Recently, I’ve heard a lot of trash talk in the direction of modern art amongst my peers. Popular culture portrays modern art as something for the rich, the aristocrats, to spend heaps of money on to impress their friends and promote their own pseudo-intellectualism. It is something for so-called reasonable people to mock because “my kid could do that.” This statement misses the point of not just modern art, but of all art: to create an experience for the audience. Last summer, a young artist I met at the Tate Modern museum in London talked to me about how he viewed art. These are some of the lessons I gained from his experience.
Modern art is different from the classical art you might’ve learned about in school. Not all art is created to capture a realistic image of the world. Since the advent of the Impressionist movement, and the dawn of photography, artists have moved on from creating Classical style pieces similar to that of the old masters. Where Classical art almost always makes it clear what you’re looking at, Modern art will often times leave this up to you, the viewer.
I’m sure you’ve heard it a million times, but you only get out of life what you put into it. This applies to art as well. Many modern art pieces will not bring the show to you. Take, for example, Niki de Saint Paul’s piece Shooting Picture, which can be seen at the top of this article. All she did was mold a rough plastic surface and pop balloons filled with paint onto it. Now consider what those dribbles of paint mean to you. Do they look like tears you cried when your dog died? Does the jagged surface remind you of a mountain range? Let that connection fuel your interaction with the piece and build from there, allowing the colors and textures to take you in.
It is imperative that, upon first encountering art, to appreciate the piece for its aesthetic beauty, without judgement of how difficult it was to complete. Even if you cannot make any connections between your own world and the art piece, realize that the artist had an intention and was not just messing around with the Crayolas in their parents’ garage for fun. The art was not created specifically for you. Therefore, you might not connect with it. However, there are people out there who do. Let them enjoy.
Finally, art doesn’t have to be painting or sculpture – it can be anything. The great thing about art today is that it is loosely defined. It can just look interesting, or it could have a dark social message behind it. Everyday life is art. Even you, your daily actions and experiences, are art. This realization allows for an open interpretation of life, encouraging free thought and individual choice. By looking at the world in this way, we increase our own desire to contribute to the beauty of life.
