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            Painting, like any other form of art, is both present for the viewer and also remains aloof from the viewer. The intention of the artist is to design an experience for an audience; something is communicated to the audience through the painting. Often, however, there is no specific reference to the viewer, that is, the viewer is not acknowledged. In effect, the painting exists but the viewer does not. This is similar to what takes place on stage in a play. The author and the actors ignore the audience. Within the limitations of the dramatic setting, a reality is created on stage that makes no awareness of the audience there to perceive it. To do so would break that barrier that separates the world of the play from the so-called real world. For its part, the audience practices suspension of disbelief and accepts the realm of the play as a world unto itself. The audience is the voyeur looking through the imaginary window of art into another dimension, another reality.

            Sometimes, as in plays by Shakespeare and other Elizabethans, a character may make an aside where there is some discreet communication directed specifically to the audience. It is a conceit to enable the audience to enter the character’s (the playwright’s) mind. There may also be tongue-in-cheek expressions by various characters, witty dialogue, or other references built into a play to breach that divide between stage world and audience world. In many modern plays, actors may come into the audience area or audience members be brought to the stage. We call this participatory theater or living theater. Mostly, though, especially with dramatic productions, the separation between audience and stage is maintained.

            This aesthetic distance suggests several things. One is that art is a construct and may be a form of reality and can represent aspects of reality, but it is not reality. It has substance and presence as any other object, but this has nothing to do with its purpose as a painting. Super realistic painting or trompe l’oeuil paintings are just as much fabrications as theatrical productions. The term tableau has been used to identify staged living “paintings” (tableau vivant) as well as specific types of paintings like still life. A second idea is that artists may include references or allusions for the audience to decipher. This is in keeping with the concept of art as construct, but now the artist is considering the audience and intentionally attempting to connect with them (acknowledging their presence). Since this is not a dialog, however, the artist does not get immediate feedback unless spoken with at an opening. A third idea is that once the painting is presented to an audience, the artist has no control over how the audience may view it.

            Anything the artist desires to be read in a particular way must be presented in such a form that the audience comprehends. To do so overtly, however, would make the painting too simple and less appealing. Art in general succeeds by maintaining a certain amount of ambiguity so that the audience may interpret on its own. This places more demand on the artist to present a work in a balanced way. It cannot be too cerebral and arcane or the audience will not relate and simply ignore it. It cannot be too simplistic, for then it would be dismissed as trite or amateurish. The greatest paintings tend to be those that command an audience’s attention, raise questions about perception and meaning, avoid being didactic or pontifical, can be playful or serious, show something in a new or interesting way, and invite repeated encounters or even intense study. The painting also works best as a stand-alone object rather than as a small part of a much larger whole although added perspective can be gained by considering an artist’s entire oeuvre.