How do you characterise art?

Aspiring to make highbrow art makes boring crap :D
Nothing wrong to have deeper meaning in the artifact, I suppose most do, but doing so without including playful estetics into it just makes it pretentious and despicable.

Good art is intuitive and hits head on.
Being intellectual is mostly vapid posing.

It´s very amusing having your work analyzed by scholars. They seem to miss the mark by miles when using techniques of perception designed to be used upon art which follow the rules of their chosen scholarship.

A slash of purple may symbolize angst in one painting.
In another it might be there to add composition.

On and on and on.... (i just bored myself to death :))
 
Not all highbrow art is boring crap. It's just when the posing is so see-through. The Cistine Chapel piece is pretty highbrow. It's also pretty amazing for it's technique and it's process. Sure it can reproduced now in a matter of seconds. But for a guy working on his back without benefit of electric lights to control the amount of illumination on the piece itself, it was nothing short of a miracle.

What I have often laughed at are people who hold a particular artist in high regard because he or she attended such-and-such school (which is usually in Europe, mostly France). Never mind the fact that the style is cookie-cutter, the colors are plain, and the piece is uninspired, if he graduated from Le Snoot School of Art, he must be good. Meanwhile, the punk kid from Chicago who summarizes the struggles, sufferings, and triumphs of his culture, armed with nothing more than Krylon spray cans boosted or bought from the local hardware store, by painting a vibrant mural on an ugly eyesore of an abandoned building is considered a vandal, gets busted, then told to get a job. If he's lucky, somebody might get him in on the ground floor of a graphic arts job, but nobody's holding their breath for it.

I have seen graffitti that deserved to be in a museum and canvasses that I wouldn't put down for the dog to squat on. IN fact, in a local railyard is a boxcar where the artist spray-painted a portrait of himself. It's impressive, and, given the amount of time a graffitti artist usually has to create his or her masterpieces, pretty damn good in its execution.
 
I agree with everything you just said, the only problem with people spray painting things is when they just spray their stupid little tag that looks like a bunch of scribble, that pisses me off.
But yes I've also seen other pictures deserved of recognition.
 
Yeah, I know those damned scribbles mean things. I knew the ones back in San Jose and the surrounding area. We lived on the border of Red Rag/Blue Rag territory and learned a lot of the scrawls as a matter of routine. Many sociologists compare tags to heiroglyphics, but I compared it more to a dog pissing on a tree. One of the things about tagging, however, is that in order for it to be effective it has to be seen. When my office building became a tasty target for taggers (it had a huge, blank right at the sidewalk), my boss gave me the task of painting it up as soon as possible. We used paint that matched the building, and he taught me to square off an entire area of graffitti and cover it entirely so that not even the shape could be seen. It took months, but eventually that big, tempting plain wall was graffitti free. See, they want to be able to show it off, and if someone is diligent and keeps others from seeing it, they soon stop pissing on the wall. I had been threatened when covering up a tag by XIV. It really pained me to slap that kid across the face with a wet paintbrush...:Dnot! One piece was really interesting, though. It was on the side of a hotdog stand in San Jose and read "I love my mom". Someone scrawled something foul and derogatory beneath it, to which the original tagger replied "That's okay. I love you, too".
 
hmmmmmmm ODDITY
have I heard most recently of a "work -of-art" being dustbined by a dust bin man London way ? consisting of old styrofoam coffee cups, cig butts etc ? The characterization of art must be ubiquitous, now I got a heachache here. If anyone knows of the
dustman's story, please illuminate
 
What you have heard is true. The display was set up in it's "natural environment". When the janitor went through cleaning up the exhibit hall, he threw away what honestly looked like garbage. Personally, I say "Good job."
 
Now a funny story I can share relevant to the character of art
concerns our wonderful Museum of Art here in Delaware, which houses some rather nice stuff, predominately post-Raphaelite technically and features the Wyeths, Schoonover and Howard Pyle.
Now they extended their parameters into the realm of "modern art" whereby someone "collected" choice bits of ironmonger refuse and "assembled" a collage on the front lawn of the building.
Now many neighbors complained, of course, art being such a subjective intrepetation. The solution I recommended went like this, yes perhaps the man in the street doesn't "know" art BUT
the junkman knows junque ! And wouldn't ya know it, on trashday
the exhitbit was justifiably and righteously recycled ! PICK'D UP !

The artist reclaimed his "contribution-to-enlightenment" and had to forfeit the $27 scrap-iron value !

Submitted for your amusement and illumination one and all !
 
LOL! I find that usually when something like that happens to a piece of "art", it's usually been created by some poseur who thinks that he or she is pulling somebody's leg.

I could gather up a pile of lawn cuttings and call it something deep, like "Substance" or something like that. I bet it would sell.
 
Better yet, how about some donations from your "herd". I would think there could be a market for cow chips, done tastefully that is. :)

BTW been meaning to say I love that Avatar and member status thing you have going there, Oxygen!
 
I took a load of my old paintings and hung them out in my favourite forest. I liked the idea of someone stumbling upon them, totally unexpectant.

The next spring a local artclub started a "culture hike" in the very same forest. Mapped installations along the trails.
Taking the idea, institutionalizing it, and kill the meaning of secret art in the woods.
No magic, only kids vandalising art now :(
 
wet1-Thanks. :) It's kind of an inside joke for anyone who commutes Route 132 in central California and has to pass through the town of Vernalis. The speed limit is 55, but it's common knowledge that the Highway patrol has never enforced anything below 75. They'll even tell you as much. Most folks are comfortable at 65-70, but once they hit Vernalis they all slow down to about 50-55. I have no idea why, but I wish they wouldn't. You see, Vernalis is where the dairy farms are. The cows are right up to the highway, as are the manure piles and the pools of spoiled milk. Everybody inhale...wifffffffffffff. HACK! HACK! COUGH! GAG! AUGH!

Muliboy- I'm sorry your great idea got sundered:( . I don't see why people can't just enjoy the beauty of things, taking only memories and leaving only footprints.

In San Jose, the businesses along South First Street had a great idea. Most of them catered to the young and hip crowd, so they funded something called the SoFA Fair. The South First Street Association got the necessary permits, showcased local artists, served food and drinks, and even the cops didn't mind if you were sparking up a joint as long as you stayed in the Fair area. It was cool, it was peace and fun, and it was a great way to spend an afternoon at least one day a year. No fights, no vandalism, no hassles. It was like a miniature Woodstock '69.

Then someone on the SoFA board decided that they could fence the fair off and charge 3$ each to get in. Well, we all thought, expenses are incurred, and we really enjoy coming to the fair, so 3 bucks isn't a whole lot to ask. We just have to put up with these things called 'fences'. Ugh. How vulgar. The next year they jacked the price to 5$ and attendance fell off. To make up for the loss from that year, the next year was 7$ and you had to get your tickets through Ticketmaster.

That was the final year of the SoFA Fair.
 
I think Ill Follow Oxygens....

Like it says at the bottom of Oxygens posts, sometimes it doesnt pay to gnaw through the leather straps.........


bjl
 
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