Autistic artists in the art world

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This is my first post on here. I have written an article on my personal art blog about autistic artists trying to get their work 'out there' in galleries and noticed by the public. I wrote this after talking about it last weekend to a family member. They know a bit about the art business and their advice to me was that it is a dirty business, more about who you know, altering your work to please judges (in open competitions), lots of networking, lots of socialising and selling yourself. Didn't sound good to someone that probably is somewhere at the higher end of the spectrum (I say probably because I'm not officially diagnosed). I don't think it's impossible to get somewhere in the art business but I do think that this is a difficult business to get into for anyone, but for the autistic artist it is extemely difficult.

Here is the article. Maybe some people have had a more positive experience, if so please share this experience.

I've been thinking about this one for a while and is a topic which is particularly concerning for me as an artist trying to get my work out there and seen. I am not diagnosed as autistic officially although I do have a great deal of trouble dealing with social situations and meeting new people (quite terrifying and exhausting). My daughter has high functioning autism and a lot of her behaviour is similar to mine, so maybe I'm a high functioning autistic person, maybe not, maybe I'm just crap as talking the talk and being around new people. The problem however is that in the art world there is an expectation that you socialise, you attend art previews, you get to know people, you network and approach galleries and people in the business in order to sell yourself. What if you don't have those skills due to autism? Is the art business missing out of a huge chunk of untapped creativity because that creativity isn't good at marketing itself? This is a question that a lot of shy or introverted people have to deal with, but what about the autistic artist? If I'm at a social gathering with lots of new people I find that I have to go for a 'time out' walk or sit in a quiet corner after an hour (sometimes earlier). Sensory overload I suppose. The art helps because it 'gets it out' as I like to say. It provides hours and hours of focus alone where I can think and become lost in the action of making my picture. It would be nice if others appreciate my work but if they don't, fine it's for me primarily anyway. This leads me to another question or problem with the autistic artist making it in the art business. Often artists receive commissions or alter the style of work that they submit to an open exhibition or prize so that they appeal to the judges' taste. The autistic artist has no concept of pleasing the tastes of another, the art is about what is in their mind and expressing it. That isn't to say that artists who are not autistic don't produce art that comes as a true expression of themselves (that is what art is about), it's that some artists know how to please the audience.

Another difficulty for the aspiring autistic artist is that they often have a favourite tool to express what is in their mind (although other artists have favourite tools they do seem to mix in other media). My favourite tool is charcoal pencil. I realise that I will have to expand on that so I'll stretch it to some paintings later this year, however I'm not massively experimental in terms of materials and techniques used such as fabrics, printing etc. Many well known artists seem to have quite a wide repertoire of techniques which I would feel overwhelmed by if I were to incorporate it suddenly in my work. It makes my head spin thinking about it. I attended art college for a year and for the most part hated it because the pressure was on to play around with various media. That isn't to say it is wrong, of course not, art college is about experimentation. I could probably manage an introduction to printing, learn everything about it, spend hours with it and perfect it and then move on to another technique (but leave the printing out). Lots of techniques introduced in a short space of time is very worrying for myself. I love working out of my comfort zone (that's where you learn) but I can't handle lots of new materials being introduced in a short period of time and being expected to work with them. I'm unsure if this is an autistic artist problem or not but I do notice that many autistic artists out there seem to have a favourite form of expression that persists more with their work than I see with other artists.

I think that maybe the expectation of the art business for artists is sometimes very difficult for those with any form of autism (or learning disability). The expectation of networking, socialising, presenting art to galleries, pleasing the audience with commissions may seem easy or even fun to many aspiring artists (or for introverted people they can learn skills to overcome their problems), however the autistic artist will struggle with the 'small talk' needed in networking, they will struggle with gauging what people are looking for and they will be oblivious in many instances of art fashions. Are these good or bad things? Maybe bad if you are autistic and trying to make a career in the art business however very good for producing original art (but you might have to accept that you won't get much notice off the public). There is a significant area of art that has identified the difficulties that I have highlighted above. This is outsider art. Some dislike the term, however it is for ease of simplicity a way of describing the many artists who have a need or necessity to make their art outside the mainstream art business. Some artists have profound learning disabilities, some have mental illness, some just don't like the mainstream art world, some just want to create their art individually without influence from what is fashionable or what is popular.

