Chapter 20 – How do you select the artworks being displayed?

As much as we would revel in accepting anything from anyone, for this universe not to become a complete war zone, lacking genuine coherence, some upfront curation is indeed required. On your side, understandably, you would also like some reassurance on the professional status of the artworks presented to you, i.e. assessing if they are worth your time looking at them.

Well, in order to answer who & what could be displayed in The Blue Neon, we must briefly consider the definition of beauty itself. This matter has been exhaustively discussed over the centuries by philosophers and artists alike and I invite you to dive into some of their works for a more, let’s say, thorough and legitimate answer, but here is one nevertheless.

A fellow wanderer whose name unfortunately escapes me proposed this statement some time ago and I admit to be pretty partial to it: “beauty relies on the creativity underlying, combining elements or interacting with the world to make them appear novel, reveal something new; creative things allow us to change how we access and interact in the world in novel ways, often fundamental that pops to us, it feels true even if new”.

This illustration of beauty suits perfectly the universe you are roaming and it comforts The Blue Neon in the bet it took – surely a biased one – of relying on the same and sole criteria mentioned in the previous chapters of our discussion: a beautiful artwork is one that offers the possibility to raise many questions. For this to happen, you should sense through your screen the artists’ creativity visually emanating from the artwork. The unsolved mystery of a painting/sculpture/photography, teeming with life, acts as the unique yardstick of beauty. A plain white painting begets an interrogative atmosphere and this cannot be our choice to arbitrate whether it depicts some random criteria pertaining to a subjective definition of beauty.

Regarding the who, the term ‘professional’ used above might not be the proper one I reckon, but try to simply see it as the expression of the artist’s interest and desire, even by accident or unconsciously, to make his/her artwork visible for all. Hence, anyone could fall into this category and you are not safe either.

Finally, now equipped with the knowledge of who&what, you probably wonder what is the curation process exactly? Hmm, we would like to keep the fourth wall intact where I/we stand as the spectators and you – wanderers and artists alike – are the actors, so apologies if we don’t provide an accurate portrayal of the elements (who&what&where&how) in charge of this selection. Picture us somewhere pleasant, doing the what we feel sound right.

But what we can tell you for sure and encourage you to do is to send a picture of the artwork to contact@theblueneon.com. Truth be told, we could devote our lifetime around the question of beauty, so please don’t blame us or you if your artwork didn’t make the cut.

Don’t be shy.

Yours Sincerely,

BLUE