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Torbjørn Kvasbø | Episode 524
Torbjørn Kvasbø lives and works in Venabygd, Norway. When Torbjørn was a child, his father said, “For God’s sake, never get a regular job. With those words to encourage him, Torbjørn has pursued his own ambitions and intentions without hesitation. Clay has been the pursuit that Torbjørn has worked with instead of getting that “regualr job”. Even Torbjørn’s work with clay has been far from “regular”. He approaches clay punches, massage, kneading, rolling, throwing, pressing, stretching, and stamping all the while trying to get clay to become the vision that dances in Torbjørn’s own mind.
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What role does art play in Norway?
Well, if you look at television, if you listen to music, if you listen to radio, if you go to the library, if you go to museums, if you go to galleries, if you look at any kind of item that you are using in your home, city planning, there artists and designers involved in almost everything here. You won’t see it maybe and you won’t think about it, but this is the truth. If you listen to a concert there are artists playing. If you go to a library, we couldn’t be there without the artists.
How should artists be compensated for all their effort?
I think art is a public responsibility. Well you first have to recognize that art is important. If you don’t think art is important you probably wouldn’t deal with that question. I think, like the art market how it works today, you know, outrageous prices for the work, I don’t think that really has much to do with art. I have sympathy for Warrren Mckenzie’s philosophy. He was a ceramic artist living in the Minnesota area. There are a whole generation of ceramic artists who have a strong sympathy for his ideas. Making pots at a reasonable low price so people can afford to buy it and make a living from this. You can make a living from making art. You don’t have to be very famous and getting very, very high prices. There are other ways to do it. I am a good example of this. Trying to communicate a lot through my art to people who never go to galleries. Trying to exhibit where they will go. So I think it is a different way of thinking, really.
How important are collectors to you?
Depends where you are, in my culture, Scandinavian, there are no collectors, because the museums, the state, collects the work systematically. They buy the work to document what is going on in our time. They have budgets for doing this and it is important. So the collector system that you have here in America, doesn’t exist. You have collectors in America that are very serious collectors and they act like the museums should have acted. They are able to take care of some of the most important work at least in ceramics and in the end they usually donate their work to a museum so they are doing what maybe or should be a public responsibility to do.
We spoke earlier about work ethic, so tell me what does your daily schedule look like as an artist?
I work often internationally so my life is a life of departures and arrivals, you know, and I have to deal with that. I do a lot of network working internationally to help colleagues connect. A day at home in my studio is a life I prefer. In studio at 8 o’clock in the morning and I work at least until 7pm. So quite long days. But then I have to go back and forth between studio and office, because of my position, I have a lot of office work as well. I spend about two thirds of my time in the studio and one third doing administrative work.
Why is networking for an artist important?
Well, all of us live in small societies, local communities. All of us. You just learn and experience to a certain degree, in a community like this. You need to expand your horizons wider and wider. You need to meet people who know more than you. You need to learn. You need to test yourself. You need to teach maybe. You need to get out and this is very obvious in the ceramic community. Ceramic artists, after musicians, we have the world’s largest network. It’s huge, with thousands and thousands of people belonging to the same network and we know of each other, everyone. And this has been very important for the development of ceramic art to make it visible in public. We work all the time to kind of spread our mission.
What do you do to help ceramics artists coming behind you become established?
Well, I have been a professor for about 12 years. I became a professor because of your question. To give students the best possible chance to be able to develop individually in society after education. To become important contributors to the development of the future through their work and there are many ways to do this. Ninety-nine percent of the ceramics artists come through a master so the most important single factor for what is going to happen in the future.
How long does it take for a person to become a master in their field?
(Laughter) I don’t think you ever become a master. You do as good as you can as long as you live, you know. You are always pushing your borders, your limits. You are always expanding your horizon, wherever you are in life as an artist. When you are young you do the same thing as I do now as older, I am pushing and pushing and pushing. I don’t think you ever become a master. You do as good as you can.
Contact
Instagram: #torbjørnkvasbø