I think it’s simply fantastic .
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To Europeans, mass produced Japanese woodblock prints were a revelation. Critics greeted Impressionism with hostility. Andrew Wyeth was loved then loathed.
Last week, the Times published an article about an older generation of black artists who were finally getting their due after having been ignored for decades because of racial prejudice. They were ambivalent, happy for the recognition (and economic security), frustrated that galleries emphasized their race.
Right now, an artist’s immutable characteristics—race, gender, national origin, sexuality, etc.—determine the value of his art. Before that, it was his narrative and persona. He’s more likely to be “discovered” because of personal connections or dumb luck.
The gatekeepers in this comments section are defending an art world that rarely cares about the art itself.
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Refreshing. Modernism, which Robert Hughes called "the official culture of the 20th century," is now a very old hat, mostly gimmickry and marketing, and very short on artifice.
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Question: When your “art” is being made for and paid for by a brand, is it Art or Advertorial? It appears that all the beautiful drawings are of brands. Whether it’s a drawing of a Birkin bag or a rorshach test clearly using a certain brand of paint, if all your art is brand based, are you an artist or a marketing maven?
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@RCS
Maybe you're questioning capitalism and consumerism? Was Andy Warhol a marketing maven or an artist? Maybe, just maybe, you can be both.
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This artist is very adept technically and has great ideas in developing series...a very contemporary artistic practice. But there are literally countless examples of hyper-realism as practiced by professional artists and amateurs who have developed the speciality of making graphite "photographs." Todd Burroughs, for example, an artist who teaches and runs an art studio that offers classes in Michigan, has shown his own photographs, side by side with his paintings of them. They are indistinguishable.
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It's fitting that Ms. Hendry would call her latest installation “Rorschach”. That's because Instagram, perhaps like no other social media, seems to be designed for the purpose of remote psychoanalysis. Perhaps even by an artificially intelligent BOT, for automatic determination of personality and mental illness on a massive scale.
Expressing yourself openly is tough for a lot of people, but Instagram makes it easy to do, almost like a game. In many respects it seems to work like 'sand play' or 'photo collage (montage)' in an analytical session. A photo collage, if you use active imagination to make it, tells a lot about you. Like the Rorschach (ink blot) test, it is called a projective test in the field of depth psychology.
According to Coleman (2001): “projective test. Any of a variety of personality tests in which the respondent gives free responses to a series of stimuli such as inkblots, pictures, or incomplete sentences. Such tests are based loosely on the psychoanalytic concept of projection, the assumption being that respondents project unconscious aspects of their personalities on to the test items and reveal them in their responses.”
Cite:
Colman, Andrew M. A Dictionary of Psychology. Oxford University Press, 2001.
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I am happy whenever an artist (any artist) can make a living from their work. This should be celebrated. Good for her!
I wonder if some of the criticism and dismissive attitude (and borderline stalking) expressed in the comments might actually stem from underlying misogyny (still fairly prevalent in the arts and society at large).
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@Tony S - More like underlying jealousy.
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Smells of brand ambassador to me!
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Not entirely sure Ms. Hendry is "seeking approval" from the art world. That entirely contradicts the existence of the art world, no? And there's a plurality of art worlds. Cj Hendry is an example of someone balancing the multitude.
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Pretty ironic that she got into a copyright beef with the warhol estate (?). What would Andy think?
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I wish this further discussed exactly why she is looking for more traditional art world acceptance. She has total control over her career, her image, her sales, has an article published about her in the times—all at a young age by art world standards, and without the typical 50/50 gallery commission. Is it the critics she’s looking to woo? Museums? Curious to see where her work goes from here.
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It is amazing what one can do when you learn to use an air-brush!
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About hyper-real art. Notice how artist selfies never show a computer screen in the photo? It’s because they don’t want you to know they’re simply copying a photo. They like that the layperson doesn’t get that it’s easier than it looks - that what they’re doing is more about patience and dexterity than creative aptitude and vision. Being “creative” is about deviating away from reality in interesting ways. Copying a photo is a kind of fraud in the art. Few get this. Once one learns how to copy well, it’s just manual hours and little more. Many even trace the computer screen or project the image onto the canvas.
Stay away from any artist that uses a photo in any way. They don’t get it. Trust me on this.
Yeah, these words will rustle feathers. But the truth often does. And the truth about “fine” art is a beautiful one.
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@M. B. Oh, right, trust you, ha. You don’t know anything about art.
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@M. B.- I’m immediately suspicious of anyone who claims to know the ‘truth’ about anything. Your claim is no exception.
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@M. B. It seems to be the practice of more and more people to have opinions based in ignorance. Before there were cameras there was camera obscura and starting in the 15th century painters would work in their dark room executing the upside image projected on the wall. Thousands of celebrated artists have produced exceptional work from modern photographs or other existing images that while they appear to be hyper-realistic or simply realistic in fact stray from the original in subtle to not so subtle ways.
