Magic Fills the Air Posted October 15, 2010 Share Posted October 15, 2010 Is modern art really 'art'? By modern art I mean contemporary art, not the modern art of Andy Warhol and so on. I was reading in The Guardian yesterday about a new 'masterpiece', a sculpture called Daisy produced by two aspiring modern artists. The 'sculpture' is a Mercedes car bonnet which has been trampled by cows, it can be all yours for just £4,500 (plus VAT)! I personally find modern artists' work like Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin to be vulgar, offensive, or simply unimaginative. I also think that Charles Saatchi is an idiot with too much money for buying and exhibiting this rubbish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi_Zep_Fan87 Posted October 15, 2010 Share Posted October 15, 2010 The 'sculpture' is a Mercedes car bonnet which has been trampled by cows, it can be all yours for just £4,500 (plus VAT)! Woah! Who in the world would buy utter crap like that for a sum above 4500 pounds? Jeez! That sculpture sounds hilarious but so un-imaginative! I guess tomorrow, I can pass off the trash can near my apartment building as a work of art and try to auction it on a site like trade me under the "arts" section?! My 60's based Zep forum avatar seems to be more artistic than that junk! Either people have A LOT of money to burn or they are just plain dumb! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magic Fills the Air Posted October 15, 2010 Author Share Posted October 15, 2010 Woah! Who in the world would buy utter crap like that for a sum above 4500 pounds? Jeez! That sculpture sounds hilarious but so un-imaginative! I guess tomorrow, I can pass off the trash can near my apartment building as a work of art and try to auction it on a site like trade me under the "arts" section?! My 60's based Zep forum avatar seems to be more artistic than that junk! Either people have A LOT of money to burn or they are just plain dumb! Hi Kiwi, you could take several photos of your toilet from different angles, and pass them off as art in this country, and make a small fortune! I've seen an 'art installation' involving a used toilet in a gallery once! The artists would say we were the ones that were dumb because we can't appreciate their artwork, and don't understand the philosophical thinking behind it. The one that sticks in my mind is a piece called Lobster Telephone in the Tate Modern - it is an old-fashioned telephone with a plastic lobster sat on top of it. The artist said it was art because you don't normally associate the two together. I get that, I'm not stupid! That doesn't mean it's art, it's just crap! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi_Zep_Fan87 Posted October 15, 2010 Share Posted October 15, 2010 Hi Kiwi, you could take several photos of your toilet from different angles, and pass them off as art in this country, and make a small fortune! I've seen an 'art instillation' involving a used toilet in a gallery once! The artists would say we were the ones that were dumb because we can't appreciate their artwork, and don't understand the philosophical thinking behind it. The one that sticks in my mind is a piece called Lobster Telephone in the Tate Modern - it is an old-fashioned telephone with a plastic lobster sat on top of it. The artist said it was art because you don't normally associate the two together. I get that, I'm not stupid! That doesn't mean it's art, it's just crap! :hysterical: Really Magic?! Sweet! I can sure use the extra cash! Well, I think before any artist unveils his work, he / she should first make a very detailed power-point presentation to all the patrons of the art gallery concerned and explain their work and how exactly they intend to swindle them with their so-called "creativity" That lobster telephone piece sounds kinda cute though! I would pay maybe NZ $1 for it but that's about it! But on the other hand, if that lobster was replaced by a squid like Squiddly Diddly or something, I might pay a lot more for that piece! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnaLuiza Posted October 15, 2010 Share Posted October 15, 2010 Did a wrong reply. Sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnaLuiza Posted October 15, 2010 Share Posted October 15, 2010 I didn't see this example you gave. I just want to know what do you mean by "Art". What is Art for you? What is the function of Art? Only one function? Do artists think about the marketing while doing their work? Should they think about the public? Should they think about pleasing? If pleasing is the goal what art should they create? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magic Fills the Air Posted October 15, 2010 Author Share Posted October 15, 2010 Lobster Telephone below by Salvador Dali (not one of his best works!) http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=2988&tabview=image Art to me should signify beauty, history, culture or simply what makes us civilised as a species. It shouldn't offend or insult which I'm afriad most modern art does. This view may be old fashioned to some, but it's my view of art. I visited Manchester Art Gallery here in the UK a few weeks ago, and the older masterpieces in there were simply breathtaking, the modern art left me feeling depressed! See the article below (I didn't post a link with the actual artwork itself because some members may find it very distressing). Should this really be allowed to pass as art? http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/mar/30/art.spain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badgeholder Posted October 15, 2010 Share Posted October 15, 2010 Yeah, the "installations" are always a bit suspect. One was two rows of bricks in a big square. Recently, big piles of trash were supposed to be art. Not kidding. Piles of trash. Oh, what a statement! gimme a break. