Snappy newsletters. Simple Facebook sharing. Spirited comments. Sweet features are waiting… GET THEM NOW!

Hot on Facebook
Uproar After NC State Agent 'Fixes' Girl's Lunch Preschooler has to eat chicken nuggets instead of mom's meal »

How to Bust Art Myths

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Aug 9, 2009 5:19 AM CDT
Email

(Newser) – Too many people have given up talking about modern art, retreating behind pat statements like “art is subjective,” writes Paddy Johnson in the Christian Science Monitor. Here are some attitudes that drive her crazy: 

  • Anyone could do that: A typical rejoinder is, “But you didn’t.” It takes practice to recognize the good modern art from the bad.
  • Elitists rule the art world: They rule every world. Don’t worry about it.

  • Viewing a work online is good enough: Nothing replaces viewing an original in a gallery setting. "Space, texture, and light affect how we perceive the work."
  • This work generated so much discussion, it must be good!: A lot of people talk about Lindsay Lohan, but that doesn’t mean she’s talented.
  • Anything can be art: Only if it’s in a gallery and an artist says it is.
  • Artists are ahead of their times: No, they’re just human. “There is no such thing as an art visionary.”

A visitor to the Metropolitan Museum of Art inspects Jackson Pollock's Autumn Rhythm (Number 30), Tuesday, March 31, 2009, in New York.
A visitor to the Metropolitan Museum of Art inspects Jackson Pollock's Autumn Rhythm (Number 30), Tuesday, March 31, 2009, in New York.   (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
A visitor studies Jackson Pollock's painting with the title Out of the Web: Number 7, 1949, in the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen near Basel, Switzerland in this Jan. 24, 2008 file photo.
A visitor studies Jackson Pollock's painting with the title "Out of the Web: Number 7", 1949, in the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen near Basel, Switzerland in this Jan. 24, 2008 file photo.   (AP Photo/Keystone/Andreas Frossard, File)
Jackson Pollock's Number 16, a 1949 oil and enamel on paper mounted on masonite, is seen at Southeby's auction house, May 15, 2007, in New York.
Jackson Pollock's "Number 16," a 1949 oil and enamel on paper mounted on masonite, is seen at Southeby's auction house, May 15, 2007, in New York.   (AP Photo/Sotheby's New York)
This undated photo released by Sotheby's shows the Mark Rothko's 1956 Orange, Red, Yellow.
This undated photo released by Sotheby's shows the Mark Rothko's 1956 "Orange, Red, Yellow."   (AP Photo/Sotheby's)
« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow
To report an error on this story, notify our editors.
A snapshot of the day's best news stories.
 
COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 13 comments
Bambi
Aug 10, 2009 3:20 AM CDT
I agree that the author let us down by leaving that response to sound smart-assed. What was meant is that art is not the physical object, but the idea (as I explain above), thus, when putting a frame around something, the artist is presenting it as a contextualized 'idea', thereby making 'art' of something that may not have been 'art' prior to his framing of it. It sounds ridiculous, and I wish the author had left that one out, but it does make sense in the context of the rest.
Spudsy
Aug 10, 2009 2:43 AM CDT
I like some modern art. But this article was written by an idiot. "Only if it's in a gallery and an artist says it is?"
Bambi
Aug 10, 2009 1:39 AM CDT
To label someone a visionary is to create a cult around them. The article is suggesting that art is down-to-earth and real; to look there for comraderie in the human spirit, not for false idols and fashions to follow. This point about artists not being 'visionaries' is intended to demystify the art process...an artist's work is, by definition, in his time, though perhaps sometimes in precedence of a fashion mainstream to come. (This is not visionary, but rather inevitable some fraction of the time for even the most fashion backward artists). The point of the entry is that the artist given to a foreshadowing of fashion is not to be ascribed the mystic status of 'visionary'. This down-to-earth message about the arts and artists is consistent with the rest of the article.

 
art • modern art • painting

More Newser Stories

Qatar Buys Cézanne Painting for Record $250M

Artist Mike Kelley Dead in Apparent Suicide

'Sister' Mona Lisa Found

Artist Wants to Bury Jet in Mojave

Drunk Attacks $30M Painting
NEWS FROM OUR PARTNERS
Other Sites We Like:   24/7 Wall St.   |   Betty Confidential   |   BuzzFeed   |   Cracked   |   Fark   |   Timelines   |   The Frisky   |   Geek Sugar   |   NewsOne