Why Modern Art Is So Awful
This is a restored old article from my site years ago. Not exactly sure when I
wrote it, but it was between 2010 and 2012.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Historically, although this past seems long forgotten, artists were beloved
founts of creativity in the eyes of the people. Their works, albeit not to
everyone’s liking, demonstrated human and natural beauty and were loadedwith
accessible and intended symbolism with pride and talent. There was a fairly
obvious point in time, perhaps at the turn of the twentieth century when this
changed for worse. Art became perceived as elite and snobbish. Public taste for
art seemed to sour nigh instantaneously, manifesting itself in declines in
museum and gallery attendance along with art’s new prestigious place behind the
cold shoulder of those who lacked the “special training” necessary to appreciate
it. The problem was not that an industrious populace which was becoming more
enraveled in material developments had relinquished their “useless” interest in
art, but art itself, in a way, simply betrayed the modern man.
Modern art is indeed genuinely awful and it has only recently become that way.
Still modern developments in technology and culture do indeed bear important
geneses of this occurrence.
Although some would construe art as an entirely magical process of
self-expression, art does indeed serve several important utilitarian purposes.
For the artist, it highlights his creativity and insight and bolsters his social
standing; for the consumers of art, it brings visual or aural pleasure, and it
also represents reality in a visual medium. Art has been used through out the
ages to adorn the simple tools of daily life, from silverware to weaponry and
from baskets and buildings. Contemporary developments in technology have thrown
several quite interesting changes into these purposes.
Years before, painters might painstakingly dedicate hours on end to producing a
mural or simple portrait which could easily be appreciated for the skill of the
craft. A sculptor might as well chisel away for an equivalent time on an
idiosyncratic sculpture, or with much tedious concentration, build identical
sets of beautiful clay- or glass-works.
Yet the mighty engines of industrial production and technology melted away quite
a bit of this novelty. Consumers could then buy cheaper and more esthetically
pleasing jars, plates, nick-nacks and decorations which were products of the
newly mechanized assembly line. The simple yet decisive invention of the color
photograph served as a functional coup de grâce for the niche that the more
laborious method of hand painting depictions of scenery had formerly filled.
Thus modern artists, many of which with feelings of effective emasculation, had
been outdone by their craft. Ingenious yet soulless machines suddenly seemed to
have become superior founts of creativity even with humans’ advantage of
actually having their hands of the levers and in all the creativeprogramming.
The consequent reaction in the modern schools of art was to rebel against the
beauty and meaning which had and remain to be fundamental to artistic
production. Instead of gratifying depictions of humankind or natural wonder, art
took to depicting nonsensical scenes with objectively ugly and poorly drawn
figures. So dawned the much maligned age of the
that-painting-looks-like-the-asshole-just-threw-paint-randomly-on-the-canvas
models.
Artists seem to be entirely ignorant of this systemic change. They oft recoil
with surprise when common people mock art in public and refuse to dole out cash
for the “starving artist.” There seems to be a general consensus amongart
critics that the quality of art has not exacerbated at all, rather people have
simply changed their minds without due cause.
At that artists have unfortunately come to embrace their lack of popularity. In
their ideas, the public, who inexplicably demands that art be something
artistic, simply lacks the capacity to evaluate the new outcomes of the
purposefully deficient artistic production of the day. All manner of pretension
is famously strewn about the floors of museums as “professional” art critics
patter on about the symbolic meanings of deliberately nonsensical work. Beauty,
utility, consistency, symmetry, meaning and enjoyment are often construed as
undesirables in art as the elite of the art community think of anything shining,
blight and beautiful as bourgeois, vulgar and passé. This sentiment has spread
out of visual arts awell; in combat with increasingly precise and gorgeous
electronically generated music, bands and individual music artists have taken to
creating rhythm-less, tone-deaf, or low-fi music which ‘ironically’ form the
basis of contemporary hipster culture.
With the origins of snob art having been noted, (these origins in the perceived
“obsolescence” of true fine art due to technological advancement), one might
erroneously jump to the conclusion that man-made art is either a thing of the
past or the “modern” style of non-art is here to stay. It’s nonsense.
If anything, the competition of technology has forced the most talented to
produce further outstanding works by jumping greater lengths of creativity and
mystery. The area of abstract art, which although has to some degree been marred
by the unfortunate revolution against beauty, still supports various artists
constantly developing the standard of the field. It indeed may seem like
photographs thoroughly excel in landscape shots, but that hasn’t prevented many
from expanded into space-scapes and scenes which although may never appear in
nature, can temper human love of landscape in tremendous ways. Indeed in the
days of Bob Ross, the joy of painting is one of the artistic journey and
expression, not even of the finished result, regardless of how appealing it may
be.