One is Not Enough

Ivan Karp, who worked with the famed gallerist Leo Castelli in the 1960s and later owned OK Harris Gallery in SoHo, used to say when an artist brought work for review, “show me ten.” There are several reasons why it is a good idea to make ten.

The first reason Ivan may have asked for ten is to focus on the artist’s process. If Ivan was going to sell artist’ work, then he needed to know that the artist understood how to make the work they were making. As blunt and cold as this sounds, given the romantic ideas floated around about artists expressing themselves, if artists can’t do ten, then they don’t understand what they are doing. If the artist doesn’t have a vision of an outcome, then the artist may dismiss a consideration of process because it interferes with the “creative spirit” and the artist will have a great deal of difficulty making ten.

Having a clear endgame is important because there are many moments during the act of painting and drawing when a work will appear integrated, and a set of choices will seem “good” and “organized.” There will be other times when choices will appear “bad” and “chaotic.” If there is no vision or endgame, then these flirtations and crushes with what may look good now can pass for more than what they are. The temptation to stop whenever it looks good is a distraction, a fantasy. The temptation to stop when it looks bad is equally a distraction. The goal is NOT to make a good painting or a bad painting. The goal is to make the painting the artist wants to make. And to do that the artist needs to develop and understand process, and endgame.