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David Hockney has apparently had a dig at other modern artists for not doing all the work on their pieces themselves

You'd think that a famous artist like him would be rather more clued up about the history of art and know that there's a long-standing tradition of artists using apprentices to fill in the boring bits of their work, especially in fresco painting, where the paint has to be applied before the plaster dries, so you really need more than one pair of hands involved.

Of course, if the nominal artist isn't doing any of the work himself, that's another matter.

Mood::

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There are 7 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

...and even that wasn't uncommon, as far as I remember. I think it was customary that apprentices signed with their master's name in the middle ages and were trained to do just that either to say "that's the school I come from" or probably simply to get all the work done that his master was paid for. Like oil painting the spoilt brats of some aristocrat or something.

I think it's a matter of tradition and what customers expect. If they knew about it and expected no different, that was ok then. It's different today.

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I think it's a matter of tradition and what customers expect.

Well yes, but how far does it extend?

One of my other LJ friends does a lot of welding work on large metal art pieces. The credit for those pieces goes to the artist who designed them - but often my welding friend will have to do some fairly creative stuff to make the piece work in the way the designer wants it to. Now I'm quite happy that the designer should get a lot of credit for the piece, since they conceived it and it wouldn't have been made without them - but should the welders get credit too, for actually making it work?

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I certainly think the welder deserves credit, too. I mean, you write a book, the author gets printed on the cover, the print and layout goes to the publisher, and the cover artist is named separately. Or look at the many names at the end of a movie. It's about fairness.

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Additional comment: When I see a welded object I stand in awe of the artist because it's a handycraft I can't do. I'll look at it differently from now on knowing that the actual work was maybe done by someone different.

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I think it depends on the artist - there's a chap called Duncan Thurlby who I much admire, and I'm pretty sure he does his own welding, but it seems not everybody does...

I suspect the tradition has carried on a lot more than people realise, it's just that in the fresco painting days it was something everybody involved knew about so nobody thought twice about it...

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I wouldn't object to a sculptor sub-contracting for parts, or for specialist stuff, but I would want them to tell me. If I had the money to buy that sort of thing I'd pay more for a genuine article (eg George Wyllie type guys who really do, do it all) than for someone who just did and assembly job, and considerably more than I would for someone who basically comissioned another artist and then slapped their name on it.

Same with paintings, no objection to an artist who painted the technical bits, and the dramatic bits, but then left the apprentice to fill in the trees and couple of gallons of sky, but I would want to be told. Apart from anything else today's Spotty Apprentice No#3 is tomorrow's Big Name #2 and having an "early" work while s/he was under #foo might be worth a bit more.

It's about disclosure and keeping the customer informed.

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That seems entirely reasonable - I wonder how common it is these days ? In medieval times it was standard practice and since everybody involved in commissioning art knew it, nobody thought twice about it.

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