Contemporary Art -- Is it Art at all ?.

Kennine
Kennine Forum Participant Posts: 3,472
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edited September 2016 in General Chat #1

Piles of Bricks  - Old wooden Gym floor stuck on a wall - A large round panel with millions of dead flies stuck on it -   ETC ETC  --- Are those things  Art,  or just a big con by talentless people who invent stories how their "Work" represents their innermost
thoughts on the meaning of life.  

Has anybody on this forum bought any of that stuff ??. 

Cool

 

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Comments

  • Pliers
    Pliers Forum Participant Posts: 1,864
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    edited September 2016 #2

    Errrrr, no.

    And not tempted either!

    Each to their own though......

  • Rocky 2 buckets
    Rocky 2 buckets Forum Participant Posts: 7,101
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    edited September 2016 #3

    Folk need to approach these things with an open mind. If it ain't for you-move on. It's all about 'open mindedness', it's about absorbing what you see & not approaching it from the old stand point of art, throw out the stale expected attitude.

  • Bob2112
    Bob2112 Forum Participant Posts: 276
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    edited September 2016 #4

    You could add music and drama and architecture to your question and get similar answers. You either like it or you don't but very often the passage of time will change people's perception. Christopher Wren got a lot of criticism for his taste and competence
    in his lifetime but now he is generally admired, lots of now great artists died poor and unappreciated. Perhaps we should be buying some of that stuff and hope that the great grandchildren inherit a masterpiece. I wouldn't want it in the house though , it
    would have to stay in the shed.

  • redface
    redface Forum Participant Posts: 1,701
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    edited September 2016 #5

    Ive been knocking them out in my shed for the past ten years or so. Laughing all the way to the bank.

    Anyone want a used bed, lump of shark or a skull from the local graveyard?

  • Takethedogalong
    Takethedogalong Forum Participant Posts: 17,044 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2016 #6

    We visited Castle Drogo last month in Devon. Inside was all upside down due to massive renovations ongoing. However, they had a display of tapestries in a couple of the rooms. The old 16th Century Flemish ones were wonderful. Alongside was one by Grayson Perry, huge, brightly coloured, full of tiny interesting details. First time I have ever seen any of his/her work, and I found it stunning. Very interesting. But it certainly divided lots in the room, some hated it, some were like me, loved it. It has got me interested in looking at more of Grayson Perry's work.

    Edit: the work I saw is called The Map of Truths and Beliefs. Parts of it are not for the easily offended, so be warned if you decide to view.

  • Fisherman
    Fisherman Forum Participant Posts: 2,367
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    edited September 2016 #7

    My wife does some with beach combings. Calls it "Hand Crapted", but it still sells. Plenty of Toffs, Daft kinds out there and easily fooled.

  • mickysf
    mickysf Forum Participant Posts: 6,474 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2016 #8

     I know what prompts my interest and appreciation and it may well be different to that of others. In fact I'd say it will definitely be different to others! Sometimes art is not just in the visual, it's in that provoked in the individual mind! But we all
    knew that didn't we?

  • Rocky 2 buckets
    Rocky 2 buckets Forum Participant Posts: 7,101
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    edited September 2016 #9

    Fish, I bet She finds your loyalty quite touchingLaughingLaughing

  • huskydog
    huskydog Club Member Posts: 5,460 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited September 2016 #10

    We all have our comfort zone and if something is presented to us outside of that zone often it's easyier to dismiss it than to try and understand it 

    just googled Grayson Perry ,yes his work is  different Surprised

  • mickysf
    mickysf Forum Participant Posts: 6,474 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2016 #11

    In one's view it is a fine line between pain and pleasure, disgust and delight, excitement and fear! Where we sit on these emotions is pertinent to the individual! Who should set that ' official line' for the rest of us? Not me!

  • Oneputt
    Oneputt Club Member Posts: 9,144 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2016 #12

    Kings clothes come to mind.  It's all subjective 

  • mickysf
    mickysf Forum Participant Posts: 6,474 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2016 #13

    Emperor's clothes it was but that was more about dictating thought and opinion! 

