Studio Help: Many Hands Make Good Work
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 by Lucinda M. DuggerWhile in NYC last week, I had the opportunity to visit the painting studio of a quite famous artist. A friend of mine, who has worked in this studio for a number of years, invited me for a tour. The artist was preparing for a show in Berlin, and so his staff was working around the clock to complete the paintings.
My friend worked the overnight shift.
The studio, a multi-room warehouse in Chelsea, hummed like any modern factory. Computers attached to giant printers produced digital images of the preconceived paintings. These prototypes were then taken to one of many ‘color matching’ stations, where artists labored over matching each individual color or variation of the color. Each fragment of the printout was scientifically matched and numbered to correspond with a specific mixed paint color.
The images were then methodically reproduced on large canvases (8’x10’, I think). Artists labored for weeks applying layer after layer to each canvas, painting the image perfectly in both color and style.
The whole experience was a bit surreal, as I had never seen anything like this before. I was even more awestruck when I was told that around 100 artists worked for this one artist. When I’m in a gallery or museum, I don’t normally think about the number of people that are employed by the artist whose name is on the final painting – or photograph for that matter.
When I talked with photographers at the PhotoPlus Expo, I was equally amazed at how many people worked alongside or employed others to help produce their work. In a photography studio, there is often an assistant photographer or a lighting designer. Sometimes there is even a technician. Of course, there may also be a model who sits for the photographer or a mock setting that has been created by a set designer.
Each person has a role in the finished work. Each person aids in the completion and success of the painting or photograph. A simple reminder that though a two-dimensional work may appear flat and contained on that one canvas, its depth and breadth run off the edges through the many lives that have helped bring the piece into existence.
October 28th, 2008 at 10:39 am
Fascinating. I once saw a documentary on PBS about Dale Chihuly, the famous glass-blower; it showed his works on public display across Venice, Italy. I saw an exhibition of his in Knoxville (of all places) and his works hang in the Bellagio in Las Vegas, the convention center in Chicago, and the Borgata in Atlantic City (just some of the places I’ve seen his distinctive works). I learned in the documentary that he designs all of these amazing formations, but he has an army of people who actually blow most of the works; he couldn’t possibly do it alone.