THE GALLEY
'The Galley', named after the school's signature ship, is Dollar Academy's pupil newspaper and is published three times a year. This high quality journal is created entirely in-house and attracts talented writers from Form I to Form VI. Articles include political commentary, insights into Academy life, reviews, creative writing, sport reports, interviews and much more. |
Modern Art: Masterpiece or Mockery
Lauren Jamieson, VI
For decades people all over the world have admired and appreciated the “greats”; those artists who have stood the test of time and earned admiration. Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Renoir, Vermeