Henri Gervex The Jury for Painting, Salon des Artistes Français, 1885
In a letter to the director of the Carnegie Institute Museum of Art, Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) declined to be a juror for their annual exhibition. Here's why:
"In regard to jurys of artists, I have never served because I could never reconcile it to my conscience to be the means of shutting the door in the face of a fellow painter. I think the jury system may lead, & in the case of the Exhibitions at the Carnegie Institute no doubt does lead to a high average, but in art what we want is the certainty that the one spark of original genius shall not be extinguished, that is better than average excellence, that is what will survive, what it is essential to foster--‘The ‘Indepéndents” in Paris was originally started by our Group, it was the idea of our exhibitions & since taken up by others, no jury’s & most of the artists of original talent have made their debut there in the last decade, they would never have had a chance in the official Salons. Ours is an enslaved profession, fancy a writer not being able to have an article published unless passed by a jury of authors, not to say rivals—"
She went on to say that she would be glad to help the museum in any other way.
Salon Jury, 1903
I've probably juried about a dozen different competitions. Lately I've turned down a lot more judging opportunities than I've agreed to. I'm aware of the fact that when you pick a winner, you make that person happy, and everyone else is a bit disappointed. Moreover, their disappointment has your face on it.
One of the issues with being judge is that if you're judging a tight group of people who all know each other, and you're part of that group, some people will assume that you're playing favorites (it's hard not to). And if you're coming from completely outside the field, some people might presume that you're not qualified to judge that category of work. I've also witnessed the dynamic that when a group of judges consults during the process they sometimes get into "groupthink" and they end up picking favorites that might not have risen if the judges acted separately.
It's probably best if the judges are relatively anonymous and if the artists who did the pieces are as anonymous as possible. For that reason, I'm skeptical about the idea of commercial competitions with celebrity judges used as bait to get people to pay the entry fees. That’s just a racket for the organizers and it takes advantage of both the jurors and the entrants.
As we discussed in Friday’s post “Is Competition Good for Artists?” It helps a lot if the organization has some shared set of values, so that there are some reasonable agreed-upon criteria for the judge to go by. What deserves the award: objective realism? subjective expression? scientific accuracy? originality? Once you weed out the 95% of work that's either poorly done or what Mary Cassatt calls "average excellence," the really great pieces are all exceptional, and they can't be ranked for gold, silver, or bronze.
Those of you who have been a juror, please share your thoughts about the process and the outcome of judging. No need to name the specific competition, but I'd be curious to hear what you learned about the experience of judging.
Letter to John W. Beatty, 5 September 1905, from Pen to Paper: Artists' Handwritten Letters from the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art
I have juried plenty of shows, usually for teens, sometimes adults. And I have been a grant panelist a number of times, which has some overlap. Here are some thoughts.
WIn some and lose some...
A common refrain among jurors is, "it's so hard to pick, so many of these are deserving of awards!" If I have the opportunity to speak to students who might enter into contests, I try to reframe the experience as an exciting chance to learn about yourself, to push your limits. The juror's decision is not the final statement on your abilities and artistry.
I keep a spreadsheet of my own wins and losses, with wins highlighted green and losses highlighted red, to remind myself that there is a mix.
Constructive feedback...
Sometimes, as a juror, I am asked to give recorded video feedback to every teen artist. I tell them things that I observe and enjoy about their work, give suggestions that I think might be helpful, and artists that they might connect with. In the most recent event, I was told that all of the students watched these videos together to learn from one another and for me.
Juror's tastes...
A friend who was juror in a recent Plein Air painting event framed his remarks around one idea, which is that it comes down to the individual juror's taste.
I was recently awarded second place in a different Plein Air painting event. That juror framed his remarks around stories, and how stories might unfold as the viewer travels around inside of each painting.
Spirit of exploration...
I once gave an award to a teen who had created a piece out of upcycled trash and paint. It was not a particularly attractive piece, not even to me, and less technically advanced then many of the pieces that I did not give awards to. But I felt I was being true to the spirit of the award, in acknowledging the student's passionate exploration of material, whereas some of the other pieces were technically advanced, but conventional and not particularly thoughtful or exciting. The organizing committee contacted me to see if it was a mistake, but let the awards stand after I explained my reasoning.
Grant panelist...
In this case when we are awarding tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars to Arts organizations, of course we begin by seeing that the application is complete and correct. This weeds out one level of contenders.
After that, we look at things like, how well does the organization tell the story of what they are trying to accomplish? Do they have a solid plan for how to execute that? A history of succeeding in the past? Will diverse audiences be served by the art or art event in the proposal?
We give written feedback to each organization, to help them succeed the following year if they did not secure a grant.
Not only should there not be buried art shows, one should not be a juror. Why? I had the misfortune to enter a show, pay the fee, and then be told I was not good enough. It was extremely disheartening, as I was given no reason at all for the decision. Never again.