Karin Bos: Woodcuts by Karin Bos

zaterdag 12 mei 2012

Woodcuts by Karin Bos

Karin Bos, Headtunes, woodcut on paper, 55 x 55 cm, 1996, edition 15

Karin Bos, Peanuts, woodcut on paper, 50 x 85 cm, 1994, edition 9

Karin Bos, Beautiful, woodcut on paper, 30 x 30 cm, 1992, edition 10

Karin Bos, Big Art, woodcut on paper, 30 x 30 cm, 1992, edition 10

Karin Bos, Good, woodcut on paper, 30 x 30 cm, 1992, edition 10

Karin Bos, Great, woodcut on paper, 30 x 30 cm, 1992, edition 10

Karin Bos, Nice, woodcut on paper, 30 x 30 cm, 1992, edition 10

Karin Bos, Well Done, woodcut on paper, 30 x 30 cm, 1992, edition 10

This Big Art series I created as a humorous comment on the art world is almost sold out.

The 6 woodcuts I call my Big Art series are inspired by the stamps I received as a child at school as a reward for doing a task well. As adults we still depend on others for approval, more often as we would like to; during a job interview, applying for a grant or entering an art contest, we need the "approved" stamp to reach our goal. Especially nowadays, 10 years after creating this series, almost every television program is set up as a contest. It seems as if we are obsessed with the concept of competition.

Karin Bos, Too complex to catch, woodcut on paper, 30 x 150 cm, 1993, edtition 6, SOLD OUT

The texts in Dutch these "party ducks" shout are literally comments I received from art committee members. Stereotypes as "Keep up the good work", "It has something to it", It's a little sloppy", "It has to mature".
One day I received two letters on the same day: one was an approval and the other one a denial.
The first one said, because your work has so much quality we give you this grant, the other one said, because your work has not enough quality, we won't select your work. That's how I learned as a young artist to put the opinions of others into perpective. Relativation helps to develop as an artist, is my experience.