Small is perfect

An installation view of Jennifer J. Lee’s 2023 “Square Dance” exhibition at the Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery in New York.Credit...Heidi Bohnenkamp Photography

The Art World’s Next Big Thing: Tiny Paintings

Works the size of postcards and bathroom tiles are challenging the market’s appetite for grand scales.

While the artists who make them vary in style and approach, they seem to share a somewhat old-fashioned view of what art is for: individual communion rather than collective spectacle — only one viewer can stand in front of each of these pieces at a time.

The scale echoes that of the source, squinted at on an iPad screen or laptop. Some of Lee’s most evocative works are around the size of a shower tile. She compares looking at one of her paintings in a gallery to peeking through a keyhole: “I love being able to beckon someone to look at something.”

 Small paintings are also intimate, seductive and unpretentious. As Middleton puts it, they “creep up on you.” While the artists who make them vary in style and approach, they seem to share a somewhat old-fashioned view of what art is for: individual communion rather than collective spectacle — only one viewer can stand in front of each of these pieces at a time.

Mia Middleton’s 6.3-by-6.3-inch painting “Bill” (2023).Credit...Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles. Photo: Paul Salveson

Today, some artists and dealers are looking to cultivate sustainability by staying small. “Why can’t we have a middle-class existence? Why do we have to make hundreds of thousands of dollars?” asks Lee. “All I’ve ever wanted is to keep going.”

Lee’s 4-by-4-inch painting “Untitled (Train)” (2023).Credit...Courtesy of the artist and Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery

Of course. a painter like me would love this article, but even more, I love this movement away from the gigantic works of Art that engorge museums and galleries world-wide and making them feel like airports and shopping malls. Enough, I say! 

Not only do such large Disney spaces seem overwhelming, but they further legitimise an idea that Art is somehow entertaining which it really isn't. There are many over-sized pieces like Jeff Koon's 'Puppy'  and Anish Kapoor's polished steel 'Cloud Gate' which are extremely successful public outdoor sculptures, and of both, one could possibly describe them as 'entertaining' to experience, but I wouldn't unless they are under 15 years of age. For me, they answer an audience's thirst for amazement, or even to be surprised into enlightenment. But entertainment, no, I don't think so. (disclaimer, I really like them both and very much in their outdoor context, but I might feel differently if they were parked indoors. Why? I couldn't say, just a hunch. 

That said, there is an intimacy in looking at small things because like someone said in the article, they draw the viewer in closer. Personally, and though my paintings are not quite as small as some of these, I've always dreamed of exhibiting a few dozen of them on white walls with at least a meter of space between them so in order to give the viewer a a reflective moment. I like space guy, and I like it everywhere, and in every context, so naturally I appreciated these views in the article. 

I really this tiny blue face by Mia Middleton. I think I like especially because it is so small, but tragic too. And as some of us know, small and tragic seem to go well together for some odd reason. Just sayin.

But then, (the elephant in the room), is the greater issue about why Paintings are losing their appeal to the public, writ large. Are we painters destined to also be flung out of the castle and into the dark landscape of illiteracy like our brethren poets? (Say it ain't so!)  

The biggest culprit appears to be our obsession with i-pads and smart phones. Have we all lost our souls to these tiny but miraculous devises?Do we have the time or even the ability to focus on an artwork? Maybe, if it's a poor artwork or one of just little interest to us, that's fair to assume, but are we not possibly moving away from art as a form of contemplation and visual reflection? I wish I had an had answer to all this.