This week's episode was inspired by two different listener questions. Cathie asked whether likability matters when it comes to appreciating art (for example, does it matter that Gauguin might not have been the nicest person?). Meanwhile, Pam asked how much she has to reveal about herself in order to sell her work. We decided it would be interesting to debate this idea of the artist persona and how much it matters. Our discussion begins with great artists who were, let's say, less than perfect. Does the fact that Caravaggio committed at least one murder mean that we can't appreciate his art? If he had been alive today, would he have been shunned by galleries and collectors, thus depriving us of his work and influence? And how much does it matter if we find out that our favourite artists have traits and habits we don't like?

We then go onto to discuss the importance of persona when it comes to selling our own work. How much - if anything - do we need to reveal? How honest do we need to be? Is it enough to simply show our work - or do we need to show more of ourselves? And what are the key messages we should be sending?

Mentioned

Alice's Connected Artist Club https://alicesheridan.com/artists/

Maggi Hambling documentary https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000nx23

Mary Wollstonecraft statue https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/nov/10/mary-wollstonecraft-finally-honoured-with-statue-after-200-years

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Credits

"Monkeys Spinning Monkeys" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License