# What are your thoughts on Modern art?



## Lucifer Saudade (May 19, 2015)

Just curious to hear TC member's thoughts on Modern/ Contemporary art, and art in general. It's history, the catalysts that influenced it's evolution, the psychological aspects... the meaning of 'art', what is art and what is not - all that good stuff.

Pertaining to Modern art in particular: Do you like it? Why? Why not? What direction do you see art taking in the next century? What's your favourite period in art? do your music tastes coincide with your artistic ones? And lastly, what are your favourite artists/ paintings?

Lots of questions I know  but feel free to wax eloquent if you wish.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

I believe all the arts experienced their highest peak some time in the past: between Renaissance and the first half of the 20th century for painting and sculpture, between the beginning of the 18th century and the first half of the 20th century for music etc. Since approximately the middle of the 20th century it's been mostly going downhill. It is as if artists lost their sight of the main purpose of art, that is to create beauty, and became enamoured with either innovation for the sake of itself or making art into some sort of social statement. Unless something happens that would give civilization a shake and bring it back to an understanding of this purpose and of its own creative powers, the only direction I see it taking is down the drain. Taking music as an example, I can imagine that the music of the late 21st century will be such that a modern pop song will sound like a classical masterpiece compared to that music.

As for my favorite periods and artists, some of my favorites are Ivan Aivazovsky and Caspar David Friedrich, both of the 19th-century Romantics. That pretty much coincides with my musical tastes. Particularly the paintings of the latter make me want to enter them and get lost in those landscapes. Another, lesser known artist I really like is the Norwegian Theodor Kittelsen. Anyone who is into black metal should recognize this one:


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

Poppycock?...


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

I am suspicious of anything where people bow to the opinion of experts to authenticate the worth or value of an artist. Once your place in the pantheon of visual or performance art is secured, it seems you can never produce a bad work. Despite all the charlatranry, I do enjoy the time I spend in galleries.

That said I have never reacted as strongly to a piece of art as I have to a piece of music or a landscape. I believe most people don't really love music they just can't enjoy silence. If only they had a smidgeon of the confidence to reject bogus or complex art that they show with music we would all be a lot better off.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Belowpar said:


> That said I have never reacted as strongly to a piece of art as I have to a piece of music or a landscape. I believe most people don't really love music they just can't enjoy silence.


I have to agree. I listen to music to avoid silence. Being alone in silence makes me feel as if the silence will devour me. But I do love some music.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Belowpar said:


> I believe most people don't really love music they just can't enjoy silence.


I'm perfectly fine with silence, and for that reason find the nighttime more relaxing than the day. As a matter of fact, after a powerful musical experience my inclination is not to play more music but to not listen to anything else for several hours.

As for the OP, modern art seems to me as an outsider like everything else: there is good and there is bad, the shallow and the profound.


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## Guest (Dec 21, 2015)

My opinion of modern art is the same as modern (art) music.

A generalisation would be meaningless.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Nude on a white cushion/Modigliani 1917, Pompidou Center, Paris.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Moonlit Desert/Ault 1921, The Horseman Collection.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Horsewoman/Kirchner 1931/2, Kirchner Museum, Davos.


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## Lucifer Saudade (May 19, 2015)

Mahlerian said:


> I'm perfectly fine with silence, and for that reason find the nighttime more relaxing than the day. As a matter of fact, after a powerful musical experience my inclination is not to play more music but to not listen to anything else for several hours.
> 
> As for the OP, modern art seems to me as an outsider like everything else: there is good and there is bad, the shallow and the profound.


Care to explicate a bit? Which art works for example do you find bad/ good? I'm curious about how people would go rating any particular work of art - is according to initial feeling or any set of criteria.



dogen said:


> My opinion of modern art is the same as modern (art) music.
> 
> A generalisation would be meaningless.


Do you have any favourite works? It'd be interesting to know why, same as above ^


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## Guest (Dec 21, 2015)

Unlike music, I'm not so interested in visual art. I would struggle to name many specific works; but off the top of my head I might say I appreciate those by Ai Weiwei and Max Ernst (does that count as modern?!)

Actually now I think about the "why", they are probably the same criteria as with music: I am interested in an individual voice, in questioning, in speaking a truth, in allusion, in psychology.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Rites of Lilith/Rothko 1945, Collection of Kate Rothko Prizel.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

French Money (Nero)/Rivers 1962, private collection.


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## rspader (May 14, 2014)

Modern Art circa 1482:


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

I'm glad they're demolishing the Folk Art Museum in NYC and expanding MoMa--about d***ed time!


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