Why is contemporary art so dense and difficult to understand?

Question

Bulling academics have replaced metaphor, beauty, poetry and skill with dense and sterile, pompously intellectual, boring, self-righteous $#@*. Their aim is to have all art be a kind obvious and immediately gratifying social engineering of sorts, a soulless, guilt ridden everything counts stew of obviousness and proclamations.

Answer 1

I think you answered your own question in the first sentence. Much modern art isn't about art or communicating ideas, it's about showing yourself to 'better' and more 'complicated' than ordinary mortals who just can't get it. Really there isn't so much to get. That isn't all contemporary art, but it does describe much of it. Also, many 'artists' are insulated from the the reality of self-support (or even true patronage) that prompted relatable art in earlier periods. that's my take, at any rate.

Answer 2

I agree. It gives me a headache sometimes. Although I am not by any stretch a mainstream artist.

I think it started in the sixties, when people expected something to happen with everything. Everything didn't happen, and the bits of it that worked sometimes lost their cultural heritage and footing, so that art these days must be created from the ground up, theory, associations, physis--the whole deal. There are a lot of people trying to do this, but with the authority of old ideas. The artwork should have its own authority--the authority born out of its own singular identity, an identity which doesn't have to be a collage of news headlines, or even referential to precedents.

Its also related to the trend of alienation in our society. Culture is now an individual phenomenon. Its difficult to come by strong movements that are strong experiences. Recent tradition didn't help much, by trying to "explore" alienation rather than providing alternatives. That includes especially conceptual systems such as deconstructivism, which do little to unify objects as is at the very least necessary in a culturally unified society.

It seems like the next step is to look for experiences that are not strictly "media", exploring this contemporary confusion expressively, without defering to systems/mimetics etc. We now have a roadmap of somewhere, which we keep tattooing on eachother's brains. Why not respond to the roadmap as if it were an experience, instead of regurgitating and regurgitating? If the contemporary art scene is anti-metaphor or believes that all inspiration is psychosis, prove them wrong, make something entirely wonderful, and then say a few clever things about it.

Answer 3

Yes and no. It really depends on the artist; assuming he or she has actually gone to art school or trained under a reknowned artist, the work they subsequently do must have some merit to it. Contemporary art is difficult because modern artists are challenged to create works that go beyond the obvious -- realistic landscapes and still lifes are "decorative" (spoken in a rather derogatory tone, mind you), but even if they're of a controversial subject, only speak to one level of the imagination. If you're looking at a swirl of colors entitled something like "The Life Unexamined," (just making that up, mind you; I don't have a particular work in mind) that doesn't actually represent anything identifiable in concrete forms, you have to ask yourself some questions: 1) is the piece rendered with technical skill? Are the colors vivid and distinct, or do they blend together in places in a muddy mess? Are the brush strokes heavy-handed, delicate, pointillist? Does it look like the artist knew where they were going when they laid brush to canvas? 2) does the piece evoke an emotional response in you, even if the subject isn't immediately evident? Why does it make you feel that way? 3) what does the title tell you about the artist's intentions? What message is the artist ultimately trying to convey with the piece.

Art is a form of expression, a mode of communication that is supposed to convey some sort of message from artist to viewer. How that is done is up to the artist, and how the message is received is up to each individual viewer. I'm not a big fan of modern art, myself, because a lot of it IS dreck -- slashing red oil paint across a page of the Wall Street Journal, framing it and calling it "Payday" tells me one thing: the artist hopes that someone is willing to pay the $2000 price tag (someone was, incidentally... I made up the title, but I did see this in a gallery once) A lot of other works are much more thought provoking, however. It really depends on how open you are to the message the artist is trying to send you, if there's a message at all.

Answer 4

No one wants to admit it, but Duchamp's "Fountain" forever lowered the bar for artistic fame. The short answer to your question is that so-called conceptual art is the easiest kind of "art" to make; no skill is required. You don't even have to say what it means; there's always a critic who will do it for you.

Answer 5

um if you know anything about contemporary or post modern art you know it is all about communicating an idea. and god, someone mentioning duchamp's "fountain lowering the car for modern art", hmm that isn't too simplistic a statement. if you know anything about art and art history, you know cezanne is the father or modern art and perhaps if you want to understand what is going on now, you might want to go back and review his work.

Answer 6

I look for art that makes me feel something.
This is to me the highest goal of art.
What is difficult about being gut-hooked by a painting or sculpture?
If it does that it is art; if it doesn't do that, it might be art, but who cares?

Answer 7

I think you are right, but the one thing that modern artists did was start exploring inside of themselves not that just the outside. It kind of started with Freud and other psychoanalytical mambo jambo.

Answer 8

The age old question is what is art? But as to your question I think you have answered it.

Answer 9

yes getting up their@
and they have to justify their wages
all is temporary/trendy sometimes,
will go away
not difficult anyway
very simple
'real things are lasting'