In the New York Times keynote on authenticity, Tom Sachs explains what he thinks it means to be authentic in life and art. He breaks down the idea that authenticity is perfect or high-end, mass-produced; he instead implies that authenticity is found in the process and the intent of the making.
Sachs’ perspective has echoed my own considerations of the relationship between art and identity. Although I’m aware that authenticity in art is not so much about being loyal to an external but furthering one’s personal vision, It’s difficult to actualize in practice. If art is an extension of oneself, it’s therefore implied that one must be in tune with oneself to a nearly enlightened extent to make “good” art.
Sachs tells us that authenticity in art does not depend upon originality or perfection but on being genuine and true to the deeper realities of the human condition. Not only does he discuss this in the context of modernistic consumerism choking out individualism, but in regard to the artist’s personal journey. I find it difficult to release the urge to perfect my work, and hearing an artist I admire affirm that it is not only nonessential, but gross, is very profound to me.