Hey Angèle, great piece, and I am so happy that you mentioned my post about Instagram! What a surprise! Thank you so much. I 100% agree to all of what you say in this essay, and I'm also very tired of this attitude. With the good looks it also comes this idea that we all need to look as if we were rich, that drives me nuts. Women buying new clothes everytime for each opening, and many artists pretending they live from sales and they are super successful. When you ask them really they avoid the subject. When I lived in Berlin, even in shitty alternative young spaces, everyone was a continuous poser. But it was also cool to make fun of posers, ironically. In a way I feel in Spain is in some environments different, cause nobody gets a euro from the arts anyways, hahaha, so the curtain dropped long time ago. And if you are pretending, you look really bad, cause everyone knows. But in other environments is exactly what you mention here, also in Spain. And this sudden alignment with the fashion world is palpable, not only artists behaving like models, but fashion brands getting artsy, which is a way is good thing cause they promote fine arts, but it's also bad cause it frivolizes the art world as the shallow pretty container. But anyways, this is another debate. I just wanted to say thanks, and congratulations on your text, it's wonderful. FINALLY SOMEONE SAID IT!
Omg the class thing is definitely related to the looking hot thing!! It's a piece on its own but yeah, that too, when was the last time we saw artists from the street/working class background break into the art world like we used to? Not to say it happened all the time, but it did sometimes.
It went from rich artists trying to look poor to poor artists trying to look rich.
Thank you so much for putting words to this pervasive phenomenon. I’d like to echo that the hypersexualization of women also tends to feed into this. I am all for women showing skin and being sexually liberated, but on IG in particular, there is a clear requirement of appealing to the male gaze to sell artwork. I whole heartedly agree that we are losing genuine curiosity, creativity, and experimentation at the cost of desirability. As a disabled artist myself, I find myself spending more time and energy on how I look and market myself, than on making my actual art. It is exhausting.
Oh this! Selling yourself before selling the art, especially as a woman. Social media changed the art landscape and made artists's job way more complicated than it already was. Now you have to be a model/influencer, a community manager, a marketing expert, and an artist when you have the time.
Just came across a similar tik tok by a creator who was talking about how we are missing out on so much raw talent and brilliance because people are so obsessed with looks. If we think about if Albert Einstein or Frida Kahlo (who was not conventionally attractive + had multiple disabilities) were coming up in todays generation, they wouldn’t have the same notoriety because people wouldn’t listen or care because they were not pretty.
How much do you think Instagram/TikTok have to do with this? Before those, I saw (or heard, in the case of music) the art before the artist, and sometimes I didn’t even know what they looked like! Now with the necessity to be on image-based platforms for people to find you, there seems to be an impulse to present the self as much as the work. It’s unfortunately performative (also because the algorithms favor faces and people talking into the camera)
One thing I want to push back on is early on when you reference “lust” - I actually don’t think lust has anything to do with it. I wish it did!! Some very sexy people are ugly and just have rizz like nothing else. Other ppl have put this better than me - being too online, too documented, too hyper aware of self and expectations, has flattened much of our present existence. It’s not just casting someone too pretty as Bob Dylan - it’s the need to use a big name for the movie (a complete unknown? Could we have a more ironic title?), to make sequels - to cringe away from risk. It’s riskier to have your own style. To embrace how you look. To not give a fuxk about how you look and be neutral about it! We are social creatures, and social media has made us too aware of too many eyes, boiling us down to a smaller and smaller average.
That said! Unfortunately I stand by the fact that we all have choices. We can all choose to be offline. We can choose to be online and only fw artists we think so genuinely sick work, or are weirdos, and not let other ppl or algorithms choose what gets funneled into our sight. We can choose to stop conforming ourselves. It is in fact the only way for more and more people to learn, or re-learn, that you can. Give yourself an ugly haircut. Dress sloppily, crazily, whatever. Share your work that sucks because you loved making it! Better yet, stop sharing and let people discover it irl, or never at all. Do things without regard for documentation. No one else is gonna come along and free you - fight it!!!!
Yeah you got some interesting points there, with the lack of risks. And yes, that title is a bit ridiculous..
Lust is more about the fact that the people who own the resources and the access, the gatekeepers, will only open the doors if they want to fuck the artist (to put it very simply).
Agreed on the fact that sexyness is more than a pretty face, it's also an attitude, for sure! Let's bring back sexyness diversity!
Brilliant piece. Even as a non-visual artist (poet) the pressure one feels to conjure and maintain an aesthetic that aligns with the “beauty” your work alone should be a sufficient vessel for/object of (a deeper, more pungent kind of beauty) is palpable. You really captured how it hangs around us all like secondhand smoke, how its soot gathers in our lungs when we’re just trying to breathe, to be.
Thank you for reading! The pressure is definitely there for poets as well, I think about Rupi Kaur who, I don't know if she started this "poets who are also very fashionable movement", but I see it too.
