Jan Hendriks

About the artist and his work

Thus, (… ) critics tended to instruct the public “how to look at a painting, rather than how to interpret its subject”. This implied that, from now on, any critical judgment had to overcome an uncertainty or indeterminacy that was of a more fundamental nature than before. The question raised was no longer ‘What does this painting tell us?”, but “How is this a good painting?” or even “How is this a painting?"

In the twentieth century this uncertainty became more or less endemic. Regardless of their authorial position, artists were affected by it just as much as critics and other viewers.  Especially since the 1960s, the uncertainty of interpretation has shifted from the domain of painting — a recognisable, technically delineated discipline — to a generic field in which practitioners call themselves neither painters, sculptors nor photographers, but simply “artists”. The crucial question is no longer “How is this a painting?” but “How is this a work of art?”

As long as a work is in production, the artist can decide autonomously on any artistic parameter. He can feel that the work is his, and only his. Yet once it is finished and put on display, the work will slip away from his control. The artist will still be seen as the author of the work and therefore be held responsible, but responsible for what? The question of what the work purports, what it means and what it refers to, what its merits and weaknesses are — or even what the work is and what it does — can only be answered by individual members of the public. The viewer is required to take responsibility for the interpretation of the work, as the interpretation can never be taken for granted. Thus artists are unable to control the reception and “afterlife" of their work. They may offer their own interpretation, but that will count as just one possible reading out of many. They are not in a privileged position to decide the meaning of their artistic output. In terms of Luhmann’s theory, the artist is a “second-order observer” on a par with any other viewer of the work.

Camiel van Winkel, 2012 (from his book: "During the Exhibition the Gallery Will Be Closed" Valiz, Amsterdam, pp 62-63)

The control that artists have over their work is at once unrestricted and minimal. During the creative process, they can  consider every option and take all the decisions themselves; they can determine how the work is to be made and where it will be presented. But as soon as the work is finished, it no longer seems to be their own. The moment they step into the limelight with their work, it begins to slip away and to alienate itself. Or, worse still, the work is already detaching itself from them even while they are still making it; it happens as soon as they step back to contemplate and evaluate what they have done “as if through someone else’s eyes”. It is impossible for artists not to anticipate the reaction of the public at some point and to some degree or not to determine their attitude towards the expectations that people have of them.

Camiel van Winkel, 2012 (from his book: "During the Exhibition the Gallery Will Be Closed" Valiz, Amsterdam, p 210)