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Artist Statement for Matt Sesow
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Matt Sesow: "i wish i had the patience with myself to do detail. somedays i find i can calm my art, but usually the paintings come out as a rush of emotion and the confusion comes thru my work with disjoint lines. i guess my first reaction is that i have never been comfortable with people calling me an 'outsider' .. i was first labeled an outsider by an art agent that bought my first work. i'd rather like to glue myself to other self taught artists such as van gogh and gauguin before the usual list of folk artists that seem to be the rage with so many. my heroes in the art world are the misfits like bacon and basquiat. i seem to associate with them because of their outsider (social) status.
the hirshorn museum here in dc has quite a few dubuffet works hanging. i find myself quickly walking past them. i can't seem to understand why somebody would 'try' to paint that way. i stare for several minutes at the DeKooning and Bacon room just a few feet away. their emotion comes thru as honesty... to me dubuffet was trying to be a clown... like a pop music babe lip-synching at the super bowl. i don't know much about him, and i am sure he created some great work... but from what i have seen in person at the hirshorn, compared with the other works in the museum, i make my opinion. i must be jealous of his success.
as far as art brut goes, i don't think i can be considered classic 'art brut', and i suppose none of the living artists can be. i am currently trying to define something that is different from 'outsider' and 'art brut' to label myself. i know it may never happen, but i think my education and experience put me in a different group from what the outsider collectors collect. i like to be political and enjoy science... i have a BS in computer science... about half of the people that buy my art haven't heard of outsider art.
i have met many 'trained' artists that seem angry at the success of the outsiders... but i think the prolific nature of the outsider is more relevant and a perfect fit to the contemporary mass production and consumption of western civilization. it will be the outsiders that have adapted and evolved over the next 10 or so years that will help define what this all means and what is created. i'm fairly doubtful that artists that recycle their art over and over will survive as artists... their initial appeal will be lost in the overcrowded field of selftaughts and outsiders. our modern society embraces everybody in getting their 15 minutes of fame. i think almost anybody with paint nowadays can get recognized...
i hope the next big thing in art will include outsiders, self taughts, and trained artists. but the thing we will all share in common is intelligence and an honest critique of modern western society, with all it's excesses, triumphs, greed, and ignorance. i am confident the next thing, and we are ready for the next thing, will be defined and controlled by the artists, and not the financially motivated traditionals. the art and the artists will speak for themselves... more classic in a socialist sense, not so much of the capitalist greed that motivates much of the 'what's hot' in art. the middle man will be less important, and the fans and critiques of art will grow to include everybody with an internet connection. our feedback will be immediate... the poseurs will be weeded out and ignored.
thanks for reading...
my best... let's keep in touch"
matt
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