Prof. O'Rourke

When writing an Artist Statement, the most interesting aspect is the set of issues you were dealing with in your artwork. Your personal history is of interest only if it is directly relevant to the artwork you are doing. (See, for example, the statement of Christine Sun Kim below.) It is the issues, thoughts, feelings you are dealing with that you should write about. Details of technique are of interest only to the extent that they relate to the issues you are dealing with.

For each project, your Artist Statement should be about this particular project that you did. That is, not about yoru artwork in general, but about this artwork you just completed. What were the issues you were thinking about? -- Emotional issues? Conceptual issues? Social issues? Write and revise your statement a few times. Keep your statement short -- perhaps less than 300 words. Format it carefully in a word processor. Export it as a PDF file.

Below are a few examples of artist statements.

Fred Sandbach -- two statements: 1970 and 1999

Lucien Freud - The model and the picture

Christine Sun Kim - Listening with one's eyes. 2010 (Emphasis on her unusual personal experiences)

Walid Raad - statement for Index XXVI: Red

Michael O'Rourke -- Picnic mural exhibition. 2005 (Paragraph 2 is about the issues. Paragraphs 3 and 4 are about technical and installation matters).

Michael O'Rourke - Woods mural exhibition. 2014. (A longer statement intended for professionals)