Is modern art a joke?
in Art And Design

SilverishGoldNova · February 2018

So, new community. Thought I would make the first debate here.

Is modern art a joke?

Nope · February 2018

I find modern art to be one of the better kinds of art. It is nice to look at and does not make sense what ous would you wan't from art. It is also fun to make fun of the simple expensive once. It is nice to look at but who would pay a lot for a couple of circles and squares. So I guess I do consider some of them jokes. But they are still one of my favored kinds of art. : )

SilverishGoldNova · February 2018

@Nope ;

Look at these masterpieces!

felix gonzalez-torres

everyone-i-have-ever-slept-with-1963-1995-1995

I prefer classical art over modern art.

Nope · February 2018

SilverishGoldNova
I am not that in to art. I do however like patterns which is why I like modern art more than a normal painting. I would not pay for art but patterns can be good to look at. However they are just patterns and lack the meing, symbolism detail and details many paintings have (not that they don't have any).

Ampersand · February 2018

Modern art doesn't just mean installation pieces of people's bedrooms, etc. Picasso's art is classified as modern art. Warhol's work is modern art. Dali's work is modern art. Basquiat's work is modern art. Even van Gogh and Cezanne can be considered modern art - especially if we're dividing all art into modern or classical.

Also looking at the urls for your links, it looks like you sourced them from: https://list25.com/25-worst-examples-of-modern-art/. If you're specifically googling for the worst examples of modern art you're not going to get a very good view of it.

SilverishGoldNova · February 2018

@Ampersand Some examples of modern art are good, but, then again, I have noticed that alot of it really isn't art. Especially nowadays, anything you want can be art. Empty room? Such art. Blue Canvas? Such art. People running around naked with their fingers in eachothers asses (and I'm not joking)? Such art.

Fredsnephew · February 2018

Regarding art, modern or otherwise. Just as with most other things in society, money is usually the driving force.

No matter how stupid or lacking in skill a work of art might appear to be, if marketed skilfully there will always be gullible people ready to part with their money.

That said. We must accept that, both the formulation and appreciation of a work of art are very individual processes.

I personally have no preferred genre when it comes to art and I will certainly not allow myself to be dictated to, by current fashion, trend or so called expert opinion.

I would suggest that, true appreciation of a work of art is defined by our subconscious physiological responses.

Ampersand · February 2018

SilverishGoldNova said:

@Ampersand Some examples of modern art are good, but, then again, I have noticed that alot of it really isn't art. Especially nowadays, anything you want can be art. Empty room? Such art. Blue Canvas? Such art. People running around naked with their fingers in eachothers asses (and I'm not joking)? Such art.

Art is subjective. To you it isn't art, but presumably to other people, at the very least its creator, it is art and potentially even very fine art.

But as you agree that some modern art is good then no, modern art is not a joke.

anonymousdebater · March 2018

Modern art is pushing the philosophical limits on the definition of art.

CDNSmitty · March 2018

Not a joke at all, but a reflection of the times.

ethielen18 · April 2018

No, modern art isn't a joke an no art for should be considered so. A definition of art is: the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power. Basically saying that it is just something that comes from your imagination and creativity, and you can't really say something is not creative enough.

NoahShields · April 2018

I do not believe that modern art is a joke.
While the term modern art refers to a broad spectrum of the medium, I believe that modern art in itself is a stark contrast to the classical art that we have been taught to praise. Modern art seeks to break the ideals of art that we have been force fed our entire lives. Artist Wassily Kandinski's "On White 2" is able to deliver an aesthetically pleasing selection of simple shapes, bold lines, and color which culminate in one of abstract modern art's greatest masterpieces. To the blind eye, it may seem to be a "bunch of circles and squares," but to a well trained eye it is easy to see the genius in his use of focus and movement. It is a stand-alone piece that assisted in defining a sub-movement in the spectrum of modern art.
Like "On White 2," most modern art can be easily dismissed by a casual viewer, but to one that delves into the aesthetic and meaning behind the individual pieces, there is a great wealth of knowledge and inspiration that can be gained.

MayCaesar · May 2018

Yes and no. Let me elaborate on this.

Modern art contains a very high degree of abstraction. If in, say, the Renaissance era you would look at a statue and see immediately what the sculptor wanted to confer through it, because it would look so similar to people you observe in your everyday life - then in the modern art, you have to infer the meaning of the sculpture through abstract elements (such as triangles) having a meaning hidden well through layers and layers of history, rules and conventions.

As a result, there is a very strong disparity between what people knowledgeable about modern art and those who know much less about it can infer from the art. A person who does not understand modern art could still visit modern art galleries and enjoy certain aspects of that art, such as the calming visual style, or just the general atmosphere in the gallery hall - but they will be oblivious to the meaning the author put into the work of art.

This, unfortunately, opens a lot of opportunities for scammers to exploit the situation. When a lot of people in modern art galleries do not know what they are looking for, one can randomly wave a brush around for a while and successfully sell it for a complex work of art. Even more so, people knowledgeable about modern art realize that there is a lot of room for improvization, and even the experts can sometimes mistakenly give high value to the artwork that had no substance in its creation. (Remember the picture that was made by an elephant holding a brush in its trunk and that was later sold for a fortune?)

To summarize the above, modern art is a very complex field, and as any complex field, it is very diverse in its quality and in how people perceive that quality. A lot of what is sold as modern art is, indeed, a joke, a lazy attempt to produce something of value, even if it is not always recognized as such - but there is also a large array of deep, high quality artworks that are not any less an art than the best examples of the classic art.

BonitaVanhooser · September 2018

I know why you are saying modern art a joke. But, we can generalize one bad art piece of all brilliant modern art ideas. It would be unjust.

TTKDB · September 2018

@SilverishGoldNova:

I think that some of the modern art of today, is being called "conceptual art?"

From Wikipedia:
"Conceptual art, sometimes simply called conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns."

An individual creates an art piece, like some of the examples you've exhibited, and it's more about a conception over telling a story or with layers of brush strokes, or dots like with pointalism?

Or maybe some of the modern pattern art, which I've seen around for a few years now, could be interpreted in a sense, as a probable take on Picasso and his cubism style?
For example: "Guitar and violin."

If an individual looks at some art, and becomes visually lost as to what the artist is trying to convey through their individual piece of art, then maybe the art piece was created with to much thought behind it, and not enough expression?

I believe that when an individual creates an individual piece of "art' and it's more thought based instead of expression based, you risk the chance of losing the interest of the viewer who's viewing an individuals art piece.

An art teacher once said, that when you look at a piece of art, there should be a flow to it, that your eyes should be engaged by the subject of the artwork.

This is from the Artists network:

1) A strong focal point.
2) Layers of color.
3) Changes in direction.

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Is modern art a joke?
in Art And Design