"One does not devote one's life in art to shock an audience"

Richard Foreman asserts a profound stance on the purpose and motivations behind artistic creation. Rather than focusing on scandalizing or provoking mere reactions, his words suggest that artistry is rooted in something deeper than the spectacle of shock. Art is not a calculated attempt to jolt the audience, nor is it a mere tool for controversy, but instead, it serves as an intrinsic pursuit, a calling one devotes a life to with sincerity, curiosity, and integrity.

The notion of shock has often been linked with modern and avant-garde art, where pushing boundaries and transgressing taboos are seen as victories in themselves. But Foreman’s perspective implies that when shock rises as the chief objective, artistry risks losing its authenticity. The genuine artist lays claim to personal passions, obsessions, and questions, assembling work from a desire to investigate, to reveal, to build meaning from chaos, rather than to manipulate others’ emotional states for its own sake. The artist’s concern is with the development of vision, craft, and insight, trusting that any resonance, or even disturbance, elicited in the viewer will stem naturally from the work’s own integrity.

True dedication to art, therefore, centers around exploration and engagement with materials, forms, and ideas because they matter inherently to the creator. The external reactions, whether of shock, delight, or indifference, remain secondary to the internal necessity that drives the artistic process. Audiences may indeed be shocked by authentic work, but that is the result, not the overriding ambition.

Foreman’s reflection thus champions substance over sensation. It is not dismissive of powerful or unsettling art, but it refuses the notion that the artist’s highest role is as provocateur. Artistic devotion, in this view, is a lifelong dialogue with one’s own evolving vision and with the world, a practice far too rich and nuanced to be reduced to the singular aim of shocking an audience.