Luke Chueh Responds to Art Critics

As a person who finds critique an important part of art appreciation, I enjoyed seeing this “response painting” by Luke Chueh. He writes on his blog:

“One Trick Pony (Juggling)” was inspired by my own fears and feelings that critics might consider me a “One Trick Pony” (ie. an artist whose abilities are limited to one specific thing. In my case that one thing would be my bears).

Go on…

The painting also features the bear juggling red spheres (or dots). The “Red Dot” is a symbol used in art galleries to announce that an artwork has been sold. To sum it up, what I’m saying is: ‘Sure, I might be a one trick pony, but at least that one trick is my ability to handle these red dots’.

Burn! Well-played…

While I can’t claim to completely understand what Chueh is doing, I do know how repetition can be very satisfying, and I also note the frequency with which people tattoo Chueh’s sad bears on their skin. Meanwhile, the value and perceived success of an artistic work is often really subjective. I did a quick Google search to see who was lobbing the “one trick pony” critique at Chueh, and wouldn’t you know it? The “critics” are anonymous members of toy forums. For instance…

People sometimes ask me why I don’t maintain a presence on fan forums. While I’d be interested in reading a ‘real’ critique of Chueh’s artwork, I think I’ll continue to skip the baseless put-downs on the majority of forums I’ve tried. If you want to frustrate yourself needlessly, click here to read a 2010 thread on Kidrobot’s forum and click here to read a 2008 thread on Super7’s Skullbrain forum. If not, may I recommend Siskel and Ebert on How to be a Critic?