Notes on self-expression

In “Letters to a Woman Painter” from 1948, Max Beckman writes, “Today it remains urgently necessary to express even more strongly one’s own individuality." If I had read this statement before reading Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland, I would have skimmed the sentence with no reaction. But Bayles and Orland have a different take on modern art as “self-expression." In the middle of the century when Max Beckman was writing, equating art with self-expression was modern, trendy, and gaining gallery recognition, thus making it desirable for emerging or struggling artists to proclaim self-expression as the driving force of their work. However, today the notion of self-expression is more of an inconvenience to both conceptual and natural imagery-focused artists because it puts pressure on personal meaning while the work may be entirely impersonal. A conceptual artist may be experimenting with process and an artist concerned with the natural world may simply be trying to recreate a still life. In both cases, the redundant question, “What does this work mean to you?” becomes not only unnecessary, but also exasperating.