‘Mark Making’: Art-world Jargon?

I’m with a group of artists looking at a piece of poor-quality artwork that is being critiqued. Someone adds their penn’orth, commenting enthusiastically on the “mark making.” I sigh inwardly – here we go again. This is a classic example of baffling art-speak, used by the sometimes clueless to sound knowledgeable. It’s a phrase I find increasingly annoying.

My annoyance stems from the view that like many art terms, “mark making” has become trendy and overused, often applied to work where the marks themselves aren’t particularly distinctive or meaningful. In such cases, it feels like jargon, or a fancy way to elevate the ordinary. It ends up as just a redundant, romanticized label for what artists do by default.

Curious, I decided to dig deeper into what this now-ubiquitous phrase really means and whether it can be dismissed as just fluff. In an art world that often talks mostly to itself, baffling and confusing the very people it’s supposed to engage, is this just another way to alienate and exclude? What real purpose does it serve in both artistic practice and discussion?

Art history traces “mark making” back to prehistoric cave art, where deliberate marks were made for various intertwined reasons: ceremonial, communicative, aesthetic, and more. Over time, the term became central during art movements like Impressionism, Expressionism, and Abstract Expressionism, where artists and critics highlighted the importance of the intentional marks made by the artist’s hand. Think Van Gogh’s swirls or Pollock’s splatters as examples of mark making turned into a conscious way to express emotion, energy, and personality.

Today, mark making is still a valid concept, referring to the varied, intentional creation of lines, dots, textures, and patterns on a surface, basically any visible trace left by an artist’s tool. It stands as a core expressive and communicative force. The quality of those marks separates one artist’s work from another; it’s their unique signature or style, their “hand,” so to speak.

So I will now concede that while every artist who draws or paints must make marks, the term “mark making” isn’t automatically pretentious or pointless. In art talks and appreciation it offers a valuable lens to explore the expressive, technical, and conceptual choices behind those marks that make one artist’s work distinct from another’s. But like any specialist lingo, it only adds value if used thoughtfully – genuine analysis matters, while empty repetition just sounds like art-world jargon.

Still, I can’t help offering a small piece of advice for collectors, critics and artists alike: if a piece of art leaves you utterly baffled, or if you’re stuck somewhere between admiration and mild disgust, unsure how to express it, simply drop “mark making” into your commentary. Congratulations, you’re now officially erudite on all matters art.