I’m in Tate Modern looking at a Picasso painting.
There’s nothing extraordinary about this—you’ll often find me in a museum looking at art—except I’m looking at the work through a protective acrylic panel that prevents me from REALLY seeing the brush marks, and despite the anti-glare claims that I’m sure the manufacturer gave the Tate, there is a slight reflection that further distorts the already distorted features of the portrait I’m studying.
It’s common to find legacy paintings protected under glass or acrylic nowadays. Usually, the protective panel is slipped under the frame, if there is one, but in this particular exhibition several paintings are completely encased in a thick acrylic box that is screwed over the work and bolted onto the wall.
And I ask myself:
Who decides which art pieces should be protected?
Which artists are considered to “matter”?
Why do some works have protection (it would “matter” if they were damaged) and others don’t?
I imagine it wasn’t the Tate or whoever owns the art that made the final decisions. Although I’m sure both agreed and perhaps even insisted on the protection, most likely it was the insurance companies who took on the liability for damage to these uber-valuable works that demanded the screens.
I understand the need to add a protective screen over art. The number of protestors damaging artworks has increased this last few years, but as I walk through the galleries I find myself distracted by the game of Why is THAT piece protected and not that one?
This little backstory is a nifty introduction to the third point in my self-designed artist manifesto: PROTECT WHAT MATTERS.
We all have aspects of our creative practice that are core to our well-being and “success” but sometimes we may let them slide due to external pressures (social media, gallery contracts etc) or internal insecurities (comparison with others, fear of rejection).
The manifesto prompt ‘Protect What Matters’ invites you to think about the aspects of your art practice that YOU would (metaphorically) place behind a protective screen if you had to.
What matters to you?
How do you protect what matters?
One way I protect what matters to me is to put my most original, vulnerable, and raw work behind a paywall.
There’s no gentle way of walling off sections of my writing with Substack, the app I’m using to deliver these messages, so please forgive the large block that appears below asking you to become a paid subscriber, if you’re not one already.
Of course, I’d love you to join me behind the paywall but I know there are a gazillion reasons why that may not be possible for you. If the Substack gods are on our side, you may see a one-time offer to hop over the wall.
Know that I honour the exchange of value in this space; that you trade your attention for my words; and that some of you trade coins for additional words. Whichever side of the wall you’re on; you are deeply appreciated and loved.
Until next time, fabulous free readers (now known as FFRs!)
JC
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Private View to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.