I think the main reason I don’t like much ‘modern art’ (besides poor aesthetics) is that it’s often so hyper-individualized and solipsistic.
For one, the West hasn’t had a universally pronounced style or taste since Impressionism.There’s no art today, as much as there are ‘arts’, which are heterogeneous, shapeless forms, that share little common features except being united in difference.
For much of modern art, the result is that the viewer is all too often struck with the question of, ‘well what does this mean’ upon viewing it. Contemporary works of art feel like they exist in a vacuum; they doesn’t exist in a tradition but stand against every tradition.
To some extent this can be seen by the increasing difficulty it is to divide art in to analytic categories. And really by the 20th century or so, art classifications become a sort of relativistic discipline. It’s much easier nowadays to speak of modern artists than modern art movements.
And this informs the subject matter of the art itself. Art today often reflects the subjectivity of the artist. It’s indeterminate, personalist, and responsive to the values of creativity and ‘authenticity’. Best exemplifying this trend is the new focus on minimalism and simplicity for an authentic individualized effect. In film this is showcased by Dogme 95, in literature The New Puritans, in music Lo-Fi Indie, etc.
But my gripe is that this art ultimately says little. The last time I was at an art gallery I saw an exhibit that was a collage of pictures of the artists parents and the places that she herself had traveled to in Europe. The only thing that struck me from viewing it was a recollection of the the art critics dialog in 8 ½:
This life is so full of confusion already, that there’s no need to add chaos to chaos…. And you would actually dare leave behind you a whole film, like a cripple who leaves behind his crooked footprint. Such a monstrous presumption to think that others could benefit from the squalid catalogue of your mistakes! And how do you benefit from stringing together the tattered pieces of your life?
If art is to mean something it should express a common humanity, a common connection. That modern art tends to reflect a jumbled cacophony of disparate voices says something about our society at large but I see little value in anti-social art.
blakekathryn
ellievsbear
turnnoffyourmind
gummygunk