I resonated with the title and article so much. I hate how, algorithms have made me viral for stupid minstrel like moments rather than my creative beauty - and the topics my music focuses on. It's so hard to push on when, I'm not as light skinned as Ice Spice - who can get a carpet rolled out for her then complain about Docheii. the film uglies comes to mind - when thinking how we use beauty for social capital.
The "chasing your dreams is inherently uncool" idea reminds me of the idea that the fool is prelude to the king. That you cannot master something without risking, admitting, foolishness first.
This is excellent observation and, although I came up studying music and have since moved to writing, I agree so very much with your perspective. There’s so much more to beauty than the appearance of things! Just for an example, perhaps an extreme one, is Joseph Merrick, more commonly known as the Elephant Man. Despite his obvious disfigurement and poor treatment throughout his life as an eventually abandoned child, circus “freak”, and medical curiosity, the more I learned about him, the more the beauty of his spirit became apparent. There are, of course, many more examples throughout history and from around the world.
One point you made is how we miss out as a species by overlooking or ignoring those who don’t fit accepted standards of beauty or ways of living. I wholeheartedly agree! I’m so glad to see someone else saying this. I do see more open and welcoming places in popular culture (the British comedy scene has become increasingly diverse, for example), so I’m hopeful that things will change.
Anyway, thank you for your work, Angèle!
PS Marina’s article was great; my first read of hers. I found yours through her. 🙏
Indeed the British are very good at showcasing talents with very diverse looks! That's one of the reasons why I really enjoy watching British media, they are normal people and it feels refreshing. And true, there's hope!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and observations. I am also noticing the rigidity of how a "successful" artist needs to present aesthetically. I also think it's worth noting how race, and even more specifically, colorism, impact how certain non-white artists are able to navigate the art world.
What a great piece. I’ll definitely be sitting with this for a while, you made some very valid points. I’m also going to go read the article you tagged because this conversation is very important. We are losing the plot!
Hey Angèle, great piece, and I am so happy that you mentioned my post about Instagram! What a surprise! Thank you so much. I 100% agree to all of what you say in this essay, and I'm also very tired of this attitude. With the good looks it also comes this idea that we all need to look as if we were rich, that drives me nuts. Women buying new clothes everytime for each opening, and many artists pretending they live from sales and they are super successful. When you ask them really they avoid the subject. When I lived in Berlin, even in shitty alternative young spaces, everyone was a continuous poser. But it was also cool to make fun of posers, ironically. In a way I feel in Spain is in some environments different, cause nobody gets a euro from the arts anyways, hahaha, so the curtain dropped long time ago. And if you are pretending, you look really bad, cause everyone knows. But in other environments is exactly what you mention here, also in Spain. And this sudden alignment with the fashion world is palpable, not only artists behaving like models, but fashion brands getting artsy, which is a way is good thing cause they promote fine arts, but it's also bad cause it frivolizes the art world as the shallow pretty container. But anyways, this is another debate. I just wanted to say thanks, and congratulations on your text, it's wonderful. FINALLY SOMEONE SAID IT!
Omg the class thing is definitely related to the looking hot thing!! It's a piece on its own but yeah, that too, when was the last time we saw artists from the street/working class background break into the art world like we used to? Not to say it happened all the time, but it did sometimes.
It went from rich artists trying to look poor to poor artists trying to look rich.
Thank you so much for putting words to this pervasive phenomenon. I’d like to echo that the hypersexualization of women also tends to feed into this. I am all for women showing skin and being sexually liberated, but on IG in particular, there is a clear requirement of appealing to the male gaze to sell artwork. I whole heartedly agree that we are losing genuine curiosity, creativity, and experimentation at the cost of desirability. As a disabled artist myself, I find myself spending more time and energy on how I look and market myself, than on making my actual art. It is exhausting.
Oh this! Selling yourself before selling the art, especially as a woman. Social media changed the art landscape and made artists's job way more complicated than it already was. Now you have to be a model/influencer, a community manager, a marketing expert, and an artist when you have the time.
I completely understand your exhaustion 🖤
Just came across a similar tik tok by a creator who was talking about how we are missing out on so much raw talent and brilliance because people are so obsessed with looks. If we think about if Albert Einstein or Frida Kahlo (who was not conventionally attractive + had multiple disabilities) were coming up in todays generation, they wouldn’t have the same notoriety because people wouldn’t listen or care because they were not pretty.
Oh for sure! Beauty standards as a whole shouldn't even be a thing but today's beauty standards are particularly boring compared to even 20 years ago.
