DIETLIND VANDER SCHAAF
The Art of Collaboration
Last year , I participated along with 37 other artists from regional encaustic organizations New England WAX and FusedChicago in a collaboration titled “ The Diptych Project II .” Based on a previous project that took place between members of New England WAX and what was then West Coast Encaustics ( now IEA ), The Diptych Project II involved the exchange of an initial piece of art between partner artists and the creation of a response piece . Artists had three months from the time they were assigned partners to create and ship a piece of their own work , as well as a statement regarding the work ’ s origins and themes . In return , they received work from their partner . They then had an additional three months to respond to the work they received , effectively creating a diptych .
Collaboration between artists is nothing new . Film , theater , and music are most often collaborative by nature . It ’ s simply not possible for one person to do everything that is needed to make a movie , stage a play , or perform an elaborate piece of music . Dadaism , an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century , went so far as to posit that that the value of art lay not in the work produced , but in the act of making and collaborating with others to create new visions of the world . One of the most famous artists collaborations involved the partnership between Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquait . While their work was poorly received at the time , their collaboration resulted in benefits to both . Basquait persuaded Warhol to begin painting on canvas again , and Basquait experimented with Warhol ’ s trademark silkscreen painting .
However many visual artists , such as myself , find it necessary to spend most of the time they devote to a project working alone . As much as I looked forward to participating in this project , I wasn ’ t sure what it would be like to create a piece of art in conjunction with someone I didn ’ t know . And unlike that of other collaborative projects , partners in The Diptych Project were strangers to one another for the most part and unfamiliar with each other ’ s work .