To summarise, the mainstream art world is a scary and difficult place for an aspiring autistic artist. There are many barriers although there are some projects for young adults who wish to get their art seen however this excludes adults over the age of 25. What about them? I have been told that often the people who are successful as artists are those who are lucky, network and know the right people. How can an artist who has difficulties due to autism or a learning difficulty/mental illness and many other conditions hope to break through into this world? Should we even try? What other opportunities are there to become known besides open exhibitions and approaching galleries?

I agree that breaking into any field of artistic endeavor is, sadly, very, very, very much about "who you know" rather than your actual talent and your work. I mean, of course the work has to be good, but just the work being good isn't actually enough, it's true.

I can speak of the music industry a little bit, as, not unlike the art world, it runs along the same lines of networking being THE machinery behind actually breaking in and getting anywhere. You can almost interchange "visual arts" for "music/being in a band."

I spent almost two decades actively pursuing a music career, starting out at local level as one does. My music was fairly decent -- enough for me to say that it wasn't just friends and family who told me I was good, lol. I was advised by people who ran open mics and heard my stuff, strangers, audience members and people who booked shows that I was doing great stuff -- and they booked me. So, with that out of the way, I was at least a competent enough music maker that I was actually bookable and desirable (just to put on record I wasn't a hopeless talentless freak who would get rejected by Simon Cowell, hahaha! )
Well, the fact the I was decent-to-good at what I did was only the smallest fragment of moving ahead. It quickly became clear that networking, socializing, "hanging out" -- a LOT, extensively -- and being, of course, likeable, was the main driving factor in winding up knowing a person who knows a person who knows a person who can book me that bigger gig, finance that record, etc.

I'm not even talking about underhand stuff myths are made of -- there was no casting couch kind of deal, I'm not meaning that kind of thing. Just literally knowing the right people and being friends enough with all types of people that you ease your way through getting all kinds of above-board help, studio time if you're broke, a drummer who can sit in and is willing to -- a bigger venue to play.

It's all a social game. It all relies very, very heavily on buddying up with anyone you meet within the field. I tried, and, to the extent to which I'm not completely anti-social, I did enjoy the social side to a certain extent. But it was a strain for me as it's NOT my natural environment (being highly, endlessly social) and also there was the uncanny valley thing about me.

Which is to say, while I can be friendly and warm enough to make some friends, and some people get to like me, most people react oddly to me, because I AM a bit odd, even when I think I'm managing not to be or to fake being not odd. I don't think I fake as well as I think I do, because I always, my whole life, still get people looking at me funny and I know they're seeing the side of me that comes across as not quite the same as a regular gal.

In my younger years I also could barely stand to pick up a phone and have to call people! A HUGE disadvantage. I overcame it but it was a tiny bit of a nightmare to do so.

So, that was my longwinded way of saying (apologies, by the way!) that YES, it's a struggle to be possibly on the spectrum or at the very least a natural introvert who finds social situations a struggle, challenging, tiring and awkward most of the time, to take part in a world where social networking is actually almost more important than being any good at your art!

I constantly witnessed incredibly talented friends of mine, bands and solo acts, get nowhere, even though their music was extraordinarily good, only because they were sh!t at forcing connections, as was I.

By the same token I saw really awful, worthless, crappy musicians go a long way because they happened to be really skilled socialites and everyone's favorite person.

It seems sad but true that if one is socially crippled a little bit in any way, it's harder to make the right connections to get your work and potential career advanced.

Having said that, of course there simply must be plenty of people in the arts who are successful and whom we even may already know of, yet in their private selves they are introverts or spectrumites. Obviously not everyone on the spectrum is going to be unable to succeed -- Bill Gates is rumored to be on the autism spectrum yet look how he has managed to navigate his world and his career, and the people he has inevitable had to deal with.

So my story won't be the same for everyone, but I just wanted to share it to say that yes, social struggle can hamper one's pursuit of a field in which social connections can be as important as your actual gift.

I wish I could offer solutions but as yet I haven't managed to come up with any myself. I'm now 52 and gave up on my music career such as it was. Mostly because I quite literally just wanted to stay home at night curled up cosy and safe instead of being out in clubs and bars schmoozing people and buying drinks for some agent and wondering what the hell I'm doing there.

