Art Manifesto

When I was doing my art foundation a tutor gave us a project one day of writing down our internal art rules and writing them out as if we were creating an art manifesto by which all art must be created. I was the one who came in with screeds of rules, and although little came of it at the time, this felt like a trigger point for me, and something of a revelation. I realised that I already had a considerable internal manifesto, and I have often thought of this and reconsidered my rules. These rules are often inverted, tested and broken, however, the more I define them to myself, the clearer is my artistic intention to myself, especially if I consciously ponder such ideas while I am engrossed in making work.

This is the beginnings of my Art Aesthetic Manifesto.

Some rules include:

Work must look effective from near, middle distance and afar.

Work must look effective upside down as well as right way up.

Art must be the right size for itself, whether small or large or human scale.

Art must fit into resources available.

Art must be translatable into black and white or colour.

Art must either – have strong contrast, and well placed areas of light and shade to emphasise these, or encompass a washed out, barely there aesthetic.

Things must be placed dramatic centre, with infinite disembodied black around or things must be off centred so that composition is imbalanced, or things must be offstage, as if they are about to happen or have just happened.

If seams show, they must be part of the artwork.

Things must be done as best as possible – precisely by hand is better than a machine finish.

These rules are immutable and yet changeable. There can be no cheating! If a rule does not seem to be working, it must be remade, or a new rule made.

26th November 2012

I further realise that I already have other lists and writings to add to my art manifesto, which I would like to add here. Some visual examples would also make sense.

I do like the idea of artists' manifestos. It seems like a previous idea, although I'm sure it's all still going on somewhere, but one thinks much more of late 19th century to mid 20th century artists - brotherhoods and earnest fellowships. I have never been too much of a collaborative artist or person, and I have never yet met anyone with whom my ideas about art so concur that I could write anything other than a personal manifesto.