Bricks, Dung, Sharks & Unmade Beds: The World Of 'Modern Art'

[rynner2]

Here's an article suggesting that the best modern art now is produced by science, especially astronomical photos.
Out of this world: why the most important art today is made in space
Forget the Turner prize. This is art that reflects the true grandeur of the universe – it is the Sistine Chapel of the scientific age
by Jonathan Jones
Sunday 12 June 2016 14.00 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jun/12/why-most-important-art-today-made-in-space

Lots of photos and videos included to support the argument. Article ends:

"Great art should fill us with a new vision of the world – indeed, the cosmos – and our place in it. The last professional artists who really did that were Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. Today’s greatest artists will never be famous as individuals or sell their work for millions – Nasa’s Hubble images are free to use – because the most beautiful images of today are being created by teams of scientists using advanced technology. The modern art world has told us that art can be anything. It took science to remind us that it can still be a picture of nature."

 

[ramonmercado]

Woman fills in crossword at museum only to discover it is a £67k artwork
The German museum has filed a criminal complaint against the 91-year-old

We've all been there: you're strolling around a museum feeling a little more bored than you'd care to admit, yearning for something to do. Like, say, a crossword puzzle.

One such woman did just this, taking a crossword she found lying around a German museum and filling it in - the problem being the crossword was, in fact, a piece of artwork worth £67,000.

The 1965 piece from avant-garde artist Arthur Koepcke bears the resemblance of an empty crossword puzzle with Suddeutsche Zeitung reporting that the 91-year-old woman saw the artwork as an instruction.

Reportedly, she had grown confused due to the interactivity of many of the museum's other artefacts.

Metro reports that the woman had attended Nuremberg's Neues museum as part of a senior citizens group when she desecrated the piece of art. Despite being an accident, the museum has filed a criminal complaint with director Eva-Christina Kraus citing "insurance reasons" as the main reason.

The work is reportedly being restored with Koepcke himself rumoured to have been tickled by the incident.

What's a five-letter-word for 'You should probably keep it enclosed next time'?

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...s-museum-artwork-arthur-koepcke-a7138256.html

 

[GNC]

Terrific documentary on BBC Four tonight about Equivalent VIII:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07w6hdm/bricks

Which is where the title of this thread hails from. A fascinating snapshot of the time, it hears from both sides of the argument and has some great clips and interviews. Also some great picks for the tunes on the soundtrack, which had me laughing out loud. Brian Sewell's right, the Tate should have bought the whole thing, it makes more sense if you see it in its entirety, even if you don't like it.

 

[Tribble]

Painter and sculptor Helen Marten has won the 2016 Turner Prize.

The 31-year-old, the youngest of the four shortlisted artists, was announced as the winner at a ceremony at Tate Britain in London.

The prestigious £25,000 prize is awarded to a British artist, under the age of 50, considered to have put on the best exhibition of the past year.

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-38212014

(Call me an unappreciative philistine, but that art looks like the combination of a garden shed full of junk, a tube of glue and an earthquake)

 

[Iris]

I wonder how many private people would pay to have these things in their own homes?
Reminds me of the things put out for the council collection.

 

[Swifty]

I'm just wondering when Heston Blumenthal (or however it's spelt) will reveal his 'completely empty plate' masterpiece meal to the world's food critics .. this will cost a fortune to buy for some idiot (who 'gets it') but will also only ever increase in value at the same time ..

.. and Brian ..

 

[rynner2]

Rubbish artwork Pole Dark mocks Cornwall's beloved Poldark to win Turnip Prize spoof of Turner Prize
By Jeff_Reines | Posted: December 07, 2016

*WARNING: Some people may find some of the images in this article offensive*

It's Poldark, but not as you know it..

The 2016 Turnip Prize, a spoof version of the art world's famous - and sometimes infamous - Turner Prize, has been won by an artwork titled Pole Dark - a simple pole painted black.
Winner Mark Plummer, 53, beat almost 100 other jokey entries with his artwork parodying the hit BBC TV drama Poldark, which is set and mostly filmed in Cornwall.

