and thereby be discovered like she was! Another artist, Joan Mitchell, was exhibiting from early on and had solo exhibitions throughout her career. She was well connected in the world of artists, galleries., and museums. I never had this experience or these kinds of connections! My favorite artist,  Cy Twombly, moved from Virginia to Europe, specifically Rome, Italy and became famous there, painting about eight paintings a year and selling them for millions of dollars. But he too was friends with many famous artists from his art school days, and he effortlessly was part of the art scene in both continents. His collector friends, Udo and Annette Brandhorst, bought many of his paintings as well as art pieces of other contemporary artists, and their collection became the foundation for the Brandhorst Museum in Munich, a museum for contemporary art. When I was there, shortly after its opening in 2009, the whole top floor of the museum was filled with Cy Twombly’s monumental paintings! They touched me to tears! Here too I see that I am not connected to the art world like he was! Yet, sometimes I fantasize that I if contacted Cy Twombly’s collectors they would resonate with my art and collect it too! But I know this is pretty unrealistic. I don’t even know if they are still alive! However, I believe that being European myself I could possibly  find more resonance as an artist in Europe! My other favorite artist, Vincent Van Gogh, sold less than a handful of paintings during his lifetime. It was his sister-in-law, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, who, through her late art dealer husband, Vincent’s brother Theo, was connected to the art world, slowly and methodically exhibited Vincent’s paintings throughout Europe and internationally and made sure that the world knew Vincent’s art. Today, his paintings are worth millions! Will there be someone after my death who will find my art worthwhile and will make sure the right people in the world will know about it? For now all I know is that the art is piling up in the storage space, and that I would love to find the right homes and owners for my paintings. There is really no need yet to speculate about what will happen with them after I die!

So, how do artists become well-known? It seems a lot has to do with connections, with being in the right place at the right time, and/or with being socially more extravert. And of course, it has also to do with how much their art touches people, even if sometimes only much later.

I’m thinking I would like to have an exhibit and even be well-known, and I am at times wondering if I should find a gallery that believes in my art. And then again, I don’t want to spend my precious time and  energy on that, and also I’m guessing that it’s the wrong way  for me to go because my art doesn’t fit! So, I get discouraged. And yet, I do want to share my art! But how? Then  hope arises again every time I have a new idea on how to share my art in the world. Then I get discouraged and give up again. Mostly, I just want to paint! I don’t want to spend time marketing my art! …..Can you see how I am going around and around in circles?

Then I let it go again and just paint. No going in circles there. Just painting. Joy. Peace. Contentment. Love. Aliveness. Presence. Bliss. Curiosity. Excitement. No mindfuck at all.