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redrum Posted October 15, 2010 Share Posted October 15, 2010 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi_Zep_Fan87 Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 Lobster Telephone below by Salvador Dali (not one of his best works!) http://www.tate.org....8&tabview=image Yikes!!! I take everything back what I said about that lobster-telephone piece! I saw the photo you posted there Magic of that piece and it looks rather hideous! Can't they put a stuffed toy of a squid on that telephone? It will sure appeal to kids and well "big kids" like me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGDAN Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 Is modern art really 'art'? By modern art I mean contemporary art, not the modern art of Andy Warhol and so on. I was reading in The Guardian yesterday about a new 'masterpiece', a sculpture called Daisy produced by two aspiring modern artists. The 'sculpture' is a Mercedes car bonnet which has been trampled by cows, it can be all yours for just £4,500 (plus VAT)! I personally find modern artists' work like Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin to be vulgar, offensive, or simply unimaginative. I also think that Charles Saatchi is an idiot with too much money for buying and exhibiting this rubbish. Hi Magic, I look at the world like this, Art=Doing Science=Knowledge If what someone does has a grounding in Knowledge then they are engaged in an Art Form, if not then it it Chaos, what you are talking about is probably Chaos rather than an Art Form in my opinion. I hope that helps you to understand something of the way the world works, stay focused and keep practicing and in the end you will find your road. Regards, Danny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anjin-san Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 Hi all, Hi Magic, I look at the world like this, Art=Doing Science=Knowledge If what someone does has a grounding in Knowledge then they are engaged in an Art Form, if not then it it Chaos, what you are talking about is probably Chaos rather than an Art Form in my opinion. I hope that helps you to understand something of the way the world works, stay focused and keep practicing and in the end you will find your road. Regards, Danny How about a Chaos Theory thead?? Well Brother Daniel? KB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGDAN Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 Hi all, How about a Chaos Theory thead?? Well Brother Daniel? KB Hi Kev, It would be too Chaotic don't you think? Very Kind Regards, Danny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reggie29 Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 Most "modern artists" try and pass off their "works" as art because they really believe it is art. Most of, if not all the old masters were either insane, geniuses or both who mostly suffered for their art. Da Vinci, Michelangelo and more recently Monet, Van Gogh and Gauguin were all artists in the real sense. I want what ever Jackson Pollock is on! As for todays artists, well I can't think of any that stand out. "I have suffered for my art and now it's your turn." , rings true nowadays. I think Warhol was more or less a graphic artist bordering on advertising rather than an artist in the traditional sense, brilliant though. Years ago I visited either Sydney or the University of NSW and I had to go to the 'loo and written on the cubicle wall just above the toilet roll dispenser was: "Bachelor of Arts Degree; Please take one!" As for photography being art, I don't know about that. With the technology available today all you have to do is point the camera at the subject matter and that's it. Some would argue there are lighting, location and other variables that come into play and that may be right, but art? Sure there are good photographers but to call themselves artists, well? Spencer Tunick is, IMO, nothing more than a clever voyeur who has the ability to con people into posing nude en masse using iconic back drops in cities around the world for his own gratification. Funny how he never takes photographs naked? It's like the person who goes to a nude beach fully clothed, who is the weirdo / pervert then in that situation? Also recently there was an exhibition of some photos of naked young (13 year old) teenage girls promoted as art and depending on who you talked to it was either accepted as art or pornography. Personally I thought the photos were crap and that the only people who'd like them would be pedophiles and the parents should take a long hard look at themselves for allowing them. Being a musician I often question whether music as such is art. Same as photographic equipment has evolved in the last fifty years so have musical instruments, at least the amplified / electric ones and nowadays everything is amplified. It mostly comes down to playing proficiency and technique. Art? At least "real" artists use their minds eye to create sculptures or paintings and the beauty or lack of it is in the eye of the beholder. I may not know art but I know what I like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jahfin Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 Anyone hear about this over the weekend? UK 'sunflower seed' exhibit closed as health risk LONDON (AP) — An art exhibition involving 100 million porcelain sunflower seeds has been closed to visitors because it is generating dust that is a potential