Artistic Prejudice
I have never quite understood why modern art is so renowned and valued. I have walked through the Modern Art exhibit in the MET before, but I have never stopped to look at the artworks because I found them to be messy, unprofessional, ugly, and disturbing. Most of the paintings look like the result of paint recklessly splashed across a canvas. In an attempt to learn to appreciate modern art, I attended a tour of the exhibit at the MET. The tour guide, Francia Meiselman, informed us that modern artists emphasized the process of making art rather than the subject matter of the artwork. The paintings that appeared to be careless messes to me are actually abstract expressionist art. The artists painted the way their emotions moved them to paint. Although I still think that modern art is ugly, I now understand modern artists’ purposes and inspirations, and I no longer think their talent is nonsense.
December 14th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
That’s very interesting-I’ve never thought of the process of making a painting as artistic. But then that reminds of how the way a musician plays an instrument as artistic so I guess applying that for the Fine Arts is not too much of a stretch.