Wow, look - it's art!
David Buchner
gallery opening in the nearest "college town." It was a show of some
friends' work, which is okay although I'm sure many here would take
issue with it -- but in a side room there was another small showing of
another "artist"'s work, which was a display of multicolored dryer lint.
That's right, the stuff you scrape off that filter screen in clothes
dryers.
I had the good fortune to be standing near this "artist" while she
talked about her lint to some gullible patrons of the arts: I didn't get
it word-for-word, but she did claim that "each one tells a story" (for
example, those little white specks could be stuff that was stuck to a
black skirt and made her late on some occasion because she had to go
back and change clothes).
I was struck by the feeling that I could have been caught up in a
satirical moment in a movie, or a Seinfeld episode, or an Ayn Rand
novel. I swear, these days you can only tell if it's satire or earnest
real life by the context. No exaggeration is possible.
The most telling part of the whole experience was that when I attempted
to make sarcastic comments about the Lint Lady, my artist friends seemed
not to pick up on them at all. Everybody just seemed to nod
intellectually and looked like they were engaged in consideration of
weighty and profound matters. They mostly live in New York, and are
constantly surrounded by friends and aquaintances bound up in that art
"scene," and they seem to take such things perfectly for granted. One
even said it was just some "fairly nice ordinary abstract art."
Whatever that means.
I'm confused by a few things whenever I'm around people like that, and
their uses of the terms "abstract" and "conceptual" are at the top of
the list.
So much for my art-world experience for this year.
--
David
Buc...@wcta.net Osage MN USA
John Alway
news:1ezgnyr.84mlw1wrskeiN%buc...@wcta.net...
...
> The most telling part of the whole experience was that when I attempted
> to make sarcastic comments about the Lint Lady, my artist friends seemed
> not to pick up on them at all. Everybody just seemed to nod
> intellectually and looked like they were engaged in consideration of
> weighty and profound matters. They mostly live in New York, and are
> constantly surrounded by friends and aquaintances bound up in that art
> "scene," and they seem to take such things perfectly for granted. One
> even said it was just some "fairly nice ordinary abstract art."
> Whatever that means.
> I'm confused by a few things whenever I'm around people like that, and
> their uses of the terms "abstract" and "conceptual" are at the top of
> the list.
> So much for my art-world experience for this year.
My favorite work of modern art is giant squares, because they tell me
something profound about the artist.
...John
David Buchner
> My favorite work of modern art is giant squares, because they tell me
> something profound about the artist.
Oh! Oh! That was another thing, which I forgot to mention. I'm sort of
friends with the manager of the art center (mutual friend), and
afterward while everybody was getting drunk, I did manage to start to
ask her to explain what makes lint, art. She immediately warned me that
I was starting to be "a shit," but then I pleaded ignorance and
convinced her that I was genuinely puzzled, and she gave a little speech
about how most artists she knows aren't as good at expressing themselves
with words as I am,
[so the definition of art is basically a coping mechanism for those with
atrophied social skills?]
that some are merely awkward, while the best and brightest, the greats,
are barely able to speak coherently at all... and proceeded to give two
examples of what she apparently regarded as the top of the art heap:
Andy Warhol and Jackson Polluck.
Woo, hoo.
John Alway
[...]
> [so the definition of art is basically a coping mechanism for those with
> atrophied social skills?]
> that some are merely awkward, while the best and brightest, the greats,
> are barely able to speak coherently at all... and proceeded to give two
> examples of what she apparently regarded as the top of the art heap:
> Andy Warhol and Jackson Polluck.
You mean they're idot-savants?
Anyway, what about Michelangelo and Da Vinci... ??
both were excellent communicators, and Michelangelo likely the greatest
sculpture/painter ever.
Whata she saya maka no sensa to mea.
...John
Greg
>I swear, these days you can only tell if it's satire or earnest
>real life by the context. No exaggeration is possible.
Most modern art attempts to be ironic in one way or another, so you are justly
confused if you think artists are attempting to be earnest.
My criteria for good art is do I enjoy looking at it, does it make me think,
does it evoke emotion. Modern art often meets the first two but rarely the
last. That is still enough to get me to frequent modern art galleries along
with the more traditional ones.
Greg Weston
----------------------------------------------------
http://members.aol.com/gregweston
David Buchner
> My criteria for good art is do I enjoy looking at it, does it make me think,
Does snickering count as an emotion?
Greg
>Does snickering count as an emotion?
If that is your reaction to modern art then you are missing out.
John Alway
Greg <gregw...@aol.comnetorg> wrote in message
news:20010910175137...@mb-mv.aol.com...
> David Buchner
>
> >Does snickering count as an emotion?
>
> If that is your reaction to modern art then you are missing out.
Greg, the joke is on those who take it seriously. The artists are either
laughing at you, or contemptuous of you (though, sometimes the artists
themselves are caught up in a trend, and are as much fooled as the viewer).
This is the general message of modern art.
Who was it that admitted this to be the case? I think Pablo Picaso.
Picaso actually had talent, as proven by some of his earlier paintings.
...John
Greg
>>>Does snickering count as an emotion?
>> If that is your reaction to modern art then you are missing out.
> Greg, the joke is on those who take it seriously. The artists are either
>laughing at you, or contemptuous of you (though, sometimes the artists
>themselves are caught up in a trend, and are as much fooled as the viewer).
>This is the general message of modern art.
I don't think I said I take it seriously, but nor do I snicker at it. Modern
art, at its best, is clever and amusing, to be appreciated but not taken
seriously.
Owl
> I'm confused by a few things whenever I'm around people like that, and
> their uses of the terms "abstract" and "conceptual" are at the top of
> the list.
It's simple: the 'abstract' is that which isn't concrete, right? And the
'conceptual' is that which isn't perceptual, right? So if you can't see any
beauty or any other aesthetic value in the art, then its value must instead
be conceptual and abstract, right?
Stephen Grossman
<buc...@wcta.net> wrote:
> The other night I had the harrowing experience of going to an art
> gallery opening.... a display of multicolored dryer lint.
> I was struck by the feeling that I could have been caught up in a
> satirical moment in a movie, or a Seinfeld episode, or an Ayn Rand
> novel. I swear, these days you can only tell if it's satire or earnest
> real life by the context. No exaggeration is possible.
The next time you confront such nonsense, look at windows and electrical
switches, etc. as if they are part of the exhibit (and can you say theyre
not?!). And make sophisticated comments about "installations" in a loud
voice. Another possibility is discussing Nazism and giving the Nazi
salute. A friend did that once (but he's a big boy). After leaving the
exhibit drink heavily in a seedy bar while rambling to the barflies about
your harrowing experience. Caution! If a modern "artist" hears your
rambling, he may claim it as performance art.
--
=======================================================
Reason is the basic method of human survival. AYN RAND
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Tracking Marxist dialectical revolution: ZigZag
Radically systematic radical metaphysics: Existence 2
http://home.att.net/~sdgross
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Stephen Grossman Fairhaven, MA, USA sdg...@att.net
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