Submitted by Luther
A few years back I undertook some work for someone who is now quite a well known painter, back then he was getting pretty well known but not quite at the level that he is now. It was always clear that he was going somewhere though, he had that gift of the gab, a certain confidence or social skills that put people at their ease when he was taking to them. In fact I often wonder if he talked his way to success, he certainly didn't paint his way there, that was my job! To be fair, the ideas were his, he would knock them up on the computer in an a fairly slick, almost industrial process that was more like a graphic design or advertising studio than most people's conception of the artist's studio. It would be my role to scale these up and paint them up to a stage of near completion with my steadiest hand. At which point he would usually dash off a few finishing touches and sign the piece and then I would ship it off to his dealer. The industrial nature and professionalism of what I did surprises a lot of people that I talk to about my time there, but I guess that artists have always employed assistants or workshops, right back through history so I'm not sure why people are so shocked. Its essentially a branding thing I guess, do top fashion designers actually make their own clothes? Sometimes, but more often than not it's their assistants that undertake the majority of the leg work, and why not? If you don't buy into the whole touch of genius thing then things that can practicably be carried out by skill labourers can be without really affecting the end result in any obvious way. I know to some people that's kind of incomparable with the prices that people pay for these things, I mean if you are buying an original so-and-so, you expect them to have at least toiled a bit to get it to you right? But I don't think that you necessarily should, its the brand that a lot of these collectors are buying into, a commodity like aluminium or timber or something, its an asset in a portfolio that just happens to be one that they can stick on the wall and enjoy too. In that respect its also a status symbol, like a Ferrari or something, but those are still produced in a factory right?
I think that a lot of people thought the recession, the financial crisis and the art price crash was going to be bad news for artists assistants but I reckon that it might have actually done them favour. The artists needed to churn out smaller, more saleable works, more quickly and on a more mass-produced scale and hence they needed their assistants more than ever. I reckon its a combinations of artists assistants and unpaid interns in a lot of galleries and cultural institutions that have got a lot of the art world through this crisis. I don't know if they'll get to reap much of the rewards when it all comes out the other side but maybe a few who work out how to play the game and talk the talk and charm their way up the ladder will. I don't know, I was always a bit too reserved and retiring for that, whenever I used to get taken to these art events (which wasn't that often, although to be fair I did get to make a few) I used to hover in the corner, I didn't want to take any limelight. In hindsight perhaps I should have put myself forward more assertively, it was a great opportunity I guess but although I still make work and exhibit widely I don't think that it was the big break that many people who do it hope it will be. For me I was just grateful to be doing the thing I loved, all be it for someone else. I just wish that I could have maybe got a bigger share of some of the financial rewards that my work produced maybe that's all! I guess things could always be better but on the whole it was definitely a good experience.
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