I find it difficult to be a fan of Cj Hendry not for how she executes her work and not because she is a woman but because there seems to be little depth to what she is doing. My impression is that she really is an Instagram artist focused on recognition and money. I thought I would go to her show after I read the article but when I followed the link for information I saw that it is nothing but a pay for entry popup for people to shoot selfies. It is not her gender or technique in question but her motivation and goals.
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It is time to have a conversation about art world patronage. This Instagram Artist is patronized by Joss Sackler, wife of David Sackler, currently being sued for manufacturing the oxycontin opioid epidemic for profit. When asked on one of her innumerable Instagram threads "if the manufacturer of Zyklon B wrote you a check, would you accept it?" CJ Hendry replied "yes".
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Issues raised by a failure to acknowledge that there is no singular “art world,” there are only a plurality of art worlds:
Cj Hendry imitates and is a realist; so, too, does and is Chuck Close. Gosh, are both doing “capitalist art?” and therefore one must engage in non-realist, non-imitative art because all art must be “non-capitalist?”
Is hyper-realist art less of an art or more of an art than photography?
Nah, gotta stop there. The issues raised by this very nice column could go on and on, not unlike Al-anon, I’m told. I’m
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Issues raised by a failure to acknowledge that there is no singular “art world,” there are only a plurality of art worlds:
Cj Hendry imitates and is a realist; so, too, does and is Chuck Close. Gosh, are both doing “capitalist art?” and therefore one must engage in non-realist, non-imitative art because all art must be “non-capitalist?”
Is hyper-realist art less of an art or more of an art than photography?
Nah, gotta stop there. The issues raised by this very nice column could go on and on, not unlike Al-anon, I’m told.
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It will take a lot to make this work more than trompe l’oel good illustration, and that will be found in the work itself, not ancillary elements such as Instagram or a bouncy castle, etc. Artists such as Longo, Rosenquist, etc. picked their subjects as a reaction to the times. If this young artist can pull it off, good for her. But to be in a museum, you have no hashtags and no window dressing. The work is alone, and must exist as such.
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There is no denying the technical aspect of this work; it is amazing. It's almost like looking at real-life ceramics or liquids. Personally, I prefer more realistic pictures to the free form abstract.. I would like to see what Ms. Hendry cold do with an imaginative still life. Her work is undeniably beautiful, but I prefer pictures of "things".
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@Marty
After submitting the above, I took another look at "Rorschach". It may be pretty abstract, but I could spend some tie with this . It's a whole lot more interesting and stimulating than ink blots!
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Good for her. She’s expanding the forum for showing her art. What’s wrong with that? It obviously has proved successful for her. Good job.
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Sorry, but as any talented artist knows (and contemporary art silliness to the side, there are plenty of talented artists at work today), at this point in history, imitation in a "realistic" sense of the sort practiced by this "artist" is as easy as pie.
This work not only suffers from being tied to ugly materialist contemporary pop culture, it suffers from being shallow. It conveys no meaning other than, "Hey, wow, look at me! Admire me! I can do imitation."
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@Emile to make matters worse, she is a patron of Joss Sackler, wife of David Sackler. Every cent of that money should be clawed back and earmarked for restitution of victims of the epidemic her family manufactured for profit
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@Emile
Are you one of the "talented" artists, then?
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@Emile Exactly. It’s not hard to imitate! Once you learn how to copy a photo you can pump out a lot of drawings or paintings to an easily impressed public, even if you make mild changes (also easy to do). The first question one should ever ask an artist is “do you use photo references?” If they say yes, never buy their art. Ever. Sadly some of the biggest names in art right now use photo references. People I used to respect.
Learning to draw or paint well without ever looking at photos makes one a much better, smarter and more imaginative artist. Is it harder at first for such an artist? Heck yes. Do they in the long run become better for it? Unquestionably. Beyond a doubt.
No wise artist will ever allow a computer in their studio. They will ONLY use three things for their paintings or drawings: their imagination, life (or studies from life), or their memory (and often a mix of these three).
The best art has some connection to realism and doesn’t ever come from the crutch and self-sabotaging computer chip of a camera. And sorry, pure abstraction will never be anything but decorative art to me. It’s easy and dull (despite matching the couch well).
The old masters are exalted by their default times and simplicity. Modern artists need to unplug and tune into their imagination, like they did. Observe life, like they did. Learn to really draw well, as they did.
The negative comments in this comments section shows a sad state of art awareness and creative discipline.
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Its interesting that this artist has successfully marketed her work outside of the constrictions of galleries, but
"...pushing viewers to reflect on the inherent shallowness that they represent."
I don't think it does that. Its like an iMax movie. Work like this sells for a lot because it gives comfort to the buyer who can spend a lot. As a result, the artworld has experienced a proliferation of this type of work, everybody looking for that payoff. I'm not saying this to be mean just to highlight that this is standard fare, one of today's most oppressive artworld forces. Its Capitalist artwork, no more, no less. Bubblegum at the checkout counter.
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@Aaron this is bubblegum with a dark side. CJ Hendry is patronized with Sackler Family blood money. When asked "would you accept a check from the manufacturer of Zyklon B?" , CJ Hendry replied "yes".
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