I don’t know anything about Fine Art. I don’t understand the various movements, eras, ideas and even the major artists. Except the ones I learned via osmosis. I could not tell you the difference between an impressionist work or an expressionist work. I like comic books/manga. I understand it in terms of storytelling. Unless somebody tells me. And I am quite sure that I am not in the minority. However, I love visiting art museums. I prefer visiting modern art museums, instead of the ones hosting “classical” art. The variety, the discovery, and the wild quality differences makes them a better, more rounded experience. Here, I will explain why you should visit more modern art museums.
A caveat: When I say “modern” art, I am referring to all art produced in the past 100 years or so. But really I am referring to whatever is displayed at modern art museums. Apologies to art history majors.
Art museums are great.
And Modern Art museums are great as well. The problem with classical art museums is monotony due to survivorship bias. What you see is the best of the best that survived history. The worst practitioners of mid-18th century are lost to time[1].
The works in modern art museums on the other hand have quite “uneven” quality present. To be frank, some of the stuff is terrible. Some of it is deliberately so, like the punk version of . Maybe the artist is being punk rock. However, some of it is very good. This contrast makes you appreciate those works in the moment. A beautiful portrait by Rembrandt seems rather mundane when it is 17th you have seen in the evening. But a night time cityscape by Martin Wong looks even better when it is following a video installation about Google Data Entry workers and a Hanes white T-shirt.
Value of Money
The reason a lot of well informed people are turned off by ‘modern’ art is because a lot of it is a Tax evasion scheme. In fact that is the reason a lot of it exists. Just a way for some uber-wealthy oligarch to wash their money. Or worse, transfer their money.
But art has always been influenced by commerce. Sistine Chapel ceiling and tapestries were financed by the Catholic Church to further its agenda. Are Michelangelo and Rafael not real artists? Every great artist in the past created art for a patron or as a commission. And patrons did not always have honest goals. As Samuel Johnson wrote in the first dictionary of the English language.
PA’TRON n.s. [patron, Fr. patronus, Latin.]
- One who countenances, supports or protects. Commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, and is paid with flattery.
Modern art is neither a novel or a unique example of this phenomenon.
Pretense and Class
This is the reason a lot of people are turned off is the pretense of it all. The term pretentious has been the victim of the internet. It has been overused, misused, and abused to the point of meaninglessness. However, there is no other way to describe the art world. It is insular and pretentious. But the pretense in the art world is the pretense of academia. Which is the pretense of class.
The pretense is there to separate the noble ‘us’ to the filthy ‘them’. Which is a great argument for these museums. Anyone can access them.
But what is art?
I am aware that talking about pretentiousness and following it with this is not a good look. While I am being facetious with the heading, I am now going to defend the Hanes-T-Shirt-As-Art position.
How can it be that something so industrial and mass-produced be in the same category as Starry Night, or David, or even a random portrait of some Dutch duke from the 18th century?
Well, there were factories that produced undistinguishable replicas of famous paintings by the thousands. They were produced in an assembly line fashion. Did that devalue the original works? Are they not just like the T-shirt?
Furthermore, the use of the term “Art” as a value judgement is fairly recent. Doorknobs, lamps, chairs, and other everyday objects were designed by someone with a lot of care. This sort of ingenuity went into the “Useful Arts” up until the early 20th century. Anything can be art. That is not statement of the quality of the work, but a descriptor. Because quality is subjective, no matter what the snooty gatekeepers or twitter-grifters appealing to tradition tell you.
So the weird shapes that you think your child can draw is indeed art. Because the stuff you stick on your fridge is also art. The reason the former is in a gallery is due to the aforementioned pretense of class. It is not the artist’s, or the work’s, fault.
Modern Art museums sit at a weird place in culture. They take the already inscrutable world of fine art and add a layer of ‘weird’ on them. Then expect a ‘normie’ to just get it. However, in between distressed jeans and broken furniture, you see true brilliance. And brilliance that would be lost if it was only surrounded by ‘equals’ in stature.
[1] And many great artists as well, but that is another discussion
I do not have analytics on this site. So leave a comment, even a nasty one, here or on your preferred social site, or shoot an email to feedback at the domain of this site. I also have weekly newsletter where I share wisdom I have acquired in the form of quotes and notes. You can check the archive here. You can sign up below to receive it every week.