12 September 2017

Abstract expressionism vs. Minimalism

 

You can place me in the category of people who think a lot of "art" is bunk, but having said that, I have to admit that in this video Elisabeth Sherman from the Whitney explains the opposite viewpoint quite lucidly and persuasively.

p.s. to other bloggers - in recent weeks, YouTube seems to have altered their "sharing" options.  In particular, I seem to be unable to download videos at the greater (?650) width that was previously an option.  The "embed" link now always defaults to 560x315. 

11 comments:

  1. i like the curator's comment: 'yes, you could do it, but you didn't.'.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aGRHOpMRUg&feature=youtu.be&t=278

    I-)

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  2. Hey, let's not forget that modern art has a lot history of setting people off--and that includes stuff that's old enough that it's no longer considered modern. Whistler (the guy who painted his mother) had a painting called Nocturne in Black and Gold that the critic John Ruskin blasted for being overpriced bunk.
    Although I'm not going to argue the point that a lot of modern art is bunk--and ridiculously overpriced at that.

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  3. I saw this on Youtube not long ago. It's not a topic I feel strongly about, so I don't have much to say in response, but I did find the "you could do it but you didn't" line a bit disingenuous. It's implied that when people say "I could do that", they mean simply "I could physically produce that", but really, what people almost invariably mean by that phrase is "I could not only have produced that; I could have thought of the idea as well, and maybe I did, and maybe I have a dozen ideas that are just as good every day of the week but I dismiss them because they're silly."

    I am making no judgement here. You decide if the response is appropriate or realistic.

    In galleries, I think it's necessary to have works that are both physically and metaphysically simple. The eye needs something to rest on in order to relax, where it is not called upon to scrutinise.

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    1. well put! of course, sometimes the 'silly ideas' are the big ones.

      silly idea - why would anyone ever want to carry a phone with them all the time???

      I-)

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  4. Still smells like B***S*** to me. I'll stick with my beloved Impressionism.

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  5. Just my $.02, but I'm glad you can't embed the larger videos - they were always too big for my screen.

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  6. Alternate view of the high end art market: so they've created a thing that they can assign any value to and exchange, donate, or trust it against taxes.

    As someone that went to art school I can assure you that every talentless kid in there can talk around their questionable work at least as well as a museum curator that's moving millions of dollars while doing the same.

    There are brilliant works both in the high end markets and at your local wine walks. There is trash in both too. Both of them can be used to decorate your home and bring you a little joy and satisfaction, possibly make you think and drive some personal introspection. But only one of them can be used to manipulate your taxes and launder money.

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  7. As an art lover I'm going to comment.

    My mom always said "if you love it, its art. If you hate it, its art" When I hear someone say I could do that my reply is "have you tried"?

    We just went on vacation and my daughter brought along a friend. This girl has never left her own back yard. I felt she was intimidated, became quiet before entering LACMA. I told her of a game we play in art museums. Look at an abstract and try to figure out what it is before looking at the information tag. I once saw a stack washing machine/dryer and it was called office desk. She laughed and came out that day with a hand full of Diego Rivera post cards.

    Art is emotion and a pissy attitude toward it is just lack of knowledge. Thats cool, doesnt bother me in the least. I have no formal education and don't come from money. My mom gave me the ability to seek and enjoy art, even at its most ridiculous.

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  8. After copying the embed code and pasting it into your post, you can edit the numbers for screen size. It works for me, anyway. You need to know which height goes with which width to get the ratio right, but you can find that by using edit mode to look at an earlier post (from before the YouTube change) which had a video of the size you want.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Infidel - that makes sense.

      I've bookmarked your blog. :-)

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