Over parents weekend I took my parents to the the Palmer museum of Art. Although I like making art, I also ejoying looking at works of more experienced artists and had wanted to visit this building for a long time. Now typically when people go to art museums, they admire how realistic the paintings look, or how creative the artist’s style is, or even wonder how we can call this “art.”
This brought up two interesting points though- First, when we look at pieces that consist of maybe a couple brush strokes and dots that look like a two year old could have made them, we become confused about how this “art” made its way into a museum. And secondly, artists without a great reputation do not receive great recognition no matter how detailed, vibrant, or beautiful their art may be therefore how does an artist become recognized?
So… contemporary art. It has to do with painting what you feel. Contemporary artists (particularaly the ones who make paintings that look completely like the antithesis of art) are not trying to make their art “look” like anything, or even “look” beautiful. They paint until they feel satisfaction and releif, which means they paint what THEY want to see. This concept in itself is beautiful and makes it art. That being said…
What if I just felt like painting lines on paper like a contemporary artists and asked to get my painting in a museum? It probably wouldn’t fly. Why? Because I have no reputation as an artist! I feel like the goal of art is not only to please the eye, but to offer something out of the ordinary for people to think about. Only then do artists gain real recognition and their art is seen as valuable. For example, Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa and people travel thousands of miles just to see this little painting that anyone could view on the internet. We admire this painting so much however because it is the original and Da Vinci is the artist who created it using his own creativity. We don’t care about immitation Mona Lisas which are mere copies of the real thing. We also do not admire an immitation of another artist’s style. Van Gogh had a very distinct style and for all we know, many other artists could have had the same one but he has the highest reputation so he receives the most recognition for it. This makes me wonder how much a person really needs to do in order to be recognized creatively and shows why Lady Gaga acts the way she acts (and even then she is accused of immitating Madonna!) It seems like people are recognized for genuinely using their own creativity because everyone’s mind is different and a true artist is able to embrace what makes him or her different and portray that in their art.