Poll: Why, Modern Art? Why?

[axia777]

The argument against the definition of anything as art has been made for centuries now. It is pointless and endless. Art is in the eye of beholder, just like beauty. It is undefinable. So don't try because it will never work. In past decades they argued that "Impressionism" was not art. Same with "Cubism". And every other kind of art that has ever been made.

It is all art as long as people say it is. Example - Fountain is a 1917 work by Marcel Duchamp. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_(Duchamp) Everyone said it was not art. But is is now a widely regarded piece of art that rebelled against the very conceptions of what art could be defined as. See my point?

 

[The Iron Ninja]

As a general rule I have no patience for modern art.
If it's not a picture of something I can recognise, like say... A cow. Then I have no interest in it.

Here is some Modern Art you may like by Jean Debuffet:

That is terrible. A truly ugly sight.
I don't like it when art has to be like that. Reminds me of Art in college (High School for all you Americans) when I tried drawing light and colourful pictures, then my coffee fueled art teacher would come in, suggest I cover the entire thing in brown or yellowish brown (or if I was really lucky, reddish brown) so that all of the classes artwork looked exactly the same.
Just a wall of brown that we all got the same marks for.

I much prefer stuff like this.
[img]http://www.dailypainters.com/i...porary_impressionist_cow_painting.jpg[/img]

It's pretty simple, but at least they look like proper cows, I wouldn't be ashamed to hang it on a wall somewhere.

 

[Marbas]

For some reason I've always liked Abstract paintings. Something about them just strikes a chord in me, conceptualism though is a different matter altogether. It's a much more hit and miss affair, but I think writing it off as a garbage is a bit premature.

 

[Uszi]

Modern art is about statements, and good artists will give you something to contemplate that relates directly to the statement they are trying to make.

There is bad modern art, but it typically does not wind up in museums.

EDIT:
If you have an appreciation for art, you see the value in say, the abstract cow over the two now abstract ones up above. The abstract one draws your eye, you ask more questions of it. Unless you're very interested in art, then you pass the other two pieces with hardly a glance, and then if you're very interested in art you examine the artists brush strokes, how he framed his cows relative to their surroundings and the space on the canvas, etc. As you can see, most of you don't ask those questions, so probably no one here finds the second two cows very interesting.

Hell! The second two cows wouldn't even BE in this thread if not for the abstract one!

 

[Imitation Saccharin]

Modern and abstract art is horrible; if it doesn't look like something it's not good, because mimicking something is far greater than creating something original. My printer seems to be the greatest artist I have ever met.

Because by ignoring basic aesthetic conventions, you obfuscate your point and make your work pointlessly esoteric, such that specialized training is required to comprehend it.
This is not just a massively HI-larious monument to self-importance, but also serves to further isolate the artistic community from the public they once inspired and enthralled, forcing them to become even more hopelessly insular.

But it's cool to go against those fucking plebeians so go team retard!

 

[The Iron Ninja]

Hell! The second two cows wouldn't even BE in this thread if not for the abstract one!

Don't be so sure about that.
I've been planning on posting pictures of cows since the very start of my time here on the escapist.
And on that note, here is some art I could really get behind (In a totally not weird way)

[http://imageshack.us]
I love it.
It's not trying to say anything like
"What is the crab? Is it the representation of our sorrow? our anger? Our wasteful ways?"
Instead it's just
"Croaw! I'm a giant crab and I'm gonna eat'cher!"

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

Modern art seems to be a case of "I make a random object" then "I make up a really good story as to why my random object is art" arty types go oh yeah thats deep, non arty types go it's a fucking urinal. Arty types go "you just dont get it (even though they dont get it either)" therefore its art.

You are referring to Duchamp's Fountain. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_(Duchamp)

The point you are making is the very issue intended to be in contention by the piece. One point for Duchamp.

 

[killerap85]

More of a fan of Robert Williams myself. I like his view on modern "art"

takes a minute for him to get to it but a nice interview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmqrIp5Jtlo

 

[axia777]

Modern art seems to be a case of "I make a random object" then "I make up a really good story as to why my random object is art" arty types go oh yeah thats deep, non arty types go it's a fucking urinal. Arty types go "you just dont get it (even though they dont get it either)" therefore its art.

You are referring to Duchamp's Fountain. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_(Duchamp)

The point you are making is the very issue intended to be in contention by the piece. One point for Duchamp.

Modern art seems to be a case of "I make a random object" then "I make up a really good story as to why my random object is art" arty types go oh yeah thats deep, non arty types go it's a fucking urinal. Arty types go "you just dont get it (even though they dont get it either)" therefore its art.

You are referring to Duchamp's Fountain. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_(Duchamp)

The point you are making is the very issue intended to be in contention by the piece. One point for Duchamp.

I mentioned that piece as well. +2 for Duchamp.

