Sometimes it doesn’t actually mean stuff, it’s just enjoyable or impressive for what it is, it’s not about being reborn, or symbolic of oppression it’s just a big purple square, or a cool funky sculpture.

Stop analysing it, the artist is laughing at you!

Nowt up with purple squares.

I find i appreciate modern art more when the tabloid press go so far out of their way to completely remove any context from a piece, then publish a ‘look at this piece of pretentious old crap’ article. Come on! Lets all laugh at the beard-scratching posho’s.

Who’s the thick one then? The person de-constructing the artwork? Or the person who’s had his opinions spoon-fed to him by a Sun journalist?

Modern art as it should be:

🙂

I’m not knocking modern art.
Just think that sometimes people search for meaning where there isn’t any.

Look Yeti! A big slide. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE 😀

Where is that Binners? It’s Awesome!!

But what does it mean? Probably nothing more than someone thought it’d be nice to have a big slide there…

Oh my god you are so completely and utterly wrong. Wrongest. Modern and abstract art is unbelievably important.

I used to date the daughter of a world renowned abstract artist and he and I ended up in many discussions about his work, which he takes very seriously.

I asked him how long it took him to do a painting, which appeared to my untrained eye to be a few boxes with a ladder in one of them, he looked angry and said 72 years (his age). He took it very seriously indeed as did the international art community. He is a royal Academician!

I think what I am trying to say is that even though you cannot fathom any meaning, it does not mean that the artist is not very serious about it. Even if it is rubbish (which I think most of it is).

Visual language my arse…

what did he use to make the stain? is that 72 years worth of, erm?

what did he use to make the stain? is that 72 years worth of, erm?

Do not belittle the lifetimes work of a man exploring the human experience. 😉

At least spaff would be a statement!

I’m not knocking modern art.
Just think that sometimes people search for meaning where there isn’t any.

And sometimes people don’t see search for it when it is there.

Having said that, the piece shown by Torminalis is not very good at all.

Torm – he was laughing at you! Like this >> look 😆

But why isn’t it just ART!?

Surely the monica of Modern Art is becuase it isn’t art, but is something different?

What is clever about half a cow (butchers have been doing that for years) or a submarine made of tyres?

I mean, if I put my unmade bed up for sale would it be worth millions?

It’s all crap.

I mean, if I put my unmade bed up for sale would it be worth millions?

but it wasn’t just an unmade bed was it, it was what the bed evoked and represented

Torm – he was laughing at you!

No, hundreds of people attended his last collection and they were all very serious, none moreso than he. Prices start at £10k.

but it wasn’t just an unmade bed was it, it was what the bed evoked and represented

Like all those quaint galleries in Amsterdam?

What it evoked and represented?

Er, that the stiggy cow needed to make her bed and tidy up!

It’s all crap.

A broad, sweeping and completely unjustified statement.

Yes there is some crap modern art. There is also some crap Renaissance art and some crap Post-modernistic art and some crap Neo-Classicist art and some crap…

Prices start at £10k.

He’s 😆 all the way to the bank then!!

It’s all crap.

To be honest, I am pretty interested in this. It all started with DuChamp’s urinal, he declared it was art and thus it was a modern abstract art was born. Modern art tends to be about the concept rather than the content. The name is often as telling as the form. Most of it is rubbish but some things are (to me) very clever and very highly regarded by people outside the art world.

No, hundreds of people attended his last collection and they were all very serious, none moreso than he. Prices start at £10k.

Wow, that is a lot, especially as if you look closely, you can see he only got 33 out for 50 for it.

Er, that the stiggy cow needed to make her bed and tidy up!

What do you want from art? just pictures? stuff that looks exactly like the thing it represents?

A broad, sweeping and completely unjustified statement.

Not really – my opinion is it’s all crap.

Charging millions for half a cow just means nothing to me. There’s no skill apart from conning people into buying it.

Charging millions for half a cow just means nothing to me. There’s no skill apart from conning people into buying it.

Is any art worth anything?

What do you want from art? just pictures? stuff that looks exactly like the thing it represents?

No. I do like more classical stuff. But I just think if it needs a seperate name then it’s probably the Emporers New Clothes.

I like things that have needed skill. Taking a chain saw to a cow isn’t that skilful (not that I’ve tried mind).

Dr, where do you live? Are there any farms near by? I have a chainsaw…

Good idea TSY. Although I don’t want to copy Mr Hurst. Would you mind holding down my neighbours Spaniel while I do the cutting (the Spaniel or the nerighbour – makes no odds to me)?

I feel another experiment coming on… all in the name of art you understand…

‘What is easiest to cut in half with a chainsaw?’

All suggestions welcome, the Dr and I will get no pleasure from it whatsover. Our ‘creations’ will on display for a limited time only.

I propose to chop a chainsaw in half with a chainsaw.

It is a reflection on the recursive nature of our own self destructive tendencies.

That’ll be £5 please.

