Black Bucket Essays
Volume 2, Issue 1
“The value of art is in the observer."
- Agnes Martin
Fritz Horstman
Both internal and external forces compel us to make art. The noblest of the external forces, and
the one to which I think Agnes Martin refers, is the creation of a physical or conceptual product
that becomes the subject of and participant in some cultural conversation, and which may in
some way move that conversation forward. The conversation, whatever form it may take,
happens only when there are conversers who are also observers. To call such compulsion to
engage strictly external is inaccurate. That conversation is going on out in the world, but the
decision to attempt to participate comes from somewhere else. The experiences of visiting
galleries and museums, reading articles and books, attending lectures, and seeing the people
around us engage with it all provide a context and a set of external forces that exert some pull.
A willing and interested person can form thoughts and write essays and make objects that align
with the basic contours of that conversation. That submission of content may change and
propel the conversation, or reaffirm it, or undermine it, but the entire enterprise of art relies on
not only the external forces exerting a pull towards their awaiting venues but also the internal
engagement with that pull.
I am writing these words in response to the external beckoning of others potentially reading
them. Sorting out why I want to engage with this publication or any of the other venues of art
highlights the social and cultural aspects of the internal drive to write about and make art.
There is some other facet to my desire to make art, one that has little to do with showing it to
other people.
We all, to varying extents, have a need to be creative. For most, there is also a hunger for
knowledge. Perhaps it is less exciting to consider, but nonetheless undeniable, that we also
have the need and desire to be occupied. The three are inextricable, though identifying which is
most prevalent in a given impetus informs the question of what is the internal need for art.
I have lots of questions about the material world. Those questions find form in the studio.
There is often a great deal of messy thinking and reforming the questions. Some of that
eventually ends up as art that I might show to the external art world. In between the questions
and a finished object there is a great deal of fiddling and mopping up. Those relatively quiet
periods make up the majority of time in the studio. That time when it could be said that I am
simply occupied with my task is some of the most important. It is in this occupation that I find
the internal compulsion to make art. It is the time when the unchecked utterances of my
thought process are most likely to register. If I am truly absorbed in the task, the external forces
that may have had some say in getting a project started become negligible. When I am simply
occupied, I am most able to observe my questions and creative impulses. Being absorbed in the
occupation of art— or any creative task—allows the creative- and knowledge-seeking mind to
observe itself. One of the values of art is the internal forces forgetting (albeit, temporarily) the
external observer.
Volume 2, Issue 1
“The value of art is in the observer."
- Agnes Martin
Fritz Horstman
Both internal and external forces compel us to make art. The noblest of the external forces, and
the one to which I think Agnes Martin refers, is the creation of a physical or conceptual product
that becomes the subject of and participant in some cultural conversation, and which may in
some way move that conversation forward. The conversation, whatever form it may take,
happens only when there are conversers who are also observers. To call such compulsion to
engage strictly external is inaccurate. That conversation is going on out in the world, but the
decision to attempt to participate comes from somewhere else. The experiences of visiting
galleries and museums, reading articles and books, attending lectures, and seeing the people
around us engage with it all provide a context and a set of external forces that exert some pull.
A willing and interested person can form thoughts and write essays and make objects that align
with the basic contours of that conversation. That submission of content may change and
propel the conversation, or reaffirm it, or undermine it, but the entire enterprise of art relies on
not only the external forces exerting a pull towards their awaiting venues but also the internal
engagement with that pull.
I am writing these words in response to the external beckoning of others potentially reading
them. Sorting out why I want to engage with this publication or any of the other venues of art
highlights the social and cultural aspects of the internal drive to write about and make art.
There is some other facet to my desire to make art, one that has little to do with showing it to
other people.
We all, to varying extents, have a need to be creative. For most, there is also a hunger for
knowledge. Perhaps it is less exciting to consider, but nonetheless undeniable, that we also
have the need and desire to be occupied. The three are inextricable, though identifying which is
most prevalent in a given impetus informs the question of what is the internal need for art.
I have lots of questions about the material world. Those questions find form in the studio.
There is often a great deal of messy thinking and reforming the questions. Some of that
eventually ends up as art that I might show to the external art world. In between the questions
and a finished object there is a great deal of fiddling and mopping up. Those relatively quiet
periods make up the majority of time in the studio. That time when it could be said that I am
simply occupied with my task is some of the most important. It is in this occupation that I find
the internal compulsion to make art. It is the time when the unchecked utterances of my
thought process are most likely to register. If I am truly absorbed in the task, the external forces
that may have had some say in getting a project started become negligible. When I am simply
occupied, I am most able to observe my questions and creative impulses. Being absorbed in the
occupation of art— or any creative task—allows the creative- and knowledge-seeking mind to
observe itself. One of the values of art is the internal forces forgetting (albeit, temporarily) the
external observer.
