Interview with Sue Hubbard

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.

Sue Hubbard is an award-winning poet, novelist and freelance art critic. She has published 3 novels, short stories and four poetry collections. Her novel, Flatlands, is due from Pushkin Press in 2023. Two more poetry collections are also forthcoming in 2023.

RAP: What is your definition of “art” today?

Sue Hubbard: For me, there is no ‘art today’ because I want art and literature to be authentic and that does not particularly follow fashion. Good art is timeless.

RAP: Art is dynamic and regenerates itself… how does it change, and how did it change us?

Sue: ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty, – that is all Ye need to know on earth, and all ye need to know.’ – Keats’ words from Ode on a Grecian Urn seem to be eternally true.

RAP: When (and how) did you understand that art was becoming very important in your life?

Sue: I have been a poet since my teenage years. Later, I became a novelist and art critic. When I was young I used to draw and paint. Literature is now my form of creative expression. I have been an art critic for 25 years, so the visual arts have a big role in my life.

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?

Sue: In many ways I feel that the visual arts have lost their way. They have become too commercial and, therefore, lost some of their authenticity.

RAP: Are there still traditional figures such as collectors, muses, mecenate and patrons, in today’s art and society interaction model?

Sue: The demands of the market and academia have had an adverse effect on art. Soutine and Modigiliani did not have PhDs. They just made their work from their lived experience not bothering whether or not they sold it.

RAP: How have the new technologies and media culture changed art today, improving or worsening it…? What do you feel are your biggest challenges?

Sue: I am a writer, so less affected by technology than visual artists. People certainly read less and rely more on the internet. New technology has produced some pioneering visual work but often at a cost to authenticity.

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?

Sue: Too much visual art is self-reflexive, market and media led. Art should mirror our psychological and environmental concerns and needs more than it does.

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?

Sue: We need to read and think more and avoid art cliches and fashion. To respond with open hearts and minds.

RAP: Which is the real role of Academies and Art schools today? What can artists learn from these institutions today?

Sue: I used to do studio crits in art schools. The most valuable thing I discussed with students was how to find their own voice and not follow the herd.

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?

Sue: If its a drag for artists, then they shouldn’t be making art but be bankers.

RAP: How do Art Galleries and Museums position themselves today, and, in your opinion, how should they?

Sue: Only then will be have important exhibitions and bring on new artists.

RAP: “Figuration” vs “Abstraction”. Which of the two is better descriptive of the period we live in? Which one will have a better future?

Sue: I am not interested in this question. I am only interested in ‘good’ art. In art that challenges and digs deep.

RAP: Today we often speak of “emerging artists”; what advice based on your experience do you feel you can give to young artists?

Sue: Find your own voice and be true to yourself.

RAP: Art as a lens for reading the present, can it modify the space and time we pass through? …will art save us?

Sue: No. Art can’t save us. As the critic George Steiner wrote, the Nazis listened to Bach but still sent people to the gas chambers. Art can educate and make us think and that is important but it can’t change the world.

www.suehubbard.com