Banishment of Beauty

part 2, part 3, part 4.

So I've seen this around (to be fair, I haven't rewatched it this time, just posting it because I just rediscovered the link), by Scott Burdick and it usually gets me riled up whenever I roll across it. I agree with him that the ART WORLD is really just a circle jerk of people trying to convince everyone else that they are the art priests and are needed. But I disagree with the complete writing off of modern art. Picasso's a great example.

when you can do this at age 11, then really what's the point in continuing to chase it



and instead following the expressionists trying to make the internal feelings come through






but then WWII happens and everything gets paused, so when everyone comes back afterwards he's got a bulletproof rep because it was preserved in time, so he can make stuff like this because no one can tell him he's half assing it now




Modern art can be cool because it's thinking of the world in new ways, sure your kid could do it, but what's interesting is that someone has done it and suggests you stop and consider it aesthetically, stop and be present and notice the world around you, sure some of it is bad but there are cool things out there to see or ideas to entertain.

Take out the ad copy from catalogs and those images are as artistic as the realist painters, emoting just as much and having just as much interesting composition lighting and color choices and all the other art stuff. If you're in the habit of considering everything the world artistically you can appreciate it, if you are interested in saying "art only is ..." then you miss it (whether your on the art priest side, or the "aesthetic underground")

Mona Lisa Curse is a similar discussion, but damning of only some of contemporary art, not all of it