health hazard, the Tate Modern gallery said Friday. Chinese artist Ai Weiwei filled a giant hall at the London gallery with a 1,000 sq. meter (10,000 sq. foot) carpet of the imitation seeds, hand-crafted by thousands of artisans in China over a two-year period. Visitors were invited to walk across the surface when the show opened earlier this week. But the gallery said Friday that the "enthusiastic interaction of visitors" was releasing a "greater than expected level" of ceramic dust. It wasn't clear whether the seeds were breaking or simply being worn down. "Tate has been advised that this dust could be damaging to health following repeated inhalation over a long period of time," the gallery said in a statement. "In consequence, Tate, in consultation with the artist, has decided not to allow visitors to walk across the sculpture." It said visitors could view the exhibition from a walkway above the hall. The gallery said the seeds, a common Chinese street snack, represent friendship and compassion, raise questions of individualism and evoke the enforced conformity of the Cultural Revolution, when propaganda posters depicted Chairman Mao as the sun and Chinese people as sunflowers turning toward him. The commissions in the huge Turbine Hall have become one of the most popular attractions at Tate Modern, a former power station that opened as a gallery in 2000 and draws 4 million visitors a year. It is not the first time an exhibition there has caused mishaps. In 2007 three visitors tumbled into Doris Salcedo's "Shibboleth," a jagged crack running the length of the room. Several people suffered bumps and bruises on Carsten Holler's twisting slide in 2006. Last year a man was injured in Polish artist Miroslaw Balka's "How It Is," which invited visitors into a pitch-black room. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Electrophile Posted October 20, 2010 Share Posted October 20, 2010 Art is by nature undefinable in a concrete way. Someone may think Robert Mapplethorpe's picture of a crucifix in a beaker of urine is art, someone may not. Someone may think Michelangelo was a shitty painter, someone may think otherwise. All opinions are valid, because art is subjective. Doesn't matter if it's paintings, sculpture, architecture, design, dance, music, etc. I think people who try to say what is art and what is not are playing off their biases and prejudices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magic Fills the Air Posted October 20, 2010 Author Share Posted October 20, 2010 Of course art is subjective, but I view it in terms of the talent and imagination required to produce a work of art. I doubt that many people would say that Tracy Emin is an 'artist' just as much as Michelangelo was. But then, as you say it's subjective. Some people may think that this is a great work of art: http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/artpages/tracey_emin_my_bed.htm And that this is a load of crap: http://www.visitingdc.com/rome/sistine-chapel-picture.asp Of course, I personally believe the opposite to be true. Also what troubles me most about contemporary art is that it constantly tries to push the boundaries of what is socially acceptable. For example, I've read about 'art works' that explicitly promote pedophilia and animal cruelty (the starving dog in the gallery that I mentioned in a previous post). For me personally art = beauty. Although there is a massive philosophical debate about what is beauty, I personally agree with the English philospher Roger Scruton's view that modern art is 'the cult of ugliness' which represents 'the death of beauty in modern Britain'. 'Galleries of contemporary art are filled with the debris of modern life, with subhuman figures purposefully designed to demean and desecrate the human image and with ludicrous installations that mean nothing at all... There is still beautiful art today as there has always been. But such art remains below the horizon of official patronage'. I couldn't agree with him more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magic Fills the Air Posted October 20, 2010 Author Share Posted October 20, 2010 Anyone hear about this over the weekend? UK 'sunflower seed' exhibit closed as health risk LONDON (AP) — An art exhibition involving 100 million porcelain sunflower seeds has been closed to visitors because it is generating dust that is a potential health hazard, the Tate Modern gallery said Friday. Chinese artist Ai Weiwei filled a giant hall at the London gallery with a 1,000 sq. meter (10,000 sq. foot) carpet of the imitation seeds, hand-crafted by thousands of artisans in China over a two-year period. Visitors were invited to walk across the surface when the show opened earlier this week. But the gallery said Friday that the "enthusiastic interaction of visitors" was releasing a "greater than expected level" of ceramic dust. It wasn't clear whether the seeds were breaking or simply being worn down. "Tate has been advised that this dust could be damaging to health following repeated inhalation over a long period of time," the gallery said in a statement. "In consequence, Tate, in consultation with the artist, has decided not to allow visitors to walk across the sculpture." It said visitors could view the exhibition from a walkway above the hall. The gallery said the seeds, a common Chinese street snack, represent friendship and compassion, raise questions of individualism and evoke the enforced conformity of the Cultural Revolution, when propaganda posters depicted Chairman Mao as the sun and Chinese people as sunflowers turning toward him. The commissions in the huge Turbine Hall have become one of the most popular