What is the Role of the Artist’s Intention in Art?

Tracey Emin visiting her work titled My Bed

When an artist produces his work, he has a unique intention behind. But how important is it that the audience actually perceives or understands the artist’s ideas and intentions behind the artwork? Our Real Life Situation, with which I will be investigating this question, is the artwork called My Bed by Tracey Emin, it consists of the artist’s bed filled with signs of drug, and sex abuse, and was exhibited at Tate gallery in 1999. My perspective is that while the artist’s original intent is important in the sense that it helps improve one’s reading of the work, the viewer’s interpretation and artistic experience will always be affected by his personal bias. Since the goal of Art is to produce a reaction from the viewer, and that reaction is subjective to each individual, the artist’s original intent to be understood should not be of ultimate importance, rather, the interpretation the viewer will produce from it.

Reactions to My Bed could vary, and whether it matches Emin’s vision is irrelevant. Emin is a confessional artist, and in this piece she was showcasing the reflection of a difficult time in her life, yet her view on it was positive, she stated “And I thought, this wouldn’t be the worst place for me to die; this is a beautiful place that’s kept me alive.”.

“And I thought, this wouldn’t be the worst place for me to die; this is a beautiful place that’s kept me alive.”- Tracey Amin about The Bed

A viewer could instead see it as an allusion to our society, as I did, and have an emotional response that differs from Emin’s (being negative instead). Other reactions might be purely emotional (if the scene produces mixed feelings of disgust, pity etc for example). While these examples would stray from the original intention, they are as valid as the artists, and more so to the individual, as it is their personal truth. The artist himself is at the same time creator and viewer. This is why many artists will have different readings of their own work through time. Then if their own artistic experience changes, their original intent becomes irrelevant.

A work of Van Gogh that creates an artistic experience for me is “Roses”, and it’s majorly because it depicts white roses. But originally they were pink, fading with time, so the intent of Van Gogh while making it was different than the one perceived by me. Yet my artistic experience, of the work as it is, remains.

Roses, by Van Gogh. Originally pink, the roses lost their coloration due to sun exposure.

The more abstract the work is, the more likely it’s to cause different readings, because it will rely more on intuition and emotion for the artistic experience. But all Art has an intuitive and emotional aspect (even when the rational reading is clear, it just aids to the artistic response), thus they are all subject to changes depending on the viewer. The artistic experience is the ultimate goal. Being a complex emotional response, it cannot be the same for everyone, and it shouldn’t. If one were to have the same artistic experience as the artist, then it wouldn’t be personal, and would lack the impact that Art aims to achieve.

Word count: 500

Knowledge Questions:

What limits what Art can be?

Does Art need to evoke the same meaning for everyone?

Can one interpret Art wrong?

Bibliography:

“Modern Classics: Tracey Emin – My Bed, 1998 | Artlead.” Artlead Modern Classics Tracey Emin My Bed 1998 Comments, artlead.net/content/journal/modern-classics-tracey-emin-bed-1998/.

“Why Is Tracey Emin’s Unmade Bed Art and Yours Isn’t?” Pegasus Pages, 15 Nov. 2012, pegasuspages.com/2012/11/15/why-is-tracey-emins-unmade-bed-art-and-yours-isnt/.

Flanders, Judith. “Tracey Emin Made a Work of Art, Not an Unmade Bed.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 30 Dec. 2014, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/11316847/Tracey-Emin-made-a-work-of-art-not-an-unmade-bed.html.

Cole, Alison. “Tracey Emin’s My Bed at Tate Britain, Review: In the Flesh, Its Frankness Is Still Arresting.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 30 Mar. 2015, http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/tracey-emins-my-bed-at-tate-britain-review-in-the-flesh-its-frankness-is-still-arresting-10144882.html.