The satirical art competition was set up in 1999 in mockery of the Turner Prize and brings the country's worst artists together and producing rubbish art.
They submit entries of ridiculous objects alongside slogans and puns to mimic contemporary art at the New Inn pub in Wedmore, Somerset.

This year's winner, an IT consultant from Wedmore, was awarded a top prize of a turnip impaled onto a large nail.
Mr Plummer - artist name Plumsky - said: "My inspiration came from big jugs of fine red wine and the odd pasty."

[Video]

The Turnip Prize was conceived by management and regulars of The New Inn (formerly the George Hotel) after Tracey Emin's infamous My Bed - an installation comprising a messy bed - won the Turner Prize.
Previous winners have included Danger Mouse - a computer mouse with an electrical warning sticker - and Ewe Kip - a sleeping sheep.

Turnip Prize organiser Trevor Prideaux said: "I am delighted with the lack of effort taken to create this work.
"He clearly has what it takes to be recognised in modern art circles and will be remembered in art history for no time at all.
"It's a hole in the commode to the ageist Turner Prize and I believe that over the last sixteen years the artists entering The Turnip Prize have created by far better works than Alex Farquharson and The Tate Britain Gallery could ever wish to exhibit."

etc...

http://www.cornwalllive.com/rubbish...turner-prize/story-29966368-detail/story.html

 

[Tribble]

Anish Kapoor signs exclusive deal giving him sole rights to use Vantablack pigment, the blackest black (blacker even than Father Ted's socks) in art. Other artists get angry.

Stuart Semple invents pinkest pink pigment, makes it available to everyone except Anish Kapoor.

By adding this product to your cart you confirm that you are not Anish Kapoor, you are in no way affiliated to Anish Kapoor, you are not purchasing this item on behalf of Anish Kapoor or an associate of Anish Kapoor.

To the best of your knowledge, information and belief this paint will not make it’s way into that hands of Anish Kapoor.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart...n-banned-using-worlds-pinkest-pink-180961464/

 

[JamesWhitehead]

“[Kapoor is like the] kids who wouldn't share their felt pens,” Semple tells Power. “They just sat there in the corner without any friends."

 

[GNC]

None more black.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Anish Kapoor signs exclusive deal giving him sole rights to use Vantablack pigment, the blackest black (blacker even than Father Ted's socks) in art. Other artists get angry.

Stuart Semple invents pinkest pink pigment, makes it available to everyone except Anish Kapoor.

By adding this product to your cart you confirm that you are not Anish Kapoor, you are in no way affiliated to Anish Kapoor, you are not purchasing this item on behalf of Anish Kapoor or an associate of Anish Kapoor.

To the best of your knowledge, information and belief this paint will not make it’s way into that hands of Anish Kapoor.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart...n-banned-using-worlds-pinkest-pink-180961464/

I wonder how much Anish Kapoor would pay for some of that pink pigment?
[Thinks of business opportunity with lots of noughts on the end]

 

[Tribble]

I wonder how much Anish Kapoor would pay for some of that pink pigment?
[Thinks of business opportunity with lots of noughts on the end]

Anish Kapoor has retaliated against a ban that prevents him from buying the world's pinkest paint by acquiring it illegally.

"Luckily he's failed to get his hands on the world's most glittery glitter so we would urge purchasers to refrain from sharing any with him or his associates."

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...t-pink-blackest-black-paint-war-a7497751.html

 

[Mythopoeika]

LOL

 

[Cochise]

I'm just wondering when Heston Blumenthal (or however it's spelt) will reveal his 'completely empty plate' masterpiece meal to the world's food critics .. this will cost a fortune to buy for some idiot (who 'gets it') but will also only ever increase in value at the same time ..

.. and Brian ..

I was brought up never to play with food. Because people elsewhere are starving.

And what Heston does, while I agree it is terribly skilful, is basically playing with food. It seems to me an indication that we are in the latter stages of terminal decadence. As do some of the other things chefs get up to these days. Me poor old Dad would be spinning in his grave if he hadn't been cremated.

