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Modern art

M

member 737

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Do you like modern art?

I mean things like:
- pictures presenting "three white lines on the white background"
- an artist peeling potatoes in an art gallery
- and so on...

Is it just an empty provocation, a try to have a five minutes of fame, or maybe something more?

I think this quote (whatever it was originally about) matches here:

'It's clever, but is it Art?"R. Kipling
 
There is some good modern art out there. Most of it is some scam artist proving that scamming IS an art! You can sell the public anything if you can get some "expert" to say it's something it isn't.

A friend of mine who ran a bar-lounge for twenty years saved burnt matchsticks. He had a good-sized box of them, and wondered what to do, other than use them to start the barbecue grill fire.

As a joke, I said, "Put them on e-bay in the art section with a minimum bid of ten dollars."

He laughed -- and did! He got $624.80 for them!

He very graciously offered to pay shipping charges.
 
I'm a member of the Tate Modern in London and the 'modern' art they show there is mostly okay because they are sculptures and other pieces that are in some ways thought provoking. My favourtite piece there is by Michael Crag Martin and consists of a glass of water on a shelf which is actually an acorn tree - he has manged to change everysingle property of it to be a tree - except for it;s apearance of course. This leads me to feel that you can pass anything off as art as long as you can blag it.

I do not find the work of people such as Tracy Emin to be art, although I think I should melt a load of KinderEgg toys to my PC at work and then enter it for the Turner prize entitled 'playtime at work' = it's bound to win.

Give me a decent painting over that tripe anyday. Last year I went to Ghent, Belgium, where they a have a remarkable piece called 'The Adoration of the Lamb' which is simply the greatest piece of art I have ever seen.

Mxx
 
I don't really like the term "art" -- there's stuff you like, and there's stuff you don't like, period. Mostly, when people start talking about the purpose and all of Art (capital A) I tend to run away from the conversation as fast as I can. Somehow it doesn't seem worth discussing... It all sounds so arrogant.
 
IMO a lot of what passes for modern "art" is just self-indulgence. I'm sure it means something to the individual artist, but is he/she conveying anything to the viewer? If all it amounts to is a personal rant-on-canvas and doesn't connect to anyone else, isn't it just self-indulgence?

And I'm sorry, but an exhibition of used tampons isn't art!
 
I think that there is a tendency today to indicate that just everything can be an art. From one point of view, this idea may be useful, if it encourages people to admire the whole world around, to seek beauty in common, everyday life. It can even inspire people to try to find artists in themselves, to get intrested in creation, to become more imaginative. On the other hand, it may as well lead to absurdity and deny the need of presenting anything in art galleries, because there is no visible boundary for where art starts. In consequence, people end up buying such staff as cdm mentioned. Worthless, but expensive.
 
Another factor in the nature "modern Art" which has to do with the capital 'A' (as lies says) is the tendency of art and it's critics to continually push at the margins in order to justify their work. The critics fabricate this bizarre meta-culture (obtuse jargon, etc.) and then "artists" set about living up to it.
I am also sure, though, that there are plenty of shysters and pranksters out there, too. The main problem is that those in category A rarely get it that they are being either tricked or goofed on by those in category B.
 
Originally posted by repairman_jack
i think modern art is shit ppl now adays use the word "art" really loosely. like one big circle on a white canvas is not art.
Click to expand...

That would depend - what colour's the circle?

:D

Mxx
 
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