#artispretentious

The videos presented to us this week was very interesting to watch. I liked how she touched on how people are interested in art whether or not they like it. Since they are stating their opinions, they are obviously involved in the art that is being stated. Something else that I found interesting was the fact that some art can be racist. This makes sense especially when art is mainly sold to people who can afford it aka. white people. We were asked to research some of the art that was shown in the video. From that, I decided to research the oil painting titled A Sunday on La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat. The article stated that some of the words included to describe the painting was “Bedlam, scandal and hilarity.” These are very on edge words because it can be translated very differently depending on who is looking at it. Personally looking at the painting, it looks racist and sexist to me. There are only white people portrayed in the painting enjoying the sight of the water and looking like they are having a good time. This is racist because it is showing a non multicultural world that is not realistic, but what a lot of people want it to be. One of the women has a monkey with a leash around it, which I also take as she has slaves and surpasses them just like she is suppressing the monkey. When you compare the monkey to the dogs who are free and not on a leash, it does not look like the monkey would be considered a pet, since the dogs are supposed to be considered pets but have more freedom than the monkey. Another thing that caught me eye are that the women all are portrayed as having large derriere under their dresses even if they are sitting down. This is very sexist because it is sexualizing women as an object that is just supposed to be at the side of a man when that is not their only position in life. 

🔍Thoughts on “Art is Pretentious” video:

I found it really interesting that the video didn’t deny that art is pretentious. It caught me a little off guard that she actually agreed that both artists and art in general can be pretentious, and actually have to be in order to create art and to be art, respectively. I loved her description of the creative process (1:30). In fact, it made me really think this class is going to debunk a lot of presuppositions I have about art and the artistic process. Sometimes I struggle with identifying myself as an artist, because it can be hard for me to create things. But when she laid out the creative process, I could 100% relate. It starts with insecurity and doubt, interspersed with “brief moments of pleasure at having made something halfway decent” (haha, so true!), followed by summoning enormous amounts of confidence to share your work with others, and concluding with the forever occurrence of what many Instagram artists I follow call “imposter syndrome”. You forever doubt your work’s worth in the eyes of the world, regardless of how many people say they like it. For me, it’s more like my work rarely lives up to my own standards, so it’s hard to accept its worth from others. And it’s hard to go on creating when I’ve made something deemed “bad;” you have to summon perseverance and that hope that the next thing you make will be better.

Gosh it’s stressful being an artist! No wonder the video calls them brave! 😅

🔍Thoughts on “I Could Do That” video:

I’ll be honest, I’m not always the biggest fan of abstract and conceptual art. I’ve gained a more open mind in recent years, but there have been times where I just had to laugh with my mom over our shared confusion and the absurdity of certain pieces. Sometimes abstract pieces look simple enough that I feel like I actually could do them myself. But this video really challenged that thinking. It pointed out that the piece by itself isn’t always meant to tell you the whole story. Every piece of artwork has a backstory, and an explantation (I’ve realized that this is actually part of art for me! I always love learning more of the why behind things). A piece of art may look simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s of little value. So to truly assess the value of artwork, you have to understand the backstory of the piece: the who, what, why, and how behind it. So instead of criticizing the art for being simple, we need to acknowledge that maybe our thinking is that “[t]his doesn’t display a remarkable amount of technical skill, and that’s what I really look for in art.” But that doesn’t mean the piece is worthless, or even of lesser value than a classic painting. As was pointed out in the video, ”[I]t’s not that these [pieces] don’t take skill, they just take different kinds of skill” (4:39).

🔍Further Exploration:

To explore this idea further, I chose to research a piece by Felix González-Torres called Untitled (Perfect Lovers), which depicts two battery-powered clocks side-by-side, ticking in perfect synchronization. At first glance, this is an incredibly simple piece of artwork––in fact, had the two clocks not been positioned side-by-side, you may wonder if it’s even art at all. You can’t understand the significance and inspiration for this piece just by looking at the clocks. So really, especially for conceptual art, the piece itself is just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. So after doing some research, I found that the clocks represent González-Torres and his lover, Ross Laycock. The piece was made as a portrayal of Laycock’s decline in his battle against AIDS, which is illustrated by one clock eventually falling out of sync with the other. While this piece mainly appears to symbolize González-Torres’ relationship with his partner, it’s also an exploration of “the temporal nature of life.”

Truthfully, I can appreciate the symbolism of this piece; however, I have a hard time fully appreciating it because of my beliefs. I think the artist’s metaphor for two clocks representing lovers in perfect harmony is beautiful. But knowing that he was referring to his own homosexual relationship somewhat taints the piece for me, since God forbids homosexuality in the Bible. However, although the artist’s lifestyle doesn’t align with my faith, that doesn’t mean his art isn’t valuable. This is a very unique, thought-provoking piece, and I appreciate the artist’s meaning behind its creation. I just view it through a different lens because of my faith.

🔍Sites Referenced:

https://publicdelivery.org/felix-gonzalez-torres-clocks/

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/gonzalez-torres-felix/artworks/

📷Image Above: