6 Effective Tips For: How to Write an Artist Statement

Have you been considering putting your art in an exhibition, or making it public so it can capture people’s view but have no idea how to write an artist statement? Well, writing an artist statement is the first and most crucial step in the art world as it provides a sharp overview of your art practice and the reason that inspired you. Not only it works as an overview, but a compelling artist statement gives a voice to your artwork that goes a long way in your journey.

1. What is an Artist’s statement? Tips and Tricks From the Experts

A brief description of your work gives an idea to the world about your art and inspires them to approach your art from a different perspective. An artist’s statement works as the frontline communicator between the artist and the viewer. There are many possible ways to express your art to the world, one being the artist’s statement. It articulates your artwork in a unique blend of words to describe the inspiration behind making your art.

Artist statements are different from the artist’s bio. The statement deals with the expressions of the artist wrapped in professionalism, on the other hand, the biography of an artist takes a deeper approach to the artist’s personal life.

Moreover, artist statements are a strategy used in the art world to reach a higher audience who are interested in the art and provide a brief overview of an artist’s work.

Writing an artist statement may seem very complicated and stressful because not only it speaks on your behalf, but also tells a unique story of an artist’s perspective to the world. If you have never composed an artist statement before you may end up using too much art jargon or complicated grammatical structures that will give your artist statement a very lousy look. To write a compelling artist statement here is everything you might want to know about.

Check out: How to Write a Good Concluding Statement for a Short Argumentative Essay

2. Purpose of Writing the Artist’s Statement

The main purpose to write an artist statement is to describe your work to the audience through words in a language that is easy to comprehend. Your artist statement will be the context of your art piece. For Example, A person who does not know modern art would not be able to understand the inspiration and influence behind your art.

Art can be of any type and form, and regardless of your form, it can raise many questions. Your artist statement does exactly what you cannot do in person, it answers the question of your audience as “how did he do that.”, “why did the artist choose this theme, colour.” and “what inspired the artist to choose this theme, method, or technique?”

3. How to Write an Artist Statement: 3 Main Points

Artist statements can vary from artist to artist mainly because of the different perspectives and the specific language style they use. Nevertheless, following a structured pattern to write an artist statement is the foundation of the creative process. Here are three simple steps to follow.

3.1. Understand your Audience!

The first point is to know your audience. An audience is a large group of people whom you possibly cannot differentiate by age, interest, geographical, and biographical information. Every artist indeed has a set target audience. However, when writing an artist statement, you need to understand that you may never know who your potential buyer is. With that, you need to structure your words in a manner where a person can draw a pattern between your art and the artist’s statement regardless of their profession.

3.2. Use of Rich Content

To garner more attention, it is important to put some extra effort into writing a creative artist’s statement by making sure of the structure and pattern of the writing. Your statement should feel like a visual talk to your viewers. comprising 2 paragraphs is enough for the therapist’s statement. Your statement must follow the pattern of “how”,” what, “and “why”. The “how” defines your art’s mediums, materials, and process. For example: If you are a painter, your main medium is acrylic colours or oil paints, canvas, etc.

The “What” describes your art content, it is linked to how you make your art to what is the final product. Lastly, the most important is “why” the “why” can include your perspective. The influences, inspirations, and techniques go into the manufacture.

3.3. The style

One cannot emphasize the importance of having a proper style for writing an artist statement. Your style of writing your statement must include the three “C” which are clear, concise, and consistent.

Have a clear objective while writing your artist statement, write a statement that has a clear readable adaptivity. Too much cliche jargon and complicated international art English can distract the reader from understanding your work. Make the reader feel smart and use simple vocabulary to engage them in your reading.

If your artist statement ends within one paragraph, be it that way, don’t fall into the trap of writing two or more paragraphs when one is just sitting in the perfect tune. Your artist statement describes your art and if the job is done you are good to go. It should be a free flow of words from your view to theirs, keep it brief yet impactful.

Do not shift from the agenda of expressing your thoughts about your art to talking about things that aren’t related to your art. This can disrupt the flow of a reader/viewer and you probably do not want that. To make it sound more real always write in the first-person context as if you are exchanging words right then and there in person.

4. Examples of artist’s Statement from the Art Expert

Writing a compelling artist statement can be daunting and confusing especially if you have never written one before. To represent your thoughts with a creative bend that narrates the inspiration behind your art here are a few examples of artist statements from famous creators that can help you build your own.

