The first thing that people should remember when railing against “modern art” is that, as a trend, it died in the 70’s. It has given way to conceptualism, postmodernism, AND a revival of traditional painting.
Conceptualism is likely something that will still annoy those that don’t care for “modern” art but you aren’t likely to participate in it. If you aren’t participating in the conversation then your voice can be safely ignored as irrelevant. If you want to join the conversation learn some theory and some history because it’s mostly a philosophy and critical theory now. It’s not so much elitist as it is difficult for new comers. Like Magic: The Gathering after ten years of expansions. You COULD learn all those rules and buy hundreds of cards but only if you are REALLY tuned into the game.
Just let it slide by as the geekery of no concern to you that it is.
Postmodernism is a short run that, in the end, really only helps move us past modernism in a different way than conceptualism. It’s sort of a mid-wife to what comes next. It plays with materials and ideas as well but ultimately leads to a reaffirmation of painting itself as the preferred method of art creation for artists. Charles Saatchi even said as much and announced that his galleries would begin selling off to their Tracy Emin pieces in favor of actual paintings.
So begins a new period of renaissance in painting. Kinda. Sure, It’s going to stray into subjects you probably don’t like. It’s going to treat things tenderly you think should be handily harshly. It will treat what you consider obscene as typical. Because postModernism has taught these artists than no viewpoint is monolithic they will do all that AND work that you love.
So stop worrying that past movements that you don’t care for are still represented in museums of past movements. Get over the devotion that you think is undeserved. Go live and join the RIGHT NOW that probably has a lot you like.
Interesting post. Thought provoking for me.
Interesting post. We recently rejoined the MFA in Boston. I never tire of visiting it.
It is not that the general public hasn't the skill or taste to "understand" contemporary art, or that their reaction to it is irrelevant. It is that contemporary art has made itself irrelevant to the vast majority, through just such claptrap as "deconstruction" and "critical theory". Much the same can be said for poetry and literature.
But, people have been told by the elitist types for years that their seeing crap art as crap is due to their unsophisticated and ignorant tastes. It isn't.
I contend that art invokes emotional response. If the vast majority of viewers have the emotional response of indifference, or that what they are viewing is total crap, then guess what? The art is total crap.
Jackson Pollock's works are total crap, and the only reason for his fame and the price of his drop cloth drippings, is because an elite group of jaded society "art critics" decided to make him their darling.
Art is that which moves, inspires emotion, relates to the human condition, connects us through common experience. By that measure, the lauded artist of last century are greatly failures. Their works relate poorly, are devoid of content, devoid of common experience, are unaccessible to the vast majority of humanity. One shouldn't need a degree in Fine Art to "understand" art, because art needs no self-appointed explanatory intercessors.
You don't need a degree in art to understand intrinsically the cave paintings at Lascaux, or the statues of Greece and Rome, the patterned tiles of Alhambra and intricate knots of Celtic bibles. You don't need it to understand the play of light captured by Monet or the power of the sea captured by Homer. They all speak to the common experience of human kind, and need no translator or deconstruction. The artistry is manifest.
Want to know who the greatest artist of the 20th century was? Walt Disney.
He touched more people with his art than Rothko, Pollock or Serrano could ever hope to, even if they weren't doomed to be forgotten historical footnotes of a tasteless era when fine art tried its damnedest to become entirely irrelevant.
Art is evil and anti-American. Whose side are you on, son? Don’t you love your country? Then how about getting with the program? Why don’t you jump on the team and come on in for the big win? Son, all I’ve ever asked of my compatriots is that they obey my orders as they would the word of God. We are here to help the artist, because inside every faggot artist there is an American trying to get out. It’s a hardball world, son. We’ve gotta keep our heads until this art craze blows over.