"Modern Art" finally exposed to be the fraud that it is!

Art Renewal ^ | June 7, 2001 | Fred Ross, Chairman of the Art Renewal Center

[kidd]

I worked as a security guard at the Walker Art museum in Minneapolis for 3 years, which had about 7 galleries of modern art. Once they had an Alexander Calder exhibit (mobiles and circus miniatures), which nearly everyone enjoyed, even the kids.

The rest was crap. 90% of the people who made the effort to go to this museum made comments like "my kid could do this" or "this is stupid" or "I don't get it". I looked at the exhibits for 3 years, read the literature, discussed it with art students - and I came to the conclusion "my kid could do this", "this is stupid" and "I don't get it". Modern art is suited for a very very very small audience and the pretentious.

[Utah Binger]

You are very right about the lack of focus in certain museums. Many of the stuffed shirts who run the museums are just trying to cover the walls with anything they can find. Many times (most of the time)the selections are found from certain dealers who are trying to buy their way in to the academic world and thereby getting some free press. Art writers, also very liberal, are usually also bought and paid for by the museums. As you know, most academics are lefties that will take money from anybody.

Once in a while a fairly interesting show gets mounted like the Calder. The difficulty with most museums is that in most cases the choices for directors are made from elitist insider groups. Normal people never get a chance as they get talked down to by the "experts".

As to "My kid could paint that" Now that he's seen it he could. (derivative) But would he have the creativity to come up with the abstraction on his own?

[vannrox]

CROSS REFERENCING to Same Post on "General Interest" portion Forum on Free Republic. Interesting comments there as well. This post is on the "NEWS" Forum.

CROSS REFERENCE LINK

[weegee]

Democrats are responsible for running up prices for fraudulent art? What about the heartbreak of psoriasis? One suspects you might see mountebanks and hucksters on both sides of the political spectrum in the art world.

The NEA knows to turn to the democrats for support.

The mindless chater in the photography class that I took always gravitated to the "correct" liberal position on the issues. These were doctors, lawyers, and architects, not young college students.

There are conservative artists but it may serve them well to keep their mouths shut if they want a magazine cover or museum showing.

[weegee]

I thought that photorealism had been around since at least the 1970s. Some of it is amazing but some of it comes across so cold and sterile as to leave the viewer wondering why they bothered.

[weegee]

Go see the cross-linked thread on this article. I posted some of Salvador Dali's comments on "modern art" there.

They aren't outlandish "can you believe I said that" statements but rather a passionate bit attacking the anyone-can-do-it school of art.

[weegee]

"Art for art's sake" made the sales pitch (the art of the deal) the real art form involved.

"Found" art factors into this too. "I didn't make this, but my noticing it makes it my work of art."

[weegee]

I had a painting/silkscreen titled "President Eating A Pinup" with JFK modelled after Salvador Dali's "Baby Eating A Rat" (based on the inner psyche of Freud).

I made it for a girl who never paid me ($25) and left town. As I retained the painting, I loaned it out to a bar where it sat for about a year. An artist had a show there with large splatter paintings and collages priced from $400-800.

I later learned that an artist-musician who's made the big league ($25,000 museum purchases) thought that it was the best piece in the show. None of the offers that were ventured ever made it to me (I don't even know how much, just that some people expressed interest in buying it) and I still have the painting. I later saw an extensive magazine spread on the artist who exhibited at the bar.

The art "game" isn't that hard to understand but it does take connections to get exposed to the right circles. Some of it comes down to can you stand "proudly" by your work? Do you respect the opinions of those who admire your work?

I've bought works directly from artists I admired when I could.

[weegee]

The late Edgar Leetag has recently been rediscovered by the art world for his black velvet paintings...

[weegee]

Remember, those who can't paint, teach.

Sometimes though, those who can paint/draw teach anyway... Burne Hogarth knew the human form, produced some excellent books on the subject, and taught in art school for decades.

[weegee]

How about renumbering your colors before painting a "paint-by-numbers"? The altered color pallette would force the viewer to reconsider what they are seeing....

[general_re]

Well, that is postmodern, isn't it? And if I phrase it like that - maybe dress it up a bit - there's an NEA grant in there somewhere, I'd bet.

[weegee]

I saw some ripoff art show at the Museum of Fina Arts in Houston (the Shell Oil collection?) that had a wall-sized blowup of a photo of a man on a horse herding cattle. It was an artist who had "recontextualized" a photo from a Marlbaro ad.

There was no acknowledgement of the original photographer or the ad agency involved, just a brief description describing why this was art.

Even in the "fine art illustration/painting" world there are people who are just making paintings of famous photos. You can see examples of this at the art galleries in most of the major league retro ballparks in this country. Some of the photographers involved in the originals have prosecuted some artists for swiping their composition.

[cornelis]

I just looked at www.artrenewal.org A very nice site.

[cornelis]

FYI

[Sam Cree]

Thanks!

[Sam Cree]

Regarding creativity and art, some interesting things are said on that subject in this essay:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1817366/posts

[Sam Cree]

Art ping!

Let Republicanprofessor, woofie or me know if you want on or off the art ping list.

ARC is a very nice site, somewhat controversial in that it celebrates representational art at the expense of abstract, which is going against the grain these days. Especially Victorian art, which I think is Mr. Ross’ favorite.

I’m inclined to agree, though I also like some abstract stuff.

[Sam Cree]

"It might be if they hadn't written laws to keep any other party from becoming a danger to the power structure. "

What laws? Thanks.

[dfwgator]

I have a simple rule to define what is art, and what is not.

If I can do it, it is not art.