Art with a capital F

[Shaker]

Pair of glasses on the floor taken to be a modern art installation: https://goo.gl/wdS2lK

[Stranger]

These glasses are just glasses, no different from any other pair. What turns them into art, then? Being put on the floor? No, it cannot be that, for many works of art exist that are not on the floor. The Sistine Chapel ceiling, for instance – although compared with this utterly unpretentious gesture Michelangelo’s years of being spattered with paint up on his scaffolding do seem somewhat wasted.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/27/glasses-gallery-art-nguyen-khayatan

[Gordon]

My youngest grandson, aged 2, has just eaten a cream cracker (which he loves) and has produced an interesting arrangement of crumbs: I declare them to be 'art' (wonder how much they'd be worth at auction!).

[floo]

Due to sheer carelessness over the years, I have badly scarred hands due to the number of burns I have received when cooking! They could be considered an art form, I reckon.

[ekim]

Some artists just like to make a spectacle of themselves. 

[Enki]

 

[ippy]

I went to see a Hopper exhibition at the Tate Modern in London a while back, whist we were there I noticed a group of people sat round some sort of guide person discussing a painting, using a loose term, that was about 5ft wide by 4ft high with about five horizontal stripes of differing colours and that was it nothing else.

The lecture given about this painting lasted for at least a half of an hour?

I can remember that the painting was a Matisse, I really like his relief sculptures, they can be understood, they convey power contained within the human frame etc and they are a delight to the eye, I've no idea where he was going with his art work, I dare say the stripy painting I've described can be found somewhere on the web, have a look and perhaps someone can tell me how a few stripes of paint on a canvass merits a half an hour of talk.

These stripes were about as interesting as 'the unmade bed', no, the 'light being switched on and off' had a slight edge?   

This kind of supposed "art", puts me in mind of the story of the "king and his suit of clothes".

ippy

[Hope]

I think the point about 'art' is that it is something that tells a story and evokes emotion.  That could be boredom, inquisitiveness, interest, or whatever. 

After all, why can/do 'Matiss('s) ...  relief sculptures, ... be understood, ... convey power contained within the human frame etc' and why are 'they ... a delight to the eye'?  Is it because they deal with issues that you, ippy, have experienced within your life-time?  What is meant by 'pleasing to the eye', or 'beauty'?  Isn't 'beauty in the eye of the beholder' - a highly unscientific concept?

[jeremyp]

Pair of glasses on the floor taken to be a modern art installation: https://goo.gl/wdS2lK

I would argue that those glasses are art. The purpose of modern art is to provoke a reaction, to make people think. These glasses seem to have provoked quite a lot of debate about what is art and are therefore a highly successful art work.

I notice that, in one of the comments, it was claimed that somebody did exactly the same thing with a flip flop a year or ten ago and they are going to sue.

[ippy]

I would argue that those glasses are art. The purpose of modern art is to provoke a reaction, to make people think. These glasses seem to have provoked quite a lot of debate about what is art and are therefore a highly successful art work.

I notice that, in one of the comments, it was claimed that somebody did exactly the same thing with a flip flop a year or ten ago and they are going to sue.

It looks like you may have missed the loudspeaker in a glass display cabinet that had a small opening of about half an inch by about three and a half inches, the speaker made a muffled bang noise at random times, perhaps you would like to have this displayed in your living room as a conversation piece, especially when you think of the effort the, "artist"? must have put into this creation of theirs?   

You had better hurry before I beat you there to buy it.

ippy

[ippy]

I think the point about 'art' is that it is something that tells a story and evokes emotion.  That could be boredom, inquisitiveness, interest, or whatever. 

After all, why can/do 'Matiss('s) ...  relief sculptures, ... be understood, ... convey power contained within the human frame etc' and why are 'they ... a delight to the eye'?  Is it because they deal with issues that you, ippy, have experienced within your life-time?  What is meant by 'pleasing to the eye', or 'beauty'?  Isn't 'beauty in the eye of the beholder' - a highly unscientific concept?

You've obviously written this comment Hope but had you been standing anywhere near to me and I had heard you saying the exactly similar words to the ones you have written here, I would have had to ask from which part of your anatomy these words had come from.

ippy   

[jeremyp]

It looks like you may have missed the loudspeaker in a glass display cabinet that had a small opening of about half an inch by about three and a half inches, the speaker made a muffled bang noise at random times, perhaps you would like to have this displayed in your living room as a conversation piece, especially when you think of the effort the, "artist"? must have put into this creation of theirs?   

You had better hurry before I beat you there to buy it.

ippy

I don't understand why your definition of art seem to be "jeremyp would put it in his living room".