  • Navigateur
    Navigateur Club Member Posts: 3,880 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited September 2016 #14

    I think it is rubbish!   Better things seen going to the coup! [aka landfill]

  • mickysf
    mickysf Forum Participant Posts: 6,474 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2016 #15

    I think it is rubbish!   Better things seen going to the coup! [aka landfill]

    well at least 'it' what ever that was, made you as an independent individual think for a moment in order to make that conclusion! 

  • ChemicalJasper
    ChemicalJasper Forum Participant Posts: 437
    edited September 2016 #16

    I once saw where they got an elephant to paint a canvas and passed it off as by a famous artist to a bunch of art critics....who waxed lyrical about the depth of composition etc. etc.

    They then took a multi-million pound piece onto the street  and had a street painter put it with his work - similar results, well its not very good is it!

    Each to their own, I appreciate the large master pieces that look like photos such skill and attention to detail, but some of this modern stuff....quite frankly my kids have brought better back from school....and theirs is @$%&.Laughing

  • mickysf
    mickysf Forum Participant Posts: 6,474 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2016 #17

    In your opinion Chem, is that how you encourage the young and naïve amongst us?

  • IanH
    IanH Forum Participant Posts: 4,708
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    edited September 2016 #18

    Modern art? Load of old tosh.

    But a few pretentious people make a living out of it from the gullible and those who are afraid to speak their minds.

  • mickysf
    mickysf Forum Participant Posts: 6,474 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2016 #19

    And I thought we were talking contemporary art! Oh, we were! At least they are 'synonymous' in the eyes of the beholder!Wink

  • DavidKlyne
    DavidKlyne Club Member Posts: 13,860 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2016 #20

    Some people have a very black and white view of the world of Art which perhaps restricts their ability to view things which are strange to them objectively. You could say that the Angel of the North is a rusty hulk or you could stay that it is a magnificient
    landmark. Whichever camp you fall in is perfectly legitimate but the difficulties begin when we try and force our own views on others. Now some might think that a Piccaso painting is odd or worse but there are few of us who would not be happy to own one becuase
    it is worth a fortune? I have a nephew who is a talented young artist but many would find his art somewhat strange that doesn't deny the fact that he has a talent which I lack completely.

    David 

  • IanH
    IanH Forum Participant Posts: 4,708
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    edited September 2016 #21

    Piccaso was actually a really talented artist in his early days. He could actually paint good stuff.

    But he went off the rails later in life (presumably by then he had conned enough people that he could sell them any old rubbish and they would be afraid to say what it actually was - rubbish).

    Visit the Piccaso museum in Malaga and you will see what I mean.

  • DavidKlyne
    DavidKlyne Club Member Posts: 13,860 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2016 #22

    Ian

    I think what you mean is that his original paintings were more conventional but he moved on to more surreal style of painting. In fact I think he had an in between style of paiting known as his Blue Period which was different again. I was able to go to an
    exhibition of his work when we were in Amsterdam, fascianting.

    David

  • IanH
    IanH Forum Participant Posts: 4,708
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    edited September 2016 #23

    No David. 

    I mean that his early paintings were good and showed real talent. Whereas his later stuff (including his 'blue' period - for which we can read "can't be bothered to wash out the brush") was rubbish and took the mick out of the pretentious types.

  • Kennine
    Kennine Forum Participant Posts: 3,472
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    edited September 2016 #24

    I think those people who knock together those piles of rubbish and call it Art are conning the public.    A public who having delusions of grandeur are scared to tell the truth in case they are thought to be inferior.  Similar to the Emperors clothes mentioned earlier on the thread.

    In Scotland we are not so easily fooled and are quite happy to call the pile of rubbish exactly what it is. . ---- A load of (dog poo) or words to that effect.

    k Wink

     Thats my considered view. ---The arty farty types might disagree.

  • ChemicalJasper
    ChemicalJasper Forum Participant Posts: 437
    edited September 2016 #25

    In your opinion Chem, is that how you encourage the young and naïve amongst us?

