Lots of contemporary art is not received well by a public that has become suspicious of the hype that substitutes for talent in our galleries today, and rightly so. But that same scrutiny suddenly disappears when the art is old and featured in a touristy European Capitol or other hallowed museum wings.
Anyone can look at street art, expressionism or an abstract painting and cluck "my kid could do that", but most people are too infatuated with some delusional notion of history to inspect an allegedly "great" old work and understand that their kid could take three lessons, pay attention in two of them and ALSO "do that" ... despite you flying all the way to Europe for bad espresso and a one hour wait to buy a forty dollar ticket to gaze at the wonders of name brand mediocrity hailed as timeless genius. The only thing timeless are the tourists...
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ThinkArtWorks said on 11 Friday 2011 pm28 10:36 pm: I went to a traveling Impressionist art show that was held in a small Canadian city. The hype around the show was overwhelming. The atmosphere in the galleries was worshipful and hushed. I was greatly anticipating the show until I saw the work in person. These were truly bad paintings done by exceedingly famous Impressionist artists. I excitedly began critiquing the paintings for my friends and the security guard quickly walked over and told me to get away from the paintings. I suppose they wanted quiet and unquestioning admiration more than they wanted a lively discussion. |
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