Turner Coda...
The Turner post of a few days back proved popular. It shows us that "art" and "exhibitionism" are two different things. The Tate Modern used to be a large building belonging, I believe to London Transport at one time. It's the "vaunted" museum that, not to be confused with *The Tate Gallery* across and up the Thames, that has all the good stuff in it(like Turner's works).
The Modern, a couple of years ago, had an entire "installation" of a huge pile of garbage bags. Okay I guess this was representing some non-representational thing. Overnight, this was lost on the custodial staff who proceeded to throw them all out thinking they were garbage, left from some construction. Hysterical.
In the course I took in modern, installation art-which, I will add was quite fun doing all sorts of useless things and calling it "art"-I asked the teacher why was realism so frowned on and instead, these "statements" being made. His response? "Years ago, artists moved paint to make a statement...we've done that...we now take that a step further and we move electrons".
Right.
The Modern, a couple of years ago, had an entire "installation" of a huge pile of garbage bags. Okay I guess this was representing some non-representational thing. Overnight, this was lost on the custodial staff who proceeded to throw them all out thinking they were garbage, left from some construction. Hysterical.
In the course I took in modern, installation art-which, I will add was quite fun doing all sorts of useless things and calling it "art"-I asked the teacher why was realism so frowned on and instead, these "statements" being made. His response? "Years ago, artists moved paint to make a statement...we've done that...we now take that a step further and we move electrons".
Right.
posted by Bob Eggleton (Zillabob) | 9:08 AM
2 Comments:
Hahaha, in my art school we had to always label projects being displayed in the hallway for fear the custodial staff would remove our "art". That is so funny that a museum actually lost an "installation" thanks to the same problem.
I too had to do installation art and I actually enjoyed it at times... and I felt guilty about that. I still kinda do. I strongly dislike 90% or more of installation art, but what does it say that I enjoyed doing it for my class a few times? I suppose one could say it's the difference between a woman enjoying to dance sexily vs. a woman who wants to be an exotic dancer (not commenting here on exotic dancers, I promise). Maybe? Basically it was fun to do a few times but I wouldn't want to make a career out of it.
Lastly, I strongly disagree with the teacher who said "we've done that" and that we have to take a step beyond moving paint to make a statement. Human experience is always changing and a human being is a unique creature, especially a highly creative human being who is in tune with his or her inner life. Surely one cannot say with a straight face that it has all been done. And yet, that's exactly what I was told at art school. The "moving electrons" thing makes a special touch.
Annalisa-good to hear from you again. Yeah, the art world is run largely by money people. The idea is keep it "exclusive" and guess what? It "raises" the price and all or at least creates the perception of something that is "priceless" and should be abstract and because it's sooo high brow, that it gets into a total mystery and therefor, it drives up the interest. Cristo is another perfect example of this. Sure the red sheets look "pretty" but what's it really about? Ahh..people will PAY to know that!!
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