[Stranger]

I would argue that those glasses are art. The purpose of modern art is to provoke a reaction, to make people think. These glasses seem to have provoked quite a lot of debate about what is art and are therefore a highly successful art work.

I agree. Yes, it was a prank, yes it was amusing, and yes it was art.

As the artist has been quoted as saying:

I can agree that modern art can be a joke sometimes, but art is a way to express our own creativity. Some may interpret it as a joke, some might find great spiritual meaning in it. At the end of the day, I see it as a pleasure for open-minded people and imaginative minds.

Maybe that was a joke too...

[ippy]

I don't understand why your definition of art seem to be "jeremyp would put it in his living room".

Yes I see what you mean it was early and I assumed, wrongly, you must have known what I had in my mind, without writing down what it was, apologies.

The Loud speaker in a glass display cabinet that I described in my previous post was an exhibit at the Tate Modern that was there when I was there a while ago, I went there to see an exhibition of that American chap's work 'Hopper'.

I just thought you might be so deeply impressed with the idea of having/owning that speaker that you might want to get it before I beat you to it.   

ippy

[ippy]

I agree. Yes, it was a prank, yes it was amusing, and yes it was art.

As the artist has been quoted as saying:

I can agree that modern art can be a joke sometimes, but art is a way to express our own creativity. Some may interpret it as a joke, some might find great spiritual meaning in it. At the end of the day, I see it as a pleasure for open-minded people and imaginative minds.

Maybe that was a joke too...

 

The Emperor's New Clothes, Hans C  Anderson.

ippy

[jeremyp]

I just thought you might be so deeply impressed with the idea of having/owning that speaker that you might want to get it before I beat you to it.   

No, knock yourself out.

[Nearly Sane]

Perhaps it was just a tribute to Dada.

http://tinyurl.com/j8rw2ya

[Harrowby Hall]

Shades of Marcel Duchamp

This is not a urinal ....

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/duchamp-fountain-t07573

[Sassy]

ART is a personal taste matter.

When I was in the Madrid, I saw some of the most wonderful art produced by the now known greats.
But I certainly would never see a pair of spectacles on the floor as a work of art.  People making a spectacle of themselves was
probably the reason for them being them. Would have picked them up and handed them in.

My then husband whom I was with was himself an artist and it was thanks to him that we spent the day travelling to Madrid from the family home in Costa del Sol to see the works of art. Some I had only seen in books.
He has had a natural gift for art since childhood. My son is gifted that way too. Has been drawing and painting since infancy.

I guess someone had a sense of humour?

[ippy]

ART is a personal taste matter.

When I was in the Madrid, I saw some of the most wonderful art produced by the now known greats.
But I certainly would never see a pair of spectacles on the floor as a work of art.  People making a spectacle of themselves was
probably the reason for them being them. Would have picked them up and handed them in.

My then husband whom I was with was himself an artist and it was thanks to him that we spent the day travelling to Madrid from the family home in Costa del Sol to see the works of art. Some I had only seen in books.
He has had a natural gift for art since childhood. My son is gifted that way too. Has been drawing and painting since infancy.

I guess someone had a sense of humour?

There is an art in kidding people that a pile of rubbish is art, which is an art in itself.

ippy

[Shaker]

The purpose of modern art is to provoke a reaction, to make people think. These glasses seem to have provoked quite a lot of debate about what is art and are therefore a highly successful art work.

But for the vast majority of people the only thing much 'art' provokes is mocking contempt and the only thoughts it creates are ones of astonishment that people with no discernible formal skill or technical accomplishment can palm off complete junk as art to a few credulous suckers.

That doesn't strike me as much of an achievement.

[ippy]

But for the vast majority of people the only thing much 'art' provokes is mocking contempt and the only thoughts it creates are ones of astonishment that people with no discernible formal skill or technical accomplishment can palm off complete junk as art to a few credulous suckers.

That doesn't strike me as much of an achievement.

Getting away with it is an art Shakes.

ippy

[BeRational]

I have a rule of thump that works for me.

I am not an artist, and I have no skills in that area, so if i think I could create a reasonable copy of the supposed art, then to me it's not art.

[Shaker]

Getting away with it is an art Shakes.

ippy

Yes ipster - the venerable art of fleecing suckers.

[jeremyp]

But for the vast majority of people the only thing much 'art' provokes is mocking contempt and the only thoughts it creates are ones of astonishment that people with no discernible formal skill or technical accomplishment can palm off complete junk as art to a few credulous suckers.

And why is that not a valid artistic reaction?