I often think about the following question:
How do we decide whether art is good, or bad? Some people pay lots of money on a terrible looking art work and reason it by saying it has a deep meaning. Does this 'imagined' meaning, which is created in our minds by looking at art work, state if it is good or does the actual visual quality turn it into good art?
I sometimes feel like some artists are 'cheating' on their audience. I mean every single one of us could 'just' take some paint, through it onto a wall or canvas and imagine some random reason and a deep meaning which is not related to the picture at all and sell it. If we would be known in the art scene, we could sell that art work for a large amount of money. We would then laugh every night before we go to sleep, not being able to understand how 'blind' people are, paying lots of money for something we randomly came up with.
How do we decide whether art is good, or bad? Some people pay lots of money on a terrible looking art work and reason it by saying it has a deep meaning. Does this 'imagined' meaning, which is created in our minds by looking at art work, state if it is good or does the actual visual quality turn it into good art?
I sometimes feel like some artists are 'cheating' on their audience. I mean every single one of us could 'just' take some paint, through it onto a wall or canvas and imagine some random reason and a deep meaning which is not related to the picture at all and sell it. If we would be known in the art scene, we could sell that art work for a large amount of money. We would then laugh every night before we go to sleep, not being able to understand how 'blind' people are, paying lots of money for something we randomly came up with.
You make some very strong points here but they are narrow in the way you approach meaning in art work. If you think that it is that easy then why dont you as a young artist do exactly what you are describing and sell it for lots of money. There are two sides to every coin and in part you are right with fashion, trend and developing investments. If you or me do what you are describing then will we be rich the answer is NO! But what is the value of art? Currency of experience? You say that every one can do this but not everyone does!
ReplyDeleteWe all also have to consider the time, culture and place and what was happing in that time period. For example Jackson Pollock, who at the time his contemporaries thought he was a radical and was in many ways outcasted. No looking back many consider him one of the most influential artists in history. How does this fit in?
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I am not trying to say anything against artists and art in general and I am also not saying that every artist is cheating and is only creating work to make profit or that every piece of art has no meaning or bad reasoning. All I am saying is that there are some really bizarre and abstract ways of expressing feelings or meanings in art and that I really am questioning myself whether people just interpret more into what we see than what was actually attempted by the artist, or whether someone is really just messing with people’s minds to get rich by using his/her famous name.
ReplyDeleteJackson Pollock was one of the first artists experimenting with the unique style of drip painting, which personally for him could have also been some kind of stress relief due to his problem with alcoholism for most of his life time. There are many examples of struggling people who end up creating beautiful and deep meaningful work, not only in visual arts. The time, culture and environment in which an artist grows up in, shape them in their way of expressing art, some in terms of their unique technique and some in terms of their theme of art. Those factors are very important for the development of an artist.
You make some very good points here Conner that are well explained. Well done! I think that idea about environment is very sound and has huge impact on how people / behavior develops good connections.
ReplyDelete