attractions at Tate Modern, a former power station that opened as a gallery in 2000 and draws 4 million visitors a year. It is not the first time an exhibition there has caused mishaps. In 2007 three visitors tumbled into Doris Salcedo's "Shibboleth," a jagged crack running the length of the room. Several people suffered bumps and bruises on Carsten Holler's twisting slide in 2006. Last year a man was injured in Polish artist Miroslaw Balka's "How It Is," which invited visitors into a pitch-black room. Yes, I read about this one in a newspaper and saw a pciture of it. I don't know why any sane person would bother going along to view such rubbish. Also the Tate Modern must have a high insurance policy if members of the public keep getting injured by their 'art works'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi_Zep_Fan87 Posted October 20, 2010 Share Posted October 20, 2010 http://www.visitingd...pel-picture.asp Now, this is beautiful! http://www.saatchi-g...emin_my_bed.htm LOL! That looks like my bedroom before I cleaned it! I don't care tuppence if I'm being biased here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGDAN Posted October 20, 2010 Share Posted October 20, 2010 Now, this is beautiful! LOL! That looks like my bedroom before I cleaned it! I don't care tuppence if I'm being biased here! Hi Kiwi and Magic, The difference between "Working Class Art" and "Upper Class Art" is as clear as crystal to me in those examples you show us, the difference between Chaos and Order, Light and Dark, Yin and Yang, Toothpaste and Dog Shit, I get the picture, do you? I met Tracy Emin once, she seemed as mad as a hatter and had no control of her emotions at that time, I suppose that's what makes someone a Great Artist, I THINK NOT, but on browsing around her studio I found some really good art work in the forms of models and sculptures that she had done, so don't judge her to quickly or harshly by what you have seen of her work, as there is so much more of her work that you haven't seen. Regards, Danny PS. Michelangelo=Sistine Chaple Tracy Emin=Piss Stained Bed Both can claim to be Art, but one is like a "Lovely Smelling Rose" while the other is like a "Drunkards Fart" Who can tell which is which? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magic Fills the Air Posted October 20, 2010 Author Share Posted October 20, 2010 Hi Kiwi and Magic, The difference between "Working Class Art" and "Upper Class Art" is as clear as crystal to me in those examples you show us, the difference between Chaos and Order, Light and Dark, Yin and Yang, Toothpaste and Dog Shit, I get the picture, do you? I met Tracy Emin once, she seemed as mad as a hatter and had no control of her emotions at that time, I suppose that's what makes someone a Great Artist, I THINK NOT, but on browsing around her studio I found some really good art work in the forms of models and sculptures that she had done, so don't judge her to quickly or harshly by what you have seen of her work, as there is so much more of her work that you haven't seen. Regards, Danny PS. Michelangelo=Sistine Chaple Tracy Emin=Piss Stained Bed Both can claim to be Art, but one is like a "Lovely Smelling Rose" while the other is like a "Drunkards Fart" Who can tell which is which? Hi Danny If Tracy Emin can produce decent works of art, then why don't we get to see more of them? The answer is because what is required of art now is for it be controversial, to push the boundaries. Turner did this in the nineteenth-century but still managed to produce beautiful works of art. We've got to the point now though where art has become intoxicated with ugliness. Once we accept this ugliness as 'art' then I think we take a significant step backwards as a species. I don't think it has anything to do with class distinctions. Anyway I thought we were meant to be living in a classless society, at least that is what Tony Blair told us! Although I expect things are going to change a lot after today, but I'm not prepared to go into politics here! Magic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jahfin Posted October 20, 2010 Share Posted October 20, 2010 One of the cooler artist exhibits I've been to in quite a while is The Record: Contemporary Art & Vinyl at the Nasher Museum on the campus of Duke University in Durham, NC. If any of you find yourselves in the area, I highly recommend checking it out. I went on opening night but not all of the exhibits were on display so I'm due for a return visit. By all means, follow the link above and check out some of the exhibits online, there's some really cool stuff there. Though not part of the actual exhibit, this is one of the neatest things I've ever seen: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bong-Man Posted October 20, 2010 Share Posted October 20, 2010 Bong-Man specializes is "Pot People" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jahfin Posted October 20, 2010 Share Posted October 20, 2010 Bong-Man specializes is "Pot People" Love it. Reminds me of our Barrel Monster here in Raleigh, the controversy over which inadvertently started an international shitstorm. The artist, Joseph Carnevale, has since created several spin-offs of Barrel Monster, two of which are on display at the NC State Fair. The original One of the Barrel Monster spin-offs at this year's NC State Fair Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magic Fills the Air Posted October 20, 2010 Author Share Posted October 20, 2010 Bong-Man specializes is "Pot People" I really like that! It would look very nice in my garden! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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