So, last week I was sitting in my English class at 10am. It's my earliest class of the day (God bless), I had prepped the reading for the class to the point of sticky notes covering the entire text. I know, I'm a little extra. We were talking about art and how the author of the text we were assigned's beliefs in art is "if the majority does not understand it, then it's not great, or it's not art at all." That somehow turned into me getting into a fight about a urinal. I don't know how it happened, but it did. I don't even use a urinal, or know how to! Clearly, modern art is a tricky thing. As someone who has grown up with an artistic background, I feel like I am always defending many different kinds of art. Through high-level art classes or music classes, I have always been challenged on the idea of "what is art"?. So...what exactly is art?
Art to me is in everything. When you think art, you probably think about painting, drawing, sculpting. If you think a little beneath the surface, you may think photography, film, video, advertising, other media, etc. Even further, you could say that literature or poetry or dancing or music, something that isn't necessarily a picture or a moving picture. This is roughly as far as the typical mind may go. But what about architecture? Or how about everyday items - our food, furniture, technology, etc? Why do we value other kinds of art over others? Here is what I'm thinking.
When you walk into a museum, for example, you walk in expecting to see fine pieces of art. That is just how our brains are wired, whether that be from portrayals in print, television, what have you. When asked about what you would typically see in an art museum, the last thing a normal person would say is "a urinal", or "a half eaten sandwich". But why can't a urinal or half eaten sandwich be considered art by the general public? What makes a sandwich any less than a painting or a sculpture? I truly believe that we are taught from a very young age what is art and what is not. That is why we think less of certain pieces of "art". When I was little, I was shown a painting, and why it was pretty and a great work of art. Then, we recreated it in a new way while being told why we should appreciate the original artist. These artists never extended past Van Gogh. It was always about very well known, very classical artists. It wasn't until I started being introduced to abstract or lesser known artists that I truly valued the most outlandish kinds of art. Is it ironic that there is a urinal in a museum packed surrounded with millions of dollars worth of paintings? Absolutely. Who knows, maybe I would have reacted similarly to those who I argued with. But, maybe that's the art of it. It is certainly possible that I'm just reading way too much into a urinal just for the benefit of this argument. At the same time, it is getting you thinking. It is making you feel puzzled, confused, baffled. Maybe, it'll make you look at a urinal differently next time you use the bathroom or watch that episode of Zoey 101. Maybe the art of modern art is not understanding it at all. Who knows.
In my English class, I vocalized most of these thoughts. But truly, at the end of the day, you don't have to look at the urinal and be in awe. What I'm just trying to get across is that we should look at something without the need to criticize it at first. We are all so quick to say something negative about something we don't understand. The least we can do is to try to understand it. And if you can't, just appreciate it and move on. Art is surely subjective to one's own point of view, but just because your point of view may be different, it does not disvalue anyone else's. So just respect it all, and enjoy the beauty of all art.