To give Heston his due, if he did produce his 'study of an empty plate' it would be edible.

 

[hunck]

The Hague’s City Hall Gets a Mondrian Makeover for De Stijl’s Centennial

The Dutch are marking the centennial of their most famous modern art movement, De Stijl, a term coined by Piet Mondrian in 1917. In honor of this major anniversary, The Hague unveiled today a transformative makeover of its city hall building into what Dutch officials claim is “the largest Mondrian painting in the world.”

Apparently he used to have an extra A - Mondriaan, but dropped it.

 

[Frideswide]

I like this!

 

[Swifty]

Every time the Mrs shows me this stuff, she cracks up laughing .. I've no idea why?, it's clearly making some serious points about religion or culture or something probably? ................................

 

[Shady]

Most of the 'art' these days is a load of old codswallop

 

[Analogue Boy]

Critically pushed art may be rubbish but we've never had as much access to so many beautiful illustrations, photos, designs, sculptures or videos that are only one click away.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Critically pushed art may be rubbish but we've never had as much access to so many beautiful illustrations, photos, designs, sculptures or videos that are only one click away.

That's true. So much great stuff is being created today.
You just won't find much of it in a 'modern art' or 'contemporary art' gallery.

 

[Analogue Boy]

I suspect a lot of modern artists wish to shock or produce images to shake us out of our torpor.
This may have been true with the Impressionists but I suspect this cliche now says more about some current artistic blinkered self obssession than it does about an indifferent viewing public. After all, there are a fair amount of OAPs around today who probably dropped acid and lived the high life before these artists were born into their mission to jolt us out of our jaded pedestrian sensibilities. That's why a lot of it seems trite, unimaginative, uninspired and colourless. Some of us have just seen and imagined more.

 

[Coal]

If one criticises modern art guff, you're generally told all 'art is subjective'. Well, that's true, but that doesn't make it good art and if it's subjective, my opinion that it's cr*p has the same validity as the installation artist's view that it's a masterpiece. So, we're both right, no? Luckily, I'm not biased. Just sayin'

 

[escargot]

Christie’s to close South Kensington saleroom

Christie’s is to close its secondary London saleroom in South Kensington at the end of 2017, reports the New York Times. Faced with a cooling European market, the auction house will also be scaling back its operations in Amsterdam, and possibly laying off as many as 250 employees, or 12 per cent of its workforce. The news reflects a shift in sales to new buyers from Europe to Asia and the USA. Christie’s is to open a new gallery in Los Angeles in April. ‘The art market is fast-evolving,’ said CEO Guillaume Cerutti. ‘We have been looking at the globalisation of the market in the last decade and need to be present and strong where the clients are.’

I read about this in the Times or Telegraph last week, in more detail. It's not about money-saving - Christie's is fabulously wealthy - but more about providing newer, richer customers in other parts of the world with the art they want, bringing in even more moolah.

It seems that modern art is the thing because supplies of more traditional forms are running out. All the attics and genteelly decaying mansions of Europe have finally been stripped of their long-hidden Old Masters. Charming Georgian and Victorian works were snapped up years ago. Even early religious art is collected by rich hedonistic hoarders.

Furthermore, governments have wised up to the plundering of art by ultra-rich foreign buyers. These days older works don't have a cat in hell's chance of leaving the country.

So newly-created, super-hyped art by the new, naughty young Masters is being flogged by such as Christie's instead. It's a sound investment, trendy and prestigious.

Money, y'see. Nobody can afford a Picasso, but plenty can stretch to a Hirst or an Emin, if it's that or another Merc.

(I dunno why my text is coming up as a link but it's 3am and I'm going to bed!)

 

[Coastaljames]

...my opinion that it's cr*p has the same validity as the installation artist's view that it's a masterpiece.

Undoubtedly yes.

Art is art. You either like it or you don't. Either position says nothing about the quality of the art. There is no such thing as the quality of the art.