.

This is how I got my aspergers diagnosis.

I was with my psychologist, and she was telling me what I could do with my art, and how to get it out into the world and possibly turn a buck. After bringing up reservations I had based on my executive function and social anxiety issues, she put two and two together and within half hour, I had a my diagnosis.

For me, it's not only knowing people but knowing what to do. I know 'of' ways to put my art out there, but I don't know 'how' the way to get my art out there works. I'm not willing to stress out and flounder around without someone to figuratively and possibly literally hold my hand to teach me what to do. I don't need the stress. My art is the most important thing in my life but I would rather keep my art to myself than have panic attacks, high blood pressure, and other health issues because I don't know what I'm doing.

Thanks for your responses. Very interesting and in many ways very sad. The untapped talent out there! I've searched the web looking for organisations who can offer help to people on the spectrum who want to pursue an arts career and so far I've not found much. A couple of places run workshops for young people below 25 (I'm 38) and there is one art website that supports outsider art but the catch is that you have to send a piece of your artwork (don't like that bit) to join. It would be great to have an online resource/website that allows aspiring artists to put their work on and puts forward art exhibition opportunities that are more sympathetic (not so much emphasis on the wine and socialise preview night). It makes me wonder how those on the spectrum that are successful in the art business have managed to get there.

Something to think about.

this very issue has been consuming my attention for the last 5 years or so. a capacity for self-promotion and frankly knowing the right people really does matter (at least in this "market"), and as an artist on the spectrum, these are two of the things that are practically impossible for me/inapplicable to me (not only do i not know the right people, i hardly know any people at all). in an ideal world, the work would speak for itself; i as the artist should need to say nothing for it. sometimes it's quite hard not to feel....stymied, thwarted by neurology. blarg.

I feel the same way about my work. I create my pictures, the people I know like them and then what? I remember when I attended my art college interview. The first place I attended (a well regarded art college in the centre of Manchester, UK) seemed to have very specific ideas about what they considered art and if you fell outside that you weren't getting in. I went through my portfolio, the guy looking at it looked unimpressed and finally walked away without saying anything. Needless to say I didn't get a place. The second interview at another well regarded art college in Salford was the complete opposite. The guy looking through my folder couldn't get enough of my work and even suggested that if there had been more I could have gone straight onto a degree course in Fine Art. The conclusion from this is that the art business is very subjective, there is a lot of luck involved and that some people expect you to sell yourself and your work in order to convince them that it is good. I was lucky in Salford because they judged my work and not me. The Manchester college was more about you going to them and convincing them that you were worth it and that you would fit in with them. I've never wanted to fit in with an art college, rather I want the college/gallery or whatever to support me as an artist and leave me to it. Maybe that single mindedness is a problem in large parts of the business. Often it's movements like Brit Art or artists who to group together to produce work who get noticed which is something that an autistic art is going to be having difficulty with.

It seems that there are people out there that can appreciate the work as it is, the issue is how to get it out there so that they can see it?

I did get my work into two galleries, both by invitation by the gallery owner upon seeing my work. Neither time was I seeking out a gallery. One gallery changed to workshops only. The other sold some work but raised the prices quite a bit to cover their commissions.
The last one has not returned my work.
I also found ASD to be an issue. Meet the Artist weekends? I said no right after I tried to figure out how many handshakes that may require. Was my speech up to it? No.
Buyers wanted a portfolio with lots of personal information and a photo. I did not want strangers to have that kind of info about me.
The Who You Know can be a big factor, but it might be dealt with by joining a non-profit group which helps local arts, so you pick your level of participation.
Do a demo on some odd technique or materials you use. That way artists coming to your class or volunteering with you might get to know you a little.
The Gallery I used most had many artists who knew I have ASD and I was glad to find them kind. Some did help a lot in increasing my understanding of the Art Gallery System overall.

Excellent advice Buttercup. I've found a gallery in Scotland that supports artists who have various difficulties (autism and depression for example). I might ask them about their work and see if there are opportunities in my area or if there is a possibility of setting up something to help aspiring artists who would otherwise struggle in the mainstream art world.