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Art & Art History vocabulary · Contemporary Art

Artist statement

Meaning in art & art history, with examples

nounCommon term

In art & art history, artist statement means: A short text in which artists explain what their work is about, how they make it and why, often written for exhibitions, applications and websites.

In Turkish: sanatçı beyanı, sanatçı metni

How it is used

Required for most art school applications, open calls, residencies and grants. It is usually 100–300 words long, written in the first person and mostly in the present tense. Curators and juries read it to understand the ideas behind the work.

Example sentences

  1. Please send ten images of your work and a one-page artist statement.

  2. Keep your artist statement simple and avoid jargon the jury might not understand.

Common collocations

  • write an artist statement
  • short artist statement
  • artist statement and CV
  • submit an artist statement
  • critiqueA detailed discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of an artwork; in art schools, a session where students show their work and get feedback from tutors and classmates.
  • contemporary artThe art of the present time, usually meaning work made from about the 1960s or 1970s to today, often using new media, ideas and ways of exhibiting.
  • curatorA person who chooses and arranges artworks for exhibitions, or who looks after and researches a museum's collection.
  • biennialA large international exhibition of contemporary art held every two years in the same city, such as those in Venice, São Paulo and Istanbul.

More terms: Contemporary Art

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