    Obviously I don't tell them that (but I am just being honest on hereWink).

    Same as when they come home with a tupperware tub full of mangled veg swimming in dirty dish water, purporting to be 'Tomato Salsa', I eat a spoonful with a yum.....and try to convince them that their mother would really enjoy the rest of it!Laughing
     

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,644 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2016 #26

    We visited Castle Drogo last month in Devon. Inside was all upside down due to massive renovations ongoing. However, they had a display of tapestries in a couple of the rooms. The old 16th Century Flemish ones were wonderful. Alongside was one by Grayson
    Perry, huge, brightly coloured, full of tiny interesting details. First time I have ever seen any of his/her work, and I found it stunning. Very interesting. But it certainly divided lots in the room, some hated it, some were like me, loved it. It has got
    me interested in looking at more of Grayson Perry's work.

    Edit: the work I saw is called The Map of Truths and Beliefs. Parts of it are not for the easily offended, so be warned if you decide to view.

    tda, there are more of his tapestries at Croome Park N/T, near Upton-on-Severn if you'd like to see others of his work. Really spectacular, but certainly not to everyone's taste.

  • mickysf
    mickysf Forum Participant Posts: 6,474 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2016 #27

    Just watching Grand Designs, that gymnasium floor idea already in action! Brilliant!

  • Takethedogalong
    Takethedogalong Forum Participant Posts: 17,044 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2016 #28

    We visited Castle Drogo last month in Devon. Inside was all upside down due to massive renovations ongoing. However, they had a display of tapestries in a couple of the rooms. The old 16th Century Flemish ones were wonderful. Alongside was one by Grayson
    Perry, huge, brightly coloured, full of tiny interesting details. First time I have ever seen any of his/her work, and I found it stunning. Very interesting. But it certainly divided lots in the room, some hated it, some were like me, loved it. It has got
    me interested in looking at more of Grayson Perry's work.

    Edit: the work I saw is called The Map of Truths and Beliefs. Parts of it are not for the easily offended, so be warned if you decide to view.

    tda, there are more of his tapestries at Croome Park N/T, near Upton-on-Severn if you'd like to see others of his work. Really spectacular, but certainly not to everyone's taste.

    Thanks Nellie.

     I try and keep an open mind about art. Lots of it won't appeal to everyone, some that I look at and think whatever is that all about?  I like Antony Gormley's work, some of Damien Hirst's. Not keen on Anish Kapoor. Contemporary Art is not something that
    really appeals to me, much prefer classical art and especially Pre Raphaelite stuff. The PR's were laughed at and shunned when they first started painting, now they are revered and go for £millions! It's a very individual thing.

    Art Critics are a hoot, they are the con artists. I have never required anyone to tell me what I should or shouldn't like!

  • cyberyacht
    cyberyacht Forum Participant Posts: 10,218
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    edited September 2016 #29

    Modern Art & Death of a Culture by H.R. Rookmaaker gives an interesting take on this stuff.

  • mickysf
    mickysf Forum Participant Posts: 6,474 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2016 #30

    The posts on here just support the notion of contemporary art. Two of the major atributes of this art form is that it should be controversial and thought provoking. Obviously, job done!.

  • Merve
    Merve Forum Participant Posts: 2,333
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    edited September 2016 #31

    Piles of Bricks  - Old wooden Gym floor stuck on a wall - A large round panel with millions of dead flies stuck on it -   ETC ETC  --- Are those things  Art,  or just a big con by talentless people who invent stories how their "Work" represents their innermost thoughts on the meaning of life.  

    Has anybody on this forum bought any of that stuff ??. 

    Cool

     

    Kenine, the mere fact that this stuff is offered as 'art' shows just how far down the road we've gone to screwball park! Buy it? Good Lord, you'd only encourage the idiots to produce more of the garbage! They should be arrested under the Trade Descriptions Act and if you don't like that - under the Mental Health Act! It certainly doesn't provoke any thought in me except contempt.