“I don’t paint things, I paint only the difference between things, I do not paint the table but the emotions it produces upon me. I dream of an art of balance, purity, and serenity devoid of troubling and depressing subject matter – a soothing, calming influence on the mind, rather like a good armchair that provides relaxation from physical fatigue. |Henri Matisse|

“Getting outside is good for the soul. Through my artwork, I try to bring the outside in. While I make no attempts to portray actual plants and animals, I do want my creations to look like they could have lived or grown somewhere. Living with beautiful objects that pay tribute to the natural world reminds us to slow down and help us connect with nature. |Alison Sigethey|

“When you take a flower in your hand and look at it, it’s your world for the moment, I want to give that world to someone else. Nobody sees a flower- really- It is so small- we haven’t time, and to see takes time. So, I said to myself that I’ll paint what I see – What the flower is to me. But I’ll paint it big, and they will be surprised into taking the time to look at it. ” |Georgia O’Keeffe|

My subject matter is nature, whether it is a traditional landscape or a bird and flower painting. I use traditional materials, ink, and brush on rice paper, to capture movement and life – making the brush dance and the ink sing. Everything is captured in the spontaneous dance and movement of the brush as it meets the rice paper.

There is no going back and correcting when painting with ink and rice paper. This love of spontaneous Chinese painting has provided a unique segue for my exploration of more abstract techniques of Oriental Painting such as “Splashing ink” and “PoMo”.

These techniques entail pouring colour and creating an image from the abstract through the use of traditional brushwork, at this point my work ranges from the very traditional to abstract and a blending of the two. |Charlene Fuhrman-Schulz|

The pre-homoerotic zed body forms both my field of action and the basis of my conceptual taxonomy. My sculptures explore both the flux of trans-fixable signifiers and their complimentary anecdotal formations. My choice of Carrara marble as a medium creates a dialectic between proto-classical conceptions of idealized form and later humanistic naturalism. Each figure’s natural Physical struggle is simultaneously inoperative and adjectival |Michelangelo Buonarroti|

5. Different Types of an Artist Statement

To help you write a compelling piece here are a few different types of artist statements you might want to consider before writing your own.

5.1 Full Page Statement

This statement is the most common type used by artists. It contains detailed information about the art. It is a vision created by the artist for the viewer to get into the depth of their art. It includes the details of the method, techniques, materials, and inspiration behind the art. This type of statement can be comprised of 4-5 paragraphs of 5-6 lines each.

5.2 Short Statement

A short statement is the same as a full-page statement, However, the length of the statement is comprised short, usually containing 2 paragraphs of 4-5 lines each. With brief details of the art.

5.3 Short Project Statement

A short project statement is a type where the details are limited. This type of statement is used when working on a specific project. The details are the same as above in the statement. However, the length may vary depending on the project and the nature of the art.

5.4 Bio

Bio is a type of statement that contains the details of the artist’s career, experience, inspiration, and reasons that made them the artist they are today.

6. 6 Effective Tips for Writing an Artist Statement

Here are 6 effective tips to write your best piece artist statement.

6.1 The Three Steps

The three steps here are comprised of an opening passage, a second passage, and a final passage. what detail will go in and how to accurately curate a statement.

The first passage should contain brief details of the art and the artist, not more than 3-4 lines. This will help to build a relationship with the audience. Use active voice to make up the hook to your statement, remember your first passage is the invitation to read the rest of the passage.

The second paragraph should include the details of your artwork, the theme, materials, methods, and techniques used to make the piece. It should also contain the thought process of the artist and what inspires them to do the art.

The final paragraph should include the observations of the whole statement in not more than 2-3 lines.

6.2 Use of Active Voice

To make your statement connect to your audience use the active voice. Maintain conversational momentum with your audience. Also, writing your artist statement in the first person not only connects more with the reader but also increases readability.

6.3 Using Strong Adjectives

Try to use powerful adjectives that enhance the readability of your artist statement. Avoid repetition and fancy grammar jargon to disrupt your reader’s flow. Remember, you have to make your reader feel smart.

6.4 Write a Practice Artist Statement

You won’t be able to write a masterpiece on your first attempt, so make sure you practice a lot. Practice not only improves the quality but also helps generate new ideas for the statement. Read examples of artist statements, create a storyboard, and pour your thoughts into words, Have a clear and concise point of view.

6.5 Short Paragraph

Your artist statement can be of any type however, using a short paragraph will make your statement look neat and clear. Concisely structure your sentences. You are the curator of your thoughts, take time and include those ideas that will relate more to the viewer of your artist statement.

6.6 Edit your Work Religiously

No matter how good of a writer you are, you still need to edit out words, phrases, and sentences that are not sitting write in your artist statement. Being a thorough editor is also an art. So, before submitting your final draft make sure you have checked your written statement and edited anything that doesn’t give your work the edgy and sharp look.

Conclusion

Writing the best piece artist statement is a task but following a proper structure you can write one of the best artist statements. Not only is the statement used in the art gallery to showcase your work, but it can also be included in your CV if you ever apply for a teaching position as such.

Also following simple tips can help you write a cohesive artist statement. Always remember to write for the general public, not just for people who love art, and avoid repetition of sentences and phrases to keep your audience hooked. That’s it. These simple yet impactful tips are enough to make your statement stand out from other artists.

Last Updated on September 10, 2023 by Himani Rawat