I just don’t get modern art. Thankfully, this put me in the majority of people today at the show house. I debated taking the business cards of some of the artists so that I could ask them myself, but then I decided to blog about it instead. Uh huh. Such a cliché now, I know.
From head tilting, to eye bulging, to backing up and squaring my fingers around the pictures, I managed to boil down my confusion to two main questions predicated upon one assumption.
Assumption: Art is a form of communication.
Look at Neolithic cave paintings from across the world. (Can you tell I majored in anthropology/archaeology?) They not only informed history to new generations but also showed how to hunt, dance, worship their gods, etc…
With modern art:
1. Who are you trying to communicate with?
Because I’m in the majority of people standing at these pictures and saying, huh? Sadly, I think it has become normal to tell oneself that I’m just not smart/cool enough to get it, but it’s in, so I’ll go with the flow.
2. What are you trying to say? (and does your target audience understand you effectively?)
Maybe my education was too stone age and classical. (Hey, I got up to the point in the middle ages where they invented drawing in the 3rd dimension!) I understand Dadaism – because “it’s against the system” which has become so popular now that it’s part of the system. But, what I don’t get is tin foil and tissue paper mashed together inside a frame. What are you trying to say? I don’t speak barf-colored tissue paper!
Until this is explained to me, don’t ask me for $175 to buy it.
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