ART, WHATEVER IT TAKES
Since the early pandemic in 2020, Rome Art Program has conducted a series of interviews, “Art, Whatever It Takes.”
Artists, Art Critics, and Art Historians living in Italy, the U.S., and U.K., share their insights during these powerful times.
Interview with Sam Levy
Sam Levy is a painter living and working in Brooklyn, NY. He has been an Instructor at the New York Studio School since 2013, and a Visiting Instructor at Ah Haa School for Painting in Telluride, CO, since 2014. Sam attended the Jentel Foundation Artist Residency in 2015, and has travelled and worked throughout the American West and in Italy.
RAP: What is your definition of “art” today?
Sam Levy: I suppose I have a personal definition which is what my paintings are about. I wouldn’t define it for anyone else.
RAP: Art is dynamic and regenerates itself… how does it change, and how did it change us?
Sam: The revolution of art is constant, the song remains the same. It is very powerful. When you discover the language, it gives you access to extraordinary places and expands your understanding of what it means to be a living being in time.
RAP: When (and how) did you understand that art was becoming very important in your life?
Sam: Looking back, I can see how important drawing was when I was very young and as a teenager. I didn’t really understand it at the time. In college I was an assistant to a sculptor and then moved to New York to assist another sculptor. I really took the biggest step when I went back to school in my mid-twenties. I was working as a line cook and taking night drawing classes at the New York Studio School when I could. I enrolled in a Drawing Marathon there, using all of my vacation time from the restaurant. I then began to understand how to focus on this, and that it was all possible.
RAP: What role does art play today? What are the “great figures” who have recently changed it? Do you feel close to any of these figures?
Sam: It’s amazing what you can see in New York galleries, right now there is an exhibition of Leon Kossoff’s paintings two blocks away from a commercial gallery show focused on medieval European sculpture. There are a lot of important figures for me personally, Auerbach, Francis Bacon, Giacometti. My friends and the older generation of painters working now in the New York area.
RAP: Are there still traditional figures such as collectors, muses, mecenate and patrons, in today’s art and society interaction model?
Sam: There are- perhaps this is a little more underground. I support the idea of an everyday collector that buys from artists that aren’t famous. Buy something original and develop your own collection; be supportive to artists that have a personal vision. You can find threads between artists, reach out to them and go to their studio.
RAP: How have the new technologies and media culture changed art today, improving or worsening it…? What do you feel are your biggest challenges?
Sam: I see recent new technologies mostly as tools, but it can be a destructive filter too. Remote teaching for instance, is completely possible and the dialogue can exist. I’ve witnessed students absolutely thrive. That said, it is vital to connect to the reality of the world around you, and to draw with physical material. Look and make paintings in real space with sunlight, travel to see paintings with your own eyes. The world beyond our reflection is richer and more expansive.
RAP: Art as a mirror of man, in this moment of emergency seems to be shattered …what do these fragments reflect now?… Shadow or light of the moment?
Sam: I am not quite sure that that is true, but work that reflects any individual is of much more interest to me than the studio full of assistants, outsourcing work to workshops, or printer-making stuff. There are a lot of living artists of all ages working directly with material and really making powerful work.
RAP: Understanding, interpreting, and then possibly judging the work of art; which is the right path when we are in front of a piece of art?
Sam: Drawing in all forms is really important for me; Plasticity in painting develops depth and a different kind of abstraction. It’s important to look hard and have a dialogue with an artwork; what paintings don’t leave your head? It’s important for me to try to recognize why some works of art continue to resonate, even if I don’t understand them.
RAP: Which is the real role of Academies and Art schools today? What can artists learn from these institutions today?
Sam: A curious mind is a curious mind; The school structure can allow you to work with depth and intensity which is generative for ideas and to build new connections. A strong school environment is supportive and becomes your community. It is a center you can carry along, to return to when needed. It is also an access point to discover connections and new paths to take. It’s good to push yourself and receive critical, honest feedback.
RAP: Art too has undergone a complex process of globalization; can having an authentic and genuine style be an advantage or a drag for an artist?
Sam: I don’t like the word “style.” I think you can see when an artist has a language they’ve developed, or perhaps is genuinely searching for one to fit what they have to say. That authentic search is important and usually takes time to realize. A personally meaningful dialogue with your work is vital.
RAP: How do Art Galleries and Museums position themselves today, and, in your opinion, how should they?
Sam: I am excited to see more cross-departmental exhibitions happening in the museums. There are good galleries that take risks and are invested in their artists. Though it can be disappointing to see how much money is involved with auction houses, the big galleries, art fairs and such. It’s usually bad for the work as well. I was an art handler for a few years and the business side is a little insane.
RAP: “Figuration” vs “Abstraction”. Which of the two is better descriptive of the period we live in? Which one will have a better future?
Sam: Neither is much without the other. I think we are living at a time of “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” Abstraction represented, and/or figuration represented, but neither is actually saying much. There are very good painters doing both whether or not you can read the painting.
RAP: Today we often speak of “emerging artists”; what advice based on your experience do you feel you can give to young artists?
Sam: I don’t know if I have advice for “emerging artists” but I would say drawing always helps.
RAP: Art as a lens for reading the present, can it modify the space and time we pass through? …will art save us?
Sam: Yes, to the first question; and at the individual level, yes absolutely.
@samuel_wade_levy