Is Happy to be an Outsider

In France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands the British artist David Tremlett is a star. Last March, 1.500 guests packed the new Carre d’Art in Nimes for the opening night of a retrospective of three decades of his work, including four mural-sized wall drawings made specially for the show Next Saturday an exhibition of his drawings opens at the Gemeentes museum in the Hague, while at the end of November a larger, modified version of the Nimes retrospective transfers to the Barcelona.

Between planes, Tremlett lives with his wife (the gallery owner) and their two small children in Hertfordshire, but a t the moment he is in Amiens negotiating with the city over a proposal to turn an old warehouse into a permanent setting for his work.

Tremlett one is of those British artists who are far more better known abroad. Though he has many ardent admirers here (he’s been short-listed for the Turner Prize and has shown at the Serpentine Gallery), the really big marks of recognition – the Hayward Gallery retrospective, the shows at the Tate or the Whitechapel – have eluded him. On the surface, at least, this neglect is puzzling. Tremlett’s drawings have a tranquillity unusual in the art of this time. Unlike other ratists of his generation who make wall drawings, such as the americans Richard Serra and Sol Lewitt, he isn’t interested in dominating the architectural space in which he works. ‘My art isn’t about frightening or disturbing people. My desire is to produce rigorous beauty.’

Tremlett, who works primarily in pastels, tempers the austere formal discipline of his work with a lightness of touch that is highly personal. Tremlett, who works primarily in pastels, tempers the austere formal discipline of his work with a lightness of touch that is highly personal. A wall drawing might consist of a rectangular shape in dove gray set in against a field of blue. Working with assistants, he rubs these powdery pigments directly into the wall with his bare hands to achieve the rich, suffusion of color he seeks.

The truth is that the status of an outsider suits Tremlett very well. ‘What keeps me alive is a fighting spirit. I ruthlessly push myself, but try to retain the softness and tranquility. In the end, that’s all my work is about – thoroughness and beauty.

Above all, Tremlett’s work does not follow any trend. ‘I seriously believe that great artists live what they are making. If you remain in the zone of fashion, I think you are doomed to be second-rate. Artists who follow a trend aren’t making a standard of their own.’ In an art world driven by marketing and type, this in itself amounts to a radical agenda.

Richard Dorment

2.7. Write an analytical summary for:

The Print Media: Newspapers

Every edition of a newspaper contains hundreds of news stories and pieces of information, in much greater number than the largest news staff can gather by itself. More than most readers realize, and many editors care to admit, newspapers depend upon information brought to them voluntarily.

The Columbia Journalism Review noted, for example, that in one edition the Wall Street Journal had obtained 45 percent of its 188 news items from news releases. Because of its specialized nature, the Journal's use of news releases may be higher than that of general-interest daily newspapers. Public relations generates about 50 percent of the stories in New York City newspapers.

Approximately 1500 daily newspapers and 7200 weekly newspapers are published in the United States. Most cities today have only one daily newspaper, resulting in little competition between newspapers. Television, direct mail, and the Internet are now the main challenges to newspapers. While some metropolitan newspapers have circulation of more than a million copies a day, approximately two-thirds of the daily newspapers have circulation of 20,000 or less. Newspapers published for distribution in the late afternoon, called evening or P.M. papers, outnumber morning (A.M.) papers approximately three to one. Especially in larger cities, however, a substantial trend toward morning publication is in progress. Knowledge of a newspaper's hours of publication and the deadlines it enforces for submission of copy is essential for everyone who supplies material to the paper.

Approximately three-quarters of American daily newspapers are owned by newspaper groups. The publishers and editors of a group-owned newspaper have broad local autonomy but must follow operating standards laid down by group headquarters.

Newspapers receive nearly 80 percent of their income from advertising and about 20 percent from selling papers to readers. They cannot afford to publish press releases that are nothing more than commercial advertising; to do so would cut into their largest source of income. To be published a news release submitted to a newspaper must contain information that an editor regards as news of interest to a substantial number of readers. Newspapers cannot be forced to publish any material, including news releases, nor need they receive permission from the government or anyone else to publish whatever they desire.