I like things that have needed skill.

For me, that’s just technical, mechanistic.

A broad, sweeping and completely unjustified statement.

Not really – my opinion is it’s all crap.

Charging millions for half a cow just means nothing to me. There’s no skill apart from conning people into buying it.

DrRwank what you said was a braod sweeping statement. Just because you don’t understand something, does not mean there is no meaning there. It just reflects you can’t or won’t see it.
To clarify what you mean you need to say, “to me” or “I think” or if you want to get artsy say “I feel”. 😉

Being even more pedantic I would argue that Duchamp started modern art but I agree with the sentiment.of the post.

For me, that’s just technical, mechanistic.

Which is fine 🙂

Torminalis – I don’t understand. Wouldn’t the chainsaw need to chop itself in half for your reflection to work?

But that’s why I don’t like Modern Art. It’s like a bad joke – if it needs explaining it ain’t funny…..

because you don’t understand something, does not mean there is no meaning there

OK – so this is where I lose the plot. WHY do I need to understand it?

I can look at a sculpture and appreciate it. But why should I bother trying to understand what half a cow in a fish tank means?

Surely it’s just all a little bit up it’s own bottom?

But that’s why I don’t like Modern Art. It’s like a bad joke – if it needs explaining it ain’t funny

I think the joke analogy is good, but not a ‘bad’ joke. just like a joke , and you don’t get it. I don’t mean that pejoratively

OK – so this is where I lose the plot. WHY do I need to understand it?

you don’t need to understand it, but if you did it would be one more rich experience in your life. You don’t need to like Westlife, but if you did, it would allow you to enjoy a whole lot of stuff. (whether or not it’s worth it is you call) Many things are an “acquired taste” but some folks find it worthwhile to acquire that taste.

I can look at a sculpture and appreciate it. But why should I bother trying to understand what half a cow in a fish tank means?

Then you could appreciate both

You don’t need to like Westlife, but if you did, it would allow you to enjoy a whole lot of stuff.

Your argument just took a nose dive – LOL!!!

But, for sake of argument, let me think about Ms Emins unmade bed. What do I think was going through her mind as she lay there farting, doped out of her head? Dunno. And, to be frank, don’t care.

I’m not sure what I should ‘get’ from looking at her dirty stained sheets, apart from annoying my natural OCD tendencies.

If, whilst sitting at my desk, I tipped out the pot of bulldog clips and said it was to demonstrate my feelings of despair – would that be modern art or a mess?

Perhaps that’s what I need answering. When does a pointless pile of rubbish become something more? Afterall, we can analyse almost anything……

Just think that sometimes people search for meaning where there isn’t any.

Yes. I think a lot of Shakespeare was originally meant to be nothing more than a ripping good yarn, blockbuster entertainment. Possibly knocked out the morning after a drunken night out for a deadline.

I like things that have needed skill.

I’d like to draw an analogy here. Posted the other day in some other context was the story of an engineer brought out of retirement to fix some huge complex arcane machine that no-one else understood any longer. He comes in, walks around for a few minutes listening and puts a chalk mark on a component with an instruction to replace it. He then charges $10,000. When questioned about this seemingly high hourly rate, he says that the chalk mark was worth $1 and knowing where to put it was worth $9,999.

I feel that way about good art. It doesn’t take any skill to wheel your bed into a gallery and mess it up, but I feel it DOES take skill to find a long detailed story inside yourself and sum the whole thing up beautifully and impossibly concisely; expressing it all not with a few hundred pages of words but one single scene. I think that if you don’t understand the un-made bed then you should go back and look again (if indeed you looked at it in the first place) carefully and use your imagination.

OK – I have seen it.

But – it’s just an unmade bed.

Why is it different from any other unmade bed? Why is it special? It’s not.

Surely if I have to use my imagination then it’s my mind that is the piece of art? OK – I’m even confusing myself now!

When does a pointless pile of rubbish become something more?

This is a good one, I think it is when the artist uses it to convey something. It’s not just with piles of rubbish either, after all a spider can create something beautiful, but the result is not art .

For me, the bed invites you to consider that everyday object again. Think about the people you have shared a bed wit, from when you were a baby. Many of them will be significant people in your life. Think about the things you do in your bed, the role it plays in your life.

Only by pulling the bed out of it’s normal context and confronting you with it does she make you pause to consider it.

Why is it special?

It’s in an art gallery.

But otherwise, it’s not special. Any un-made bed could tell a story…

Surely if I have to use my imagination then it’s my mind that is the piece of art?

No, the art work is (or should be) prompting your imagination and therefore invoking a range of emotions in you. Good art will do this.

Think about the people you have shared a bed wit, from when you were a baby

+1. The bed, iirc was surrounded by things like paperbacks, tea mugs and used condoms etc. Slices of life. What would each of those sexual encounters have meant to the artist (I think it was meant to be autobiographical)? Who were the men? What happened on those evenings..?