Less is more

" Great artists such as Bacon and Beckett distil; lesser artists become self-referential and self-conscious as their work goes on. A personally defined landscape can easily become an enclosed and introverted prison, referring only to itself."

This is a quote from an article by Mark Ravenhill in Arts Comment in the Guardian G2 on Monday Sept 29th 2008. It is a well worth read.
It got me thinking about what I like about the work of Louise Bourgeois and what I find missing in the work of Tracey Emin for instance. Although I think it matters to know what an artist is hoping to accomplish before deciding whether it works or not!