Creativity meets business
How to organize a company exhibition
A good way to plan an exhibition or a small collection adapting to space and individual ideas is the following. First, photos of the available spaces are taken. Supported by those photos, the producing artist can adapt to the available space and the company can compare different arrangement alternatives by a before/after effect. About 4 months are necessary for the creation of 20 paintings. For the artist it is helpful if the company buys two of his paintigs right at the beginning since he has to finance the materials of those, for example, 20 paintings.
Public Relation, Corporate Identity:
Experience with companies in Germany (Emprise Consulting) shows that is more satisfactory to integrate the aquisition of an art collection into other company activities. It could be the first step to a company collection. This collection would be more valuable if it is accompanied by a guiding public relation concept which is written and talked about in newspapers, the Internet and other media.
An art contest or art prize could be initiated to get the attention of important media. The money for the prizes will be compensated for if the firm aquires the award winning art. It is important that the buying of art is not static: if art is used only as decoration it doesn't 'move'. Art needs a living contact to the 'outside', to the public.
This whole issue is left to further investigation...
CREATIVITY
Apart from the immediate art context certain thought patterns which became evident during the creating process can be applied other areas of work. Problem solving can be approached in unusual ways.
Creativity is liberated thinking: there are neither rules nor limits, yet there do exist some generally applicable patterns which serve to somehow upset the problem. Those patterns are direct results of the painting process.
- the opposite is right
- to find the inner logic
- to destroy
- to construct
- to divide
- to eliminate the basis
- to create new limits
- to condense/ to break up
- sparse/sumptous
- to ignore
Some of these points seem to be taken out of an art of war manual. Perhaps those decision marks are coming from internal conflicts? Although they are not new they could be used in a positive way.
Creativity and enterprise
If both terms are introduced into the Internet the result is that creativity means to find new products, continuity of education, the readiness to get involved with a diversity of people, creative techniques, the enemy of enterprise, necessity, openness for new ways...
Does the artist who through his activity is an example of creativity has anything to do with that? Could he impart something or are the worlds of enterprise and creating art completely different subjects? What is happening on the intelectual level while creating art, and is there anything that can be generalized or applied elsewhere?
Statements from artists are not theoretical! It is empirirically proven, like in the wind tunnel tested material. The artwork itself is proof.
[title: "Paar", sample 1]
An example of artistic thinking:
Another term mentioned in the Internet was creative dissatisfaction as a helpful tool to unleash creativity. This means, for example, that the automobile would have never be invented if we would not have been dissatisfied with the process of running. Sometimes this also appears in painting. Every new style involves a radical change. The preceding was was somehow wrong. Dissatisfaction with the old makes one to leave already known paths and search for new ones.
The picture (example 1) is such a painting. It is the first in a new series. Before, one painted in kind of rough gesture, in earthy colors. Now the way of painting is fine and slow. Before the motives ppeared more abstract. Now there are things to recognize.
The picture is based on an initial idea. Small human beings were supposed to move around in a world of fruits. That was it. How the human beings or the fruits were supposed to look was initially unclear. Why paint humans among fruits? At first there is a feeling.
This is where we usually enter a private world. One doesn´t speak about it. The feeling becomes cause.- In this case.- Of course, there is art which begins with ideas and tries to eliminate feelings as much as possible. But in this kind of painting feelings are expressed. Perhaps modified. Problems are treated with humor or even corrupted. This is a workout of feelings. Feelings may involve something embarrasing, something stupid or banal, but they lead to ways which may be abandoned later. Or the initial motive will be deleted completely, having served just as a vehicle to be abandoned after the initial push to start up the engine.
The basic feeling here is the feeling of limitation. The world is limited. Men are limited. In no way can can mankind look beyond its world. A human being is vulnerable, living just short term. And, of course, this makes one feel uneasy.
Small beings in a fruit world. It is astonishing how those beings (Example 1 fruties, 2004, 140x180cm) have become the expression of those feelings, they feel bad or good, but I can look at them: what is that what you are doing now? Sometimes they have a life of their own and sometimes I can upset them and disturb their hustle and bustle. One could say here is somebody expressing his desire for power, but no way, I do let them go on. The basic mood is positive. But also realistic, based on reality.
Fruit as environment has the advantage that it wasn´t invented. As a painter one can deal with fruits on a daily basis and experience them in an always new and sensual way. Like how the light shines on it. How it is lying. How it tastes.
Thoughts while painting:
One starts somewhere in the middle of the canvas. I want to paint a man who is standing. I start with the feet. Which color? Flesh-coloured? What does a fleshy man in a fruity world? Well then, fruit colors,too. In a dark melon red. That's juicy. That´s sweet. Where do the arms go? Pointing above. Looks good. Looks as if he´s playing ball. Well, he should. But to throw the ball to someone we need another figure. Done.
I need the ground on which they are standing. I paint single pieces of fruits and fruits. Even some after real models. I bought myself a small collection of fruits which is lying next to me. This is getting tiring. Piece after piece painting fruitpieces. A simple method becomes necessary. And so I draw a net over the whole surface. This should serve as an orientation for the position of the fruits.
Methods of thinking:
In this case there is a feeling in the beginning. This is the mountpoint. To name that feeling is a way to create a distance towards it. Inventions made here have a basis in daily life (fruits, light, human beings). There is no working plan. Everything follows the beginning. Permanent corrections are possible. Changes are possible at any time. One has to listen to the inner logic. The simple way is correct.
Necessary skills:
The ability to recognize feelings. One has to encounter the inner logic. There is not just one way. Many people seem to have big difficulties with that. They need the big screen. The big idea which provides stability. Where is that leading us? That this way can lead to something is proven by the paitings which after all are a concrete result.
[title: "Mars", sample 2]
Each new observation or investigation of an artwork will also result in new insights. Unlike pure theory art in this way is a form of thinking which is always creating something material, therefore it is aimed towards manifesting solutions. By means of creating art problems are thought through.
Are there any problems in enterprises which could be solved by the artistic thought processes or how and where could those artistic thought processes be applied in enterprises? Until now there is now concrete communication between enterprises and artists in this respect.
In contests which were initiated by companies often the focus is on the zeitgeist. In other words they are the extended branch of public relations, of branding, are more concerned with the external form and don´t aim and have no effect towards the internal. Art as shape = design, monumental sign, prestige = architecture. To create a different form of cooperation is desirable.
New possibilities:
There should be kind of a laboratory in which entrepreneurs and artists work together on solving problems. It doesn´t make sense to turn up the entrepreneurial specialists to convert them into creatives in this specific sense. Those creative specialists already exist. What's necessary is the exchange.
