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 Peter Benson Miller
An art historian and curator, Peter Benson Miller teaches for the Master of Art Program at LUISS Business School in Rome, where he also serves on the advisory board. As a consultant, he develops international relations for La Quadriennale di Roma and exhibition projects for Cività Mostre e Musei. He is currently completing a book about exchanges between American and Italian artists in Rome between 1948 and 1964. As the Andrew Heiskell Arts Director at the American Academy from 2013-2019, he curated exhibitions featuring the work of, among others, Yto Barrada, Charles Ray, Prabhavathi Meppayil, Cy Twombly, and Paolo Gioli. He is the editor of Philip Guston, Roma (2010) and Go Figure! New Perspectives on Guston (2015). He lives between Rome and the Salento.
RAP: What is your definition of “art” today?
Peter Benson Miller: When it is effective, art challenges all of our assumptions, especially those related to definitions of art, probing our sense of self, our relationships to society, power and each other. It uncovers injustice, forges new paradigms, speculates about the unknown, and forces us to confront our most deep-seeded fears.
RAP: Art is dynamic and regenerates itself… how does it change, and how did it change us?
Peter: Art changes constantly, but incrementally, often through a series of decisions made by artists in their studios. The full impact of those changes is rarely immediately apparent. Art changes us the same way, haphazardly working its way into our thoughts, haunting us, until we begin to connect the dots.
RAP: When (and how) did you understand that art was becoming very important in your life?
Peter: I can’t remember it ever not being important. In high school, thanks to a visionary ceramics teacher, Eve N. Carey, I began to understand that art, making it, as well as thinking, reading and writing about it, could be a lifelong professional pursuit.
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?
Peter: As we confront a period of epochal change, art offers a way to negotiate, if not completely understand, the challenges ahead. I feel uncomfortable about the notion of "great figures" or canons of any kind, but I am drawn to the questions asked by such artists as Yto Barrada, Patricia Cronin, Theaster Gates, David Hammons, Sally Mann, Charles Ray, Zoe Strauss and Carrie Mae Weems, to name only a few. Philip Guston remains a towering figure, as a consummate artist's artist and lightning rod for a whole range of pressing contemporary debates about art and its role in society.
RAP: Are there still traditional figures such as collectors, muses, mecenate and patrons, in today’s art and society interaction model?
Peter: Of course, given that we live in a capitalist society, collectors and patrons continue to play an important role. I can't help but feel, though, that at the moment the cart is driving the horse in many cases, rather than the other way around.
RAP: How have the new technologies and media culture changed art today, improving or worsening it…? What do you feel are your biggest challenges?
Peter: The jury is still out. Digital media was essential to many artists and cultural institutions over the past year, but there is no substitute for a direct encounter with a work of art. I fear that the number of likes on instagram will overwhelm other, more valid criteria.
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?
Peter: It was shattered a long time ago. By some miracle, the creative impulse survived the Holocaust and Hiroshima, as it did after other global calamities. Light and shadow cannot exist without each other, at least not in works of art.
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?
Peter: All three are necessary, and necessarily intertwined. There is no "right path"; each person must confront a work of art in their own way, even when the work is seemingly impenetrable. Criticism, or evaluating whether a work is compelling or meaningful, is a natural part of this process.
RAP: Which is the real role of Academies and Art schools today? What can artists learn from these institutions today?
Peter: Academies and art schools vary from those that teach critical thinking to those that help hone skills. All approaches are valid. The American Academy in Rome, for example, reinvented itself after WWII, leaving behind its original emphasis on traditional artistic training. Ever since, the spirit of interdisciplinary exchange has benefitted artists and scholars alike, encouraging them to question the boundaries of their respective pursuits. This should be the goal, regardless of whether artists attend institutions or not.
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?
Peter: I don't think we should confuse marketing with a rigorous artistic process. Authenticity should never be sacrificed to market-driven artistic identity. In this historical moment, we need considerably more authenticity and less branding. I realize that the pressures are immense, but artists should remain focused on creating genuine, uncompromising works of art.
RAP: How do Art Galleries and Museums position themselves today, and, in your opinion, how should they?
Peter: In some cases, it is hard to tell the difference between the two as mega-galleries bypass museums and organize blockbusters of their own with lavish catalogues. Recent events in the United States have forced museums to rethink their priorities and diversify their collections and exhibition programs, reconnecting them to the local communities they serve. It is about time.
RAP: “Figuration” vs “Abstraction”. Which of the two is better descriptive of the period we live in? Which one will have a better future?
Peter: These categories don't mean much anymore. They were unstable from the outset, imposed as they were by forces external to the artist's studio.
RAP: Today we often speak of “emerging artists”; what advice based on your experience do you feel you can give to young artists?
Peter: I have worked closely with "emerging artists" of all ages. Well-considered advice is always helpful, but what "emerging artists" really need are well-funded fellowships and residencies, structures that allow them to test their ideas and create independently from the pressures imposed by the market. This is where well-intentioned patrons can productively invest in the collective good.
RAP: Art as a lens for reading the present, can it modify the space and time we pass through? …will art save us?
Peter: Art should certainly heighten our awareness of time and space, along with a whole host of other things we take for granted, but we might be beyond saving. At its best, art can show us where we went wrong.
@peterbensonmiller