Art is the shortest way from Man to Man. It is upon this catchphrase that ArtWe builds its approach: to demystify art and make it accessible to all.
Alfred Stieglitz, a great name in the American art scene from the early 20th century, had already noted in 1916, that the artistic approach proposed by the great institutions was not the best.
ArtWe responds to this call more than a century later by developing an approach to art based on the development of a local and accessible art market.
- Alfred Stieglitz: The Visionary
- The Beautiful according to Axel Kahn
- Do not Contemplate Art but Live with it
- An Open Art Market
Alfred Stieglitz: The Visionary
Sam Hunter, author of the Modern American Painting and Sculpture published in 1959, quotes Alfred Stieglitz in these words:
I feel that the system now in vogue of bringing the public into contact with the painting of today is basically wrong. The usual exhibition is nothing but noise maker. It does not do what it is professedly to do: To bring about a closer Life between Expression and Individual.
Alfred Stieglitz
The term “usual exhibition” for Stieglitz refers to the conventional means of presenting art: a cold showroom, paintings hanging on the walls, and the surrounding void. There is nothing fundamentally bad, but a dead setting where the contact art/public is not really challenged.
It also implies the existence of a link between the individual and expression, a link made possible through a meeting with art. What setting could allow such a vision?
The Beautiful according to Axel Kahn
Axel Kahn, a multi-faceted French scientist and essayist states words of great accuracy regarding the notion of Beauty and its universality in his book Pensées en chemin, Ma France des Ardennes au Pays-Basque, published in 2015:
The quality of beauty has no meaning except in reference to a species able to experience it, that is, in the first analysis, human beings. Is beauty any perception or sensation likely to cause a pleasant emotion without direct link with any utility function and without it being necessary to base the origin due.
It is possible to ask someone if he finds an object or idea beautiful, but certainly not to require that he tells us the objective reasons.
Such a trait may have appeared very early in our history. About 1.8 million years ago, the cutters of the first stone tools gave their work a formal quality that the objects in question did not require.
Axel Kahn
Art, in all its forms, is therefore innate for mankind. So the need to make art accessible through new ways of diffusion makes great sense.
Stop Contemplating Art but Live with it
ArtWe inaugurated its live artistic approach during the launching event that took place in Montreal, Canada. This event gathered the following elements:
– An uncommon place, different from the usual spaces of art diffusion: a co-working space.
– An uninhibited atmosphere, with drinks of all kinds brought by the public itself. It made the place warm and friendly.
– Social interactions: People were there first and foremost to meet each other and have a good time together. Art as a pretext to meeting people?
– An exchange between artists and public: Artists were present on site to install proximity with the public and explain their artworks.
– Visual art but not only visual art… The evening also included live performances by musicians and a comedian. The association of different artistic spheres in the same venue multiplies the expressive power of each one.
To resume, this setting opens a field of possibilities which frees art from institutional shackles. Art is no longer an end in itself, but a pretext for sharing, encountering people, open mindedness and thinking.
Contemplating art is good, living with it is better.
Live Music / Photo credit Simon Girard 
Credit photo Simon Girard 
Léo Hardt performing / Photo credit Yoann Shon Gehlen
An open Art Market
Accessible art also means developing a local and direct market with artists from all areas and backgrounds.
In the article Collecting Art: Why? How? we studied the reasons collectors strive to acquire artwork. ArtWe’s approach encourages some of them:
– The acquisition of art for the love of the artwork itself, a vector of emotion that resonates with the minds of the people who contemplate it.
– The exchange of art because it is the creator of a social link of proximity between artists and art amateurs within a city or a district. Art is a pretext for meeting other people, having intellectual exchanges and enjoying common enrichment.
You might also have the chance to discover a future Van Gogh or Jeff Koons before he becomes an art world superstar! This would definitely be the best financial investment of your life…
More than anywhere else, everything is possible in the art world.
Opening soon: A new local platform promoting unique & authentic pieces of art to be discovered in your area [yourcity.artwe.online].
Enjoy your visit !
Team ArtWe
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