Unique Q/A session with one of the most elusive contemporary artists known as
The Master and the leader of the improvism art movement.
The Master and the leader of the improvism art movement.
Question: First, why the secrecy?
The Master: Number of reasons, but really what does it matter who I am or how do I look like? The important thing is the artwork, whatever you like it or not has nothing to do with the fact that I have long hair or I am bald or fat or crazy or normal or that my dog is actually creating the art…
Q What you can tell us about yourself?
A: Not much: moved to North America from Europe at the end of the last century, because of the great fishing around here… living and working on a small island… have a dog…
Q: What exactly is the improvism and how do you feel as a creator and leader of such an important art movement?
A: The improvism is the way to improve the world around you by making it better… It is the simplest form of art and the beautiful thing is that everyone can do it… And the people are actually doing it all the time every day… So I am not leading the way, it’s been around for thousands if years… I am simply pointing the way…
Q: What about the critics that are saying this is not art, but a form of vandalism?
A: As my father used to say: “A critic is a just a lice on the shoulder of the artist” or something like that… We have number of examples in the distant and not so distant past of great artists that were never understood by their contemporary critics and so on…
Q: What about people that go to a museum or a gallery and paint over somebody else’s work? Is this improvism as well?
A: No, this is the vandalism; you were talking about, because you do destroy somebody’s art… But if you go and buy this artwork and then paint over it and make it better… this is what the improvism is all about…
Q: Speaking about improvism, a lot of people are looking into your “Art in a Jar” and are saying: is this the end, is this art at all, is art dead?
A: Of course it is art, it is written on the label 1000ml of Pure Art…
More seriously, we do live in very interesting times, in fact the feeling around us is very similar to the feeling the people had in the beginning of 20th century – the feeling that everything is already invented not only in the art world, but in science, technology and so on… Remember people in 1900s didn’t know what Cubism was, or Dada, or Surrealism, or Expressionism, or Pop Art, or Minimalism, or Postmodernism… To plug Michael Crichton here, they also had no idea what a radio was, or an airport, or a movie, or a television, or a computer, or a cell phone, or a jet, internet, lap dancing, email, CDs, DVD, mp3, robots, cars, electric guitars, rock ’n’ roll, punk, heavy metal…
All that said I don’t want to show that the art is dead, exactly the opposite, the whole Improvism idea is to get people to think and create… We can only imagine what the rest of the century will bring! Actually the sad truth is that we cannot even imagine, because every prediction is bound to be wrong!
Q: How people can buy your art?
A: For now mostly trough charities, as you know I am starting to donate my art work to charities and if some of your readers are running a charity event for a good cause, please contact me trough my website and I’ll gladly donate art for free, it’s a simple as that… I don’t even ask for a donation receipt.
Q: How exactly can charities contact you for getting some of your artworks?
A: Pretty easy, just send an email to info@themasterstudio.com or visit the website at www.themasterstudio.com
Q: Can collectors contact you trough your website as well?
A: Sure, I can point them to an upcoming charity event, so they can go and get my artwork there and at the same time their money will be used for good, to put a food on someone’s table or for medical research, etc…
Q: What about a commission, can someone commission you to create a masterpiece?
A: This is entirely different matter, if you have for example an old Picasso or Dali painting lying around and you are bored looking at it every day , contact me and we can definitely talk about improving it…
Q: So basically the only way to obtain art from you is trough charity event and trough commission?
A: Actually there is a third way – a trade… I am a collector myself, so if you have something you want to trade, send me a picture and I’ll make a trade for some of my art…
Q: Any commission in particular that you would like to get?
A: Yes, I really would like to be commissioned by the Louvre to improve it…
Q: Is there a painting that you think is perfect and doesn’t need improvement…
A: Yes of course, recently while traveling trough Europe, I went to Prado in Madrid to see again some of the Goya dark paintings and I think they are just perfect…
Q: Is it true that a major gallery offered a reward for your true identity?
A: I have never heard that rumor before, so I think it is a urban legend…
Q: To wrap this up, can you please tell us what advice would you give to the people reading this?
A: Do It! Join the movement! Improveight!
The Master, "Cemetery I"
Oil Pastel on 1971 Miro Lithograph