 

[Coal]

Undoubtedly yes.

Art is art. You either like it or you don't. Either position says nothing about the quality of the art. There is no such thing as the quality of the art.

Can you honestly say a rough daub with no perspective or skill has the same merit as Dali's 'Last Supper'?

 

[Coastaljames]

Can you honestly say a rough daub with no perspective or skill has the same merit as Dali's 'Last Supper'?

I could. Which is the point.

You could then say I'm talking nonsense. Or you could agree. Or it could lead to a discussion.

Again- the point

 

[escargot]

Can you honestly say a rough daub with no perspective or skill has the same merit as Dali's 'Last Supper'?

's'all about money though innit? If someone found a rough daub by Picasso - and they do turn up from time to time - it'd automatically become part of the Picasso canon and acquire a substantial monetary value.

Nobody wants my rough daubs, mainly because I'm not a talented artist like Picasso but also because my daubs could be out there for ten a penny whereas Picasso ones in the 'wild' are rare.

From a more art-oriented perspective though, we're back to what actually constitutes art. Is a two-line representation of a tiger more artistic than an oil painting of one? Which would you spend your hard-earned cash on?

Or would you send your money off to a tiger sanctuary instead and delight in the postcard they send you with a photo of a tiger on the front and 'Thank you from the tigers!' on the back?

 

[Coal]

I could. Which is the point.

You could then say I'm talking nonsense. Or you could agree. Or it could lead to a discussion.

Again- the point

Well, I'm not sure I agree... I think this conflates quality of a thing with liking a thing.

That some art even has a merit or worth which is greater than other art suggests strongly there is such a thing as 'good art' and 'piss art'.

If you were to show a large variety of works-of-art to a 10,000 people and have them all scored out of (say) 100 based on quality of the art, I dare say the resulting distribution would show that some works of art are consistently rated as 'better' than others.

I'd speculate that a second 'reading' base on 'liking the art' would show a large overlap with the first.

It's the case that there are no hard and fast 'rules' about what constitutes one or the other, but I'd suggest a set of heuristics could be derived without too much trouble, based on (for example) skill levels, technical ability, ability to capture an essence or atmosphere (say, the positive difference between a photograph of a scene and a painting of the same scene), use of light and shade, composition and so on. We might take into account the previous skill shown by an artist. If one can paint like Picasso or De Vinci, then one might interpret a stuffed shark by such in a different light.

If one can't paint/draw/sculpt to any degree, then you're just a person who's stuffed a shark. It's art, because everything is, including the macaroni pictures the Coalettes made when they were three.

But the stuffed shark or unmade bed from the talent-less is just 'piss art'. Even if someone likes it, it's still bollox of the first order.

I've no doubt there are deluded souls who think they are great artists, what they really have are 'feelings' or 'angst' and a license to muck about with stuff and I've no doubt there are others who exploit the nicely subjective grey areas to baffle with bull-shine art patrons and the gullible.

A better living than working on a shop-floor perhaps, but don't try to convince me you're a great artist, please. One might argue the worst thing about such 'eminhursts' is that they inspire the untalented to think they are great talents, which is a terrible terrible thing to do.

(This is a first draft argument, I expect holes to be found @Coastaljames )

 

[escargot]

But the stuffed shark or unmade bed from the talent-less is just 'piss art'. Even if someone likes it, it's still bollox of the first order.

It sells though. That's the point.

 

[Coastaljames]

Nobody wants my rough daubs, mainly because I'm not a talented artist like Picasso but also because my daubs could be out there for ten a penny whereas Picasso ones in the 'wild' are rare.

Financially valuing art is a whole different kettle of fish though isn't it. I know a few artists that would never even contemplate selling any of their work because they don't want to get involved in that whole discussion about how much their work is "worth".

Is a two-line representation of a tiger more artistic than an oil painting of one?

What is "artistic"?

Nobody wants my rough daubs...

Oh, and I can assue you L'escargot - nous voulons tous vos rugosités