An Artist’s Progress
How an Artist Makes it in the Art World
How does an artist gain recognition and become known in the contemporary art world? This is a question that Robin Pogrebin addresses in her recent New York Times article, “Anatomy of a Success Story: How One Artist Broke Through,” about California artist, Hugo McCloud. Pogrebin charts McCloud’s “path from obscurity to recognition” and traces the steps he has taken to move from being an artisan "fabricating metal fountains in Northern California” to an artist who has just opened “his fifth show at the prestigious Sean Kelly Gallery” in New York.
Pogrebin’s article caught my attention as it neatly illustrates some of the topics I have been exploring in Making & Meaning. McCloud’s story is a good example of how an artist moves through what Alan Bowness called, the “four circles of recognition.”1 An artist enters the first circle when his peers (other artists) acknowledge his objects as art and encourage his creative pursuits. The second circle includes gallerists, curators, and collectors who select, sell, and buy the work which then confirms the object’s status as art and gives it both economic and symbolic value. In the third circle, the artist’s work is recognized by public museums where it is exhibited and collected. This establishes the artist’s position in the art historical record and further increases the economic and symbolic value of the work. Finally, through this exposure, the public comes to know and recognize the work and the artist.
Before McCloud could enter any of these circles, however, he had to create suitable artworks. As I found in my 2018 study of contemporary art, artists often work in more than one mode of production (i.e. sculpture, painting, video, etc) and often utilize different media in a single work. They also typically address current or “contemporary” social and political issues with their work.2 Prior to his recognition by the contemporary art world, McCloud was making metal sculptures, fountains, and furniture which we can assume did not meet the criteria for contemporary art as Pogrebin does not describe any of these or provide pictures. Instead, McCloud shifted his practice to what Pogrebin calls “eye-catching, very mixed media” painting. Using many “nontraditional materials” such as “roofing tar, plastic bags, metal sheets, solder” and paint, McCloud creates both abstract and figurative works. His abstractions are often large-scale and created by layering and affixing different media on a board surface. His figurative work is smaller with images created by collaging coloured plastic from cheap retail bags on board. These images represent people and things he has seen in his world travels. Pogrebin notes that McCloud does not try to represent a particular issue in his work but his work “has dovetailed with growing concerns about climate change, in particular, the deployment of disposable plastic bags.” McCloud explains his process and subject further in the video below.
In my study of contemporary art, painting was not the most favoured form of contemporary art, but it still has a following especially if it demonstrates a current subject or a strong break from the conventions of formal modernism. McCloud’s use of unusual materials and the suggestion that he addresses current topics seem to meet this requirement.
To enter the first circle of recognition, an artist must also learn how to navigate in the world of contemporary art. Most artists do this by enrolling in a visual art program such as a Bachelor of Fine Arts or Master of Fine Arts degree in a post-secondary institution. As Gary Alan Fine explains in his research on MFA programs, most artists have already learned how to make art before entering these programs.3 The benefit of such programs is that they solidify the artist’s knowledge and, more importantly, help them to build art-world connections with artistic peers, with art professors who are typically practicing artists, and sometimes with gallerists, curators, and collectors, all of whom affirm the artist’s work and practice. The education program then is most valuable for helping an artist enter the first circle of recognition.
In my studies of the Sobey Art Award, I found that not all contemporary artists attended an art education program. Instead they had to find other routes to educate themselves and to make connections with the art world, especially if they did not live in one of the primary centres of contemporary art like New York. Hugo McCloud, as Pogrebin reports, did not attend a university art program. He drew upon his skills in crafting objects for commercial purposes, but also educated himself about contemporary art through reading. The most important step he took, however, was moving from Los Angeles to New York in 2009. There, he settled in a building where fellow tenants included other young artists such as up-and-coming painter, Angel Otero, and critic/curator, Larry Ossei-Mensah. A referral from Otero resulted in one of McCloud’s early sales and led to a connection with art collectors and galleries in Italy. Ossei-Mensah took part in the Young Curator’s/New Ideas exhibition at the Meulensteen Gallery in 2012 and included one of McCloud’s large abstract paintings. Young Curator’s/New Ideas is a recurring exhibition that features mini-exhibitions by emerging curators. The exhibition was notable as a reviewer highlighted Ossei-Mensah’s contribution and McCloud’s work.
Another fortuitous connection led to McCloud’s exhibitions at Sean Kelly’s gallery in New York. By chance, Lauren Kelly, Sean’s daughter, happened to meet McCloud in New York. She saw his paint spattered pants and asked him if he was an artist. Their conversation then led to a studio visit and eventually an invitation to exhibit in her father’s gallery. By 2022, McCloud had his first solo exhibition in a public museum and his work has now been included in several public art collections in the United States. All of these steps have not only moved McCloud through the second, third and fourth circles, they have also increased the economic value of his paintings. His work now commands six figure prices in the art market. McCloud has now left New York and lives again in Los Angeles and in Tulum, Mexico.
McCloud’s story, as Pogrebin tells it, illustrates a journey which, like the pilgrim’s religious quest, begins with a desire for recognition from a higher power. For the artist this journey means travelling through a new territory of ideas and beliefs, developing new relationships, and struggling to maintain faith in his own practice all the while hoping and dreaming that others – those with more powerful art-world credentials – will recognize and sanctify his objects as art. And, when all goes well, the artist arrives safely in the “desired country” of contemporary art.
Alan Bowness, The Conditions of Success: How the Modern Artist Rises to Fame (London: Thames and Hudson, 1989).
Leduc, Marie. 2019. “Defining Contemporary Art: What the Kunstkompass Top 100 Lists Can Tell Us About Contemporary Art.” Journal of Visual Art Practice 18 (3): 257-274. https://doi.org/10.1080/14702029.2019.165420
Gary Alan Fine, Talking Art: The Culture of Practice and the Practice of Culture in MFA Education (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018).
I enjoyed that Marie. The video was a really good companion to your write up. Definitely a contemporary artist I would say. I really liked this work too and his description of its process.
One thing I was thinking about was, perhaps, the journey of contemporary artists through the progress pathway you describe is more often different / unique for every individual than perhaps a more standard recognition pathway that may have reflected previous eras of artists experience? In other words, as there are thousands and thousands of contemporary artists, there are now thousands and thousands of different progression stories?
Another thing I thought about is perhaps the role of luck and happenstance in these journeys. Being in the right place at the right time....which seems to have happened here to some extent.