Art Sucks, It Really Does
Published by Pagani January 17th, 2006 in Philosophy.It may seem strange to read that an artist thinks art sucks, but there you are. It isn’t because there isn’t anything interesting to be done in art, it’s just that nobody cares if it is interesting.
Instead of interesting, it seems that people want something a bit more pedestrian, and that will be declared by the art gods to be genius-level work.
I finally settled on this point by looking at a big shot art site, seeing who is being proclaimed the latest genius of art. The work I saw there was jarring to me. It was plain, flat and cartoon-like. It was very much like the stuff I was doing when I was ten years old. Close enough that if I sent one of those paintings to the hot professional art web site and said it was done by this guy, I’m quite sure they’d put it on their site as another example of the great man’s genius.
But I’m decades beyond that now, and here this guy is the new genius of art?!? Maybe I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. When I was ten it was “not bad for a kid” and probably if I still painted like when I was ten nobody would care.
So I realized that people are just randomly declared to be some sort of genius. Like another artist who paints red squares. That’s it - that’s the big work of genius. Oh yeah, she calls them things like A Dozen Roses - never mind that they look like the same red squares she called Carnations, it’s GENIUS! I should be grateful for even getting to see her work.
Yeah. Now do you see why I have said that art sucks? That and the fact that art is mostly useless. 99% of art is either bullshit like this or mindless wall candy: Pretty waterfalls and barns with lots of yellow light - bright and shiny and signifying nothing.
That said, I have finally distilled the essence of success in art: Being good or doing something nobody has ever done before will get you exactly nowhere. To be a genius in the art world, you just need to have the brass balls to put a dot on a canvas and call it God Speaks To Abraham or whatever. So now we know the whole secret of modern art is to be an artist with unmitigated gall and completely full of shit. Nothing else. Although a complete lack of ability to produce anything recognizable also helps.. as long as you make sure to give your work some pompous name, that is.
I’ve done the cartoony work of the great genius trumpeted by the art mags, and left it behind long ago. I’ve done impressionism, abstractism and photorealism. I’ve semi-settled on abstract impressionism because it represents the greatest challenge next to doing something original in abstract expressionism and it takes a lot of skill and talent.
If you missed my many discussions on this point, abstract impressionism uses abstract shapes, simplified shapes and color fields, to create images that rather clearly are representational. It is unreal realism, and that is what I love about it.
I use abstract impressionism to play with the minds of viewers at the neural level, and to present my personal agenda to reform the direction of civilization. I trust that is not too much to ask. And I still love abstract expressionism for its free flow from the animal, subconscious mind to the canvas. Canvas is canvas, paint is paint, the don’t need to pretend to be otherwise, except perhaps to impress the dull witted.
Either way, the art world isn’t going to care.
YOU ARE SO RIGHT
I’m thrilled to have finally read these sentiments from a legitimate artist. I’ve stated it similar before, but my words/opinion does not carry any weight whatsoever: “I can’t possibly know what I’m talking about -I have not had any formal training.” (I’m just a dumb construction worker)
The joke of asking my girlfriend what the artist must have been thinking about while pointing at the restroom sign at galleries continues to irritate her.
Any argument (including yours) that supports the fact that some of the works out there are just plain BS gets rebuffed as “ultra simplistic views made by people who can’t grasp the process”
Made sense when you spoke of Brass balls, unmitigated gall, and completely full of shit. I bought some canvas and paint today: I have nothing to loose, and who is going to care anyhow?
Mike
I love you. You are *so* right.
i think the above seems a little sophomoric. i’m dissatisfied with contemporary art, but not just that. the self-proclaimed art of now has in common what art has so much been about: so little. it’s narcissicistic and pretends it’s too important in itself to tackle the big themes: it relies on style: that is the way i do it is new and better etc. and old concepts of avante garde: found object etc, which are inherently about and reaction to previous styles. personally i think your real job is to do something that trascends ANY art style or form. (especially those of the entire modern era) the only relevancy something like action painting or abstract expressionism had was that it was an attempt at this. you can’t just combine attributes of previous styles, you’re just being the ecclectic modernist, how can you trascend modernism in this manner? why not build your own foundation and forget about seeing yourself through the eyes of the past or present.
yes, i agree………..but i’ve known that for a while.
here’s my take on IT…….you go to the beach, pick up a seashell, it looks good.you walk a bit further….another seashell, ah-ah, that’s better than the first. you throw the first away…..you have a beautiful shell. you walk further, another shell takes your fancy, same fate for your “beautiful shell’ , ditched for a new old shapes or colourful specimen. Now it’s time to go home……..walking backyou spot your original shell…….you pick it up…..mmm, it looks ok, it has a life of it’s own…….i’ll take both. What comes around, goes around.
It’s the same with art……..you may discard that painting/style today, but pick it up in 12 months, you will have second thought (insert NEW)
someone once said ” the mind expanded, never returns to the same size”
we may think that artists suck…because “the public” are swayed one way or the other by ‘flavour of the month’…….but i’m sure if picasso or kandinsky were ever worried…….we wouldn’t now have beautiful art to look at !
As for being qualified…..formally trained, who cares !! if you paint and enjoy it,
isn’t that enough. i’ve been to exhibitions that i don’t know the difference.
oh, by the way….i’m not formally trained….but i’ve sold my works of art.
Art is to the beholder…….toucha !
You are all full of shit and dont have the faintest idea what you are critizing…..fuck you all….i am an absract artist….try it morons….its alot harder than you think…..dipshits
Just because you don’t have the talent to paint realistically doesn’t mean you should trash those who do. I’m sure you can find a crowd of gullible morons who will buy into your excuse of “style” to sell your splatter paintings. Good luck.
I’m an art student at university.
I have such strong passionate hate for “modern art” because they seem empty. There is an “ooh ahh” aesthetic impact thing going on, but behind that is nothing and that really really sucks.