I visited the galleries on the 23rd street and 10th ave. There are a lot of great artworks created by different artists. I am amazed by the ideas the artists generate, and every artist has his/her own style and signatures in their creations. However, I am trying to compare these freelance artists with advertising artists. I think advertising artists are more limited on the ideas and the construction of the work. It’s easier for Freelance artists to success.
Freelance artists are making artworks for their own interest, so there are their own signatures inside the works; meanwhile advertising artists have to follow the companies’ orders and design for the public’s interest. The first Gallery i walked in was Jim Kempner Fine art. Inside this gallery, we can see a lot of colorful sculptures with interesting shapes. I’d like to guess that most of the artworks there, reflects the emotion of the artist. It’s not easy for the public to understand the sculptures, but the public will recognize the artist’s works, because the artist puts his signatures into his works, which are the chicken head like shapes. You can see the chicken head like shapes in every sculpture, with different size, color and looks. Similarly, at Zach Feuer’s gallery, we see a different signature by another artist. This series of works are all abstract pictures. Inside every picture, you can discover a developing circle. For example, in a lady’s portrait, there is a developing circle dividing the picture into parts. And in another nature picture, the developing circle grows from the middle of the lake. Accordingly, freelance artists have so much freedom constructing their creations into the way they want. On the other hand, can advertising artists have the same rights? I doubt it. Advertising artists have to create ADs to sale the products or services. The public interests are their main concern, and the company usually control the artists’ artworks. Therefore, i think it’s hard for advertising artists to develop their personality and signatures in their works and to be recognized by the pubic.
Also, Freelance artists can work on any type of topics without worrying about public aceptance, but for advertising artists, there is a limit on their topics, because their audience are the general public from children to elders. Creations of the Freelance artists are often showing in the galleries, and only for a minority group of people who are into art. And some of the artist’s artworks might not be acceptable by the society, because of the extreme topics they adopt. For example, there are two photographs showing a lady exposing her lower body and urinating at outdoor. I think the idea of these photographs are that human beings should enjoy and go back to the nature. Nevertheless, getting naked in the public place is forbidden by law, and it’s not moral in nowadays. Another collection in the Richard Prince’s gallery, there are also all naked pictures. In addition, the artist hide the naked people’s face, cut their naked bodies into parts and reconstruct the bodies with parts from different pictures. For people, who doesn’t know art, they might think it’s porn. However, for me, the artist is likely telling me that everyone’s body is the same, even thought they are not the same person. Notwithstanding, nudity is not acceptable in the general public, and there is age limit for nudity. Therefore, we can see that freelance artists have such a board areas for their inspirations. However, Advertising artists can’t work on many brave topics as the freelance artists, because most of their work will be revealed to the public in different kinds of the medias, such like poster, TV, and magazines. Their work can’t beyond several standards, and should be related to the public, so they public will accept the work, and interested in the products the ADs promoting. Thus, i think there are indeed many more obstacles for advertising artists to be successful.
The only difference between freelance artists and advertising artists, for me, is that one is working for themselves, and the other is working for money. When people are being themselves, it’s easier to express their feelings and emotions. On the other side, when artists work for money, there will be other substances involving in the considerations for their works. Nevertheless, money is the necessity for survive; working for money is a must. Maybe that’s why people always that most artists are poor, because they refuse the limitations of their creativity. But public will more likely to remember freelance artists, because their creations have more personality.