 

[killerap85]

So according to that wiki article the whole point of him grabbing a urinal and actin like it was art was to provoke people and that somehow makes it art? wtvr

I like art that takes skill. If any douchbag can do it, it isnt art TO ME. Its some douchebag talking the walk.

But like someone said, its subjective. Some people like peanut butter on pizza. Some people like to eat their own escriment.

Better more pointed poll would be does Modern Art take Skill?

 

[Marbas]

So according to that wiki article the whole point of him grabbing a urinal and actin like it was art was to provoke people and that somehow makes it art? wtvr

I like art that takes skill. If any douchbag can do it, it isnt art TO ME. Its some douchebag talking the walk.

But the thing is, not any douchebag can make good modern art. It just looks like it.

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

So according to that wiki article the whole point of him grabbing a urinal and actin like it was art was to provoke people and that somehow makes it art? wtvr

I like art that takes skill. If any douchbag can do it, it isnt art TO ME. Its some douchebag talking the walk.

But like someone said, its subjective. Some people like peanut butter on pizza. Some people like to eat their own escriment.

Better more pointed poll would be does Modern Art take Skill?

If you think "skill" has anything to do with art than you are ignorant about this entire discussion. Do you know how many random creativeless people can paint lifelike cats? A shit load. But painting a lifelike cat is neither culuturally significant or new.

And what "art is" to you is entirely irrelevant. Nobody is writing an art critique book based on your myopic view and you yourself have no cultural significance with your viewpoint. For example, when documentary film making first started, people made the very same point that you are making now. "What the hell, it's just some guy operating a train. I could have filmed that."

But as it always was, you and everbody else didn't do it. Could have, would have, should have... everybody was too busy watching Different Strokes and The Super Bowl to make anything notable that ever made another person think.

Most people will never create anything significant that will spur as much discussion or debate as The Fountain.

 

[axia777]

So according to that wiki article the whole point of him grabbing a urinal and actin like it was art was to provoke people and that somehow makes it art? wtvr

I like art that takes skill. If any douchbag can do it, it isnt art TO ME. Its some douchebag talking the walk.

But like someone said, its subjective. Some people like peanut butter on pizza. Some people like to eat their own escriment.

Better more pointed poll would be does Modern Art take Skill?

Your missing the entire point. But that is ok. Ignorance sometimes truly is bliss.

 

[killerap85]

Clue me in. Whats the point teach?

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

Clue me in. Whats the point teach?

Art isn't basketball, it's not like watching a slam dunk where we stand in awe wishing we could jump that high.

Guitar solos are not "who can hit the fret board the fastest" guitarolypmics freak shows.. Painting isn't about "cool pictures".. ink printing isn't about ads for toothpaste... film isn't about explosions... plays don't have to follow the aristatilian model... books aren't about a "good story"... and videogames are no longer about "high scores".

True mediums of art have multiple points of expression, intention, and even observation. Just because you don't get it, doesn't mean that there is nothing there to get. For example, I don't get Jazz music but I am aware that I am missing out on something (still trying to get my ears adjusted I guess).

 

[axia777]

Clue me in. Whats the point teach?

Art isn't basketball, it's not like watching a slam dunk where we stand in awe wishing we could jump that high.

Guitar solos are not "who can hit the fret board the fastest" guitarolypmics freak shows.. Painting isn't about "cool pictures".. ink printing isn't about ads for toothpaste... film isn't about explosions... plays don't have to follow the aristatilian model... books aren't about a "good story"... and videogames are no longer about "high scores".

True mediums of art have multiple points of expression, intention, and even observation. Just because you don't get it, doesn't mean that there is nothing there to get. For example, I don't get Jazz music but I am aware that I am missing out on something (still trying to get my ears adjusted I guess).

+++++

 

[killerap85]

An idea itself is not art(as I would call it). Ideas can be represented in art but I think a blurring of the line has occered and been occering for some time to the point that people now seem to think that an idea itself is art.

I can fold piece of paper and make a "center fold", just cause Im the first to do it doesnt make it art in any real since. Its just a very plain and orinary concept.

I can pick ice up with a thread and one hand. Doesnt make it art.

Columbus didnt make the egg art. He made an example of it.

A mobius strip is not art.

 

[killerap85]

"Guitar solos are not "who can hit the fret board the fastest" guitarolypmics freak shows"

Easy for you to say, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATub40Npxik vs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aeSbPbyJO8

"Painting isn't about "cool pictures".."

No, sometimes its about pretending to paint well while dribling paint on a canvas in a drunken stupor http://www.abstract-art.com/abstraction/l2_grnfthrs_fldr/g004_pllck4.html vs http://lh3.ggpht.com/the.forechecker/R6olgPfkVHI/AAAAAAAAAZM/O2pbR-gF-Ec/Norman+Rockwell+-+Save+Freedom+of+Speech.JPG

I could go on but I think you get the point.

And the video games thing? Im AGAINST taking the games out of my video games.

 

[axia777]

Again killerap85, you are completely missing the point.