Art or rubbish?

Tattynan

I like a lot of modern art: I certainly love the Impressionists and the Secessionists (eg Klimt), and I love some more modern stuff, but not all. For me, it has to have effective colour and balance, and look good or at least interesting. I went to an Andy Warhol exhibition once, when it came to GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art) in Brisbane. Only some of it impressed me, but of course, he's the one who said "Art is what you can get away with". I was most certainly not impressed with his pictures of soup tins.

At GOMA they have some seriously daft stuff on permanent exhibition. One wall is covered by little framed pictures of those stripy things on price tags - forgotten what they are called. And they have pictures that I wouldn't give house room to; just cheats imho, such as a single blob on a canvas.

I also once went to an exhibition of the Dutch masters in Brisbane. Not modern art of course, but very interesting. They were so very good at capturing light and shadow. No con jobs there - just huge talent.

I took my granddaughter to the Tate Modern at St Ives. We both agreed that one of the paintings was of an elephant, it was in fact a cityscape with not a Nelly in sight.
Sometimes I think it's possible to experience an emotional response to modern art, and I don't mean anger, it's just not always necessary to be able to identify what the artist has drawn/painted.
We have also been to the Baltic in Gateshead, but only to visit the wonderful restaurant at the top, which has a view of Newcastle which is an art work in itself!

GA I think that without a doubt it is Rubbish! How do they get away with it. Ridiculous.

Some is. Some is not. It is not all produced in one enormous factory with gallons of paint going in one end and finished canvases coming out at the other. Each artist paints what he/she wants to, in the style that suits them. You can't generalise about something which is made by thousands of different people.

If you look at all the images here I bet you could find a few that you liked.

Thank you for another perceptive contribution mice
I was seriously lucky to see the big Hockney exhibition in Bilbao , I went twice. (not at all crowded! Unlike the RA which is always crushed.) And the building is absolutely stunning work of modern art itself.
I am not a fan of the imitation black rubbish bag school of art.
Or of Damien H, Half a pig only interesting for anatomical reasons.
Give me Anish Kappur any day of the week. Including that big twirly thing in the Olympic park.
I saw some Warhol portraits last year - they would not look much if copied in a magazine, but up close you could see the craft and thought.

David Hockey is a wonderful draughtsman white wave his use of line is beautiful in some of his drawings.

Yes I would happily have one of his pieces on my wall

There was a Francis Bacon painting at the exhibition I went to last month. I absolutely hate his work but I must say that, standing up close to it, the brushwork is very impressive and quite beautiful. It's just that the overall effect is loathesome . There was a Hockney swimming pool one there; just a circle in a swimming pool, but, seeing it up close, the circle was very textured.

I'm a huge Hockney fan too, spent hours at the RA exhibition. For anyone who hasn't been, Saltaire is a superb place to see a variety of Hockneys. (I'm sure I've raved about it before.... sorry!)
Do you think there will come a time when Emin's and Hurst's works are 'old hat' as newer even more shocking (imho) works are exhibited?

I was going to go there but it turned out that, at that time the Hockneys were on a sort of world tour [so it would have been a wasted trip]. Still on my tick list of places to go, though [think they're all safely back home now] along with Port Sunlight. I rather liked Hursts 'spotty' picture that I saw the other week, although his chemist shop didn't do much for me [it was just like my dispensary at work]. Couldn't work out why my workplace had been installed in a gallery ...

I think the Hockney exhibition in Saltaire is housed in a former mill? I would like to go there sometime.I believe the Sooty exhibition is also in Saltaire?Or it could be Shipley, but somewhere there! Not that the two are as important [of course!]Still, as I like Sooty and also Hockney I could kill 2 birds with one stone.

Salts Mill is wonderful, as is Saltaire itself. If you can, try to go either when the Festival is on, when there's loads of exhibitions, stalls, film shows etc, or during the Arts Trail, when all sorts of artists open their homes to the public and you can just walk in to someone's little kitchen and look at their original artwork on display. But the Mill itself is well worth a visit, and the Hockneys look just right in that superb setting. Plenty of quirky places to eat and drink too, to make a day of it.

I'm not sure about a Sooty exhibition though - there used to be a permanent one in Shipley years ago, but I don't think there is one now?

I remember many years ago dragging taking my son to a David Hockney exhibition at either the Tate or the National. It must be nearly twenty years now but he's still never forgiven me. I don't know what his problem was - I thought it was all brilliant.

And so many thinks that this an extraordinarily insightful rather than ignorant thing to point out. Yawwwn

What do you think of "Modern Art" then GilMaybe100? apart from finding anyone else's opinions or stories yawningly boring? Why don't you give us your view?

You a bit fed up with the lot of us GilMaybe100? I can understand that

Please post some more. It could be hugely enjoyable.

I'd love to hear what art does interest GilMaybe100. I'm always happy to be educated by people with a greater knowledge than my own.