Exactly! Very lackluster
How much do you think Instagram/TikTok have to do with this? Before those, I saw (or heard, in the case of music) the art before the artist, and sometimes I didn’t even know what they looked like! Now with the necessity to be on image-based platforms for people to find you, there seems to be an impulse to present the self as much as the work. It’s unfortunately performative (also because the algorithms favor faces and people talking into the camera)
One thing I want to push back on is early on when you reference “lust” - I actually don’t think lust has anything to do with it. I wish it did!! Some very sexy people are ugly and just have rizz like nothing else. Other ppl have put this better than me - being too online, too documented, too hyper aware of self and expectations, has flattened much of our present existence. It’s not just casting someone too pretty as Bob Dylan - it’s the need to use a big name for the movie (a complete unknown? Could we have a more ironic title?), to make sequels - to cringe away from risk. It’s riskier to have your own style. To embrace how you look. To not give a fuxk about how you look and be neutral about it! We are social creatures, and social media has made us too aware of too many eyes, boiling us down to a smaller and smaller average.
That said! Unfortunately I stand by the fact that we all have choices. We can all choose to be offline. We can choose to be online and only fw artists we think so genuinely sick work, or are weirdos, and not let other ppl or algorithms choose what gets funneled into our sight. We can choose to stop conforming ourselves. It is in fact the only way for more and more people to learn, or re-learn, that you can. Give yourself an ugly haircut. Dress sloppily, crazily, whatever. Share your work that sucks because you loved making it! Better yet, stop sharing and let people discover it irl, or never at all. Do things without regard for documentation. No one else is gonna come along and free you - fight it!!!!
Yeah you got some interesting points there, with the lack of risks. And yes, that title is a bit ridiculous..
Lust is more about the fact that the people who own the resources and the access, the gatekeepers, will only open the doors if they want to fuck the artist (to put it very simply).
Agreed on the fact that sexyness is more than a pretty face, it's also an attitude, for sure! Let's bring back sexyness diversity!
Thank you for this comment 🙏🏾
Brilliant piece. Even as a non-visual artist (poet) the pressure one feels to conjure and maintain an aesthetic that aligns with the “beauty” your work alone should be a sufficient vessel for/object of (a deeper, more pungent kind of beauty) is palpable. You really captured how it hangs around us all like secondhand smoke, how its soot gathers in our lungs when we’re just trying to breathe, to be.
Thank you for reading! The pressure is definitely there for poets as well, I think about Rupi Kaur who, I don't know if she started this "poets who are also very fashionable movement", but I see it too.
excellent piece. the cost of art being beauty is unequivocally ironic.
You summarized it better than I ever could. Thank you for reading 🙏🏾
I resonated with the title and article so much. I hate how, algorithms have made me viral for stupid minstrel like moments rather than my creative beauty - and the topics my music focuses on. It's so hard to push on when, I'm not as light skinned as Ice Spice - who can get a carpet rolled out for her then complain about Docheii. the film uglies comes to mind - when thinking how we use beauty for social capital.
The "chasing your dreams is inherently uncool" idea reminds me of the idea that the fool is prelude to the king. That you cannot master something without risking, admitting, foolishness first.
This reminds me of an article I read called “Everyone's Beautiful and No One is Horny” (?). Love your work. Thank you for sharing!
📌📌📌
Hi Angèle,
This is excellent observation and, although I came up studying music and have since moved to writing, I agree so very much with your perspective. There’s so much more to beauty than the appearance of things! Just for an example, perhaps an extreme one, is Joseph Merrick, more commonly known as the Elephant Man. Despite his obvious disfigurement and poor treatment throughout his life as an eventually abandoned child, circus “freak”, and medical curiosity, the more I learned about him, the more the beauty of his spirit became apparent. There are, of course, many more examples throughout history and from around the world.
One point you made is how we miss out as a species by overlooking or ignoring those who don’t fit accepted standards of beauty or ways of living. I wholeheartedly agree! I’m so glad to see someone else saying this. I do see more open and welcoming places in popular culture (the British comedy scene has become increasingly diverse, for example), so I’m hopeful that things will change.
Anyway, thank you for your work, Angèle!
PS Marina’s article was great; my first read of hers. I found yours through her. 🙏
Indeed the British are very good at showcasing talents with very diverse looks! That's one of the reasons why I really enjoy watching British media, they are normal people and it feels refreshing. And true, there's hope!
Glad you think so, Angèle. Here's to building on that hope!
Oh my dear this is amazing
Oh thank you for reading 🖤🖤
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and observations. I am also noticing the rigidity of how a "successful" artist needs to present aesthetically. I also think it's worth noting how race, and even more specifically, colorism, impact how certain non-white artists are able to navigate the art world.
Ohh yesssss! This definitely needs its own piece on black artists specifically.
the amount of skinny blonde girls that make shitty art but always have a gallery show disturbs me. thanks for writing this
Right? Gallery owners are mostly middle aged men, so, here's why..
What a great piece. I’ll definitely be sitting with this for a while, you made some very valid points. I’m also going to go read the article you tagged because this conversation is very important. We are losing the plot!
Thank you for reading 🖤
I hope you'll enjoy Marina's article as much as I did!