Explanation of Modern Art.

[richag77]

An Explanation of Modern Art.

When I started doing art (painting) I, of course, started looking at the so-called greats of art so that I could see what has come before. Many of the past masters I could easily be greatly inspired by. When I then looked at modern art I became very disillusioned. It was mostly very boring and uninspiring. Some of it looked like a child had done it and that it had been done when the artist had a spare hour or two. Whereas when I looked at paintings that obviously took many hours to do and required much skill and training, I would be in awe of the creativity and genius of the creator of that piece. I could literally have my spirits lifted. When looking at some contemporary art I would be extremely bored within a short period of time and in no way envious of the skill or creativity of the artist. There have been several experiments to catch out these frauds of the art world.

One that comes to mind is when a piece of freshly painted art was introduced to some well known art critics for an evaluation. There were all sorts of glorious comments that the artist showed great insight and understanding of their craft. It was very embarrassing when pointed out that the piece in question was the product of some chimps in the local zoo. In local art competitions the judges choice and the peoples choice hardly ever agree.

The only way I could rationalise the interest and importance that was bestowed on these pieces was to realise that this was a movement to give fame and recognition to a hitherto forgotten group of creators, the untalented. Why should all the fame and notoriety go to the patient, hard working and talented people. Too long have these people been hogging the limelight. Why shouldn't those with little sense of colour balance and those with minuscule like for hard, long hours of patient work, also have a chance of fame? If one could quickly splash paint on a canvas in a spare afternoon and earn many thousands of dollars for that, why is that wrong? Wouldn't everyone like such easy money?
When the buyer of these messterpieces realises that the emperor in fact has no clothes, they will find out that they have been had.

[Honza]

Modern art has got a lot to do with the study of the language of art itself. Artists started taking the qualities that make a piece of art and started experimenting with them. So that qualities like colour, tone, line, volume, form were deconstructed and put back together in different ways.

Therefore modern art is in a way an art movement of experimentation to see how the language of art can be changed and understood in different ways.

[Honza]

So in many ways modern artists were not trying to create great pictures or sculptures. They were trying to gain greater understanding.

[richag77]

Very nice, Honza, but I can't understand how a canvas that is blue with a thin black border could give anyone greater understanding for more than a second or two!

My friends and I are getting extremely bored with their experimentation.

[Nature Grows]

Once i went to an art museum with someone (don't normally go to them, but went with this person) anyway, there was a chair in the art museum i sat on and as i did the person i was with was like what are you doing!? don't sit on that, it's art! i was like oh really? i thought it was a chair... was kinda funny, it was an actual art piece.

[Honza]

By now the whole language that art is created from has been so deconstructed and re-evaluated that artists feel free to create just about anything. It is silly. But I do believe the potential to create great art is still there and is bigger in scope than ever before.

[Zysiphez]

With painting in particular, of the so-called "abstract" kind - it's feasible to day that it is often expressing; things, sensations, emotions, the visceral and euphoric - of which are of the internal consciousness, not the physical world. If you feel or have a sensitivity to this aspect of our minds (on all and any planes of thought too), then you may be strongly affected by the painting. All paintings are different and I am obviously referring to specific kinds of paintings.

On the other end of the spectrum, the deconstructionalist form of philosophical art is still prevalent. While there is nothing remotely wrong with it, there is an over emphasis that people have on it when they refer to "modern art". Modern art is all art that is modern, which likely includes a favorite musical artist or filmmaker of yours.

[kellyshane]

Thank you for your vision of a modern art. You have a point.

[Nerastarel]

I've wondered about modern art aswell, I've never quite understood it and it just made me feel confused, it feels sometimes stressed and unpracticed in form ... some artists like Picasso link the images to mythic symbolism which was very basic in form.. but added a very personal or powerful "mystic" to the idea of art. But something else that was happening at the time in history may have influenced artists, the industrial revolution,new frames of thought in psychology may have left there mark on artistic expression for better or worse.

[Nerastarel]

I've wondered about modern art aswell, I've never quite understood it and it just made me feel confused, it feels sometimes stressed and unpracticed in form ... some artists like Picasso link the images to mythic symbolism which was very basic in form.. but added a very personal or powerful "mystic" to the idea of art. But something else that was happening at the time in history may have influenced artists, the industrial revolution,new frames of thought in psychology may have left there mark on artistic expression for better or worse.