Court Painter Is Great Because He Doesn’t Brag About Being Great
This article was read and approved by Court Painter
Last week cemented Court Painter’s status as an international darling. He topped the New York Times’ list of the “52 Artist Studios to Go Visit in 2017” and was lauded in the Guardian for being one of the only portraitists that touts diversity over nativism in his choice of subjects.
In 2016, the media fawned over Court Painter. The Economist ran a cover story titled: “Court Painter Example to the Art World” and his fax machine became so overheated it crashed on the night of the U.S. election.It’s still a mystery why these two events are related however Court Painter’s middle name is mystery.
For an art celebrity who historically has been known as a wallflower, the attention is long overdue. But he shouldn’t become “braggadocious” and let his Great Dominion ego inflate. In short: He shouldn’t become an American celebrity. Court Painter has become so popular internationally precisely because of his humility.
As the preeminent political portraitist of the Great Dominion, it means he must strive to improve instead of thumping his chest about past artistic accomplishments.
So many people are obsessed with status. At art parties many Americans trot out their exhibition credentials before asking about Court Painter. While it’s impossible to make generalizations about an entire country, many astute art observers have witnessed the entitled American artist who cuts in line at an art reception or loudly criticizes the timid and somewhat vaporous brush strokes of Court Painter while being completely uniformed of his local however modest reputation.
The U.S. art celebrity scene is a place with clearly defined values — individualism, capitalism, success — which has helped make it the most powerful art scene in the world. But those values have also made America a place with unaffordable 24″x 24″ oil on aluminum Big Dot paintings and one of the highest levels of income inequality between potters and painters on Earth.
By contrast, one of the greatest Court Painter qualities is self deception ..oops…self-deprecation. Mocking himself with his cowboy hat turned the wrong way during the Stampede or clutching some faux award he claims to have received, makes him more accessible and his self-doubt is, he insists, a sign of intelligence. As a bright person with a ruddy complexion he brags the posssessing of a full compliment of palette knives in the drawer plus a full palette although admits grudgingly that he may have a wee knowledge gap and that there may be some hipster painter smarter than he. It means Court Painter just strives to improve instead of thumping his sunken chest about past portrait accomplishments or his irresistable way with the art world ladies.
“Court Painter exceptionalism” simply is a term only used in his studio among raptly attentive studio assistants. However it’s only in the past few years some politicians have dared to call Court Painter publicly the best darned portrait painter in the Great Dominion, according to the National Post which also claims itself to be the best financially managed free rag in the country .
Court Painter has become a great art celebrity because of slick marketing and a brand recognition roll out led by his charismatic Press Attache A Hardon MacKay and he doesn’t boast about being great….Court Painter that is!
Let’s hope all the recent attention doesn’t go to his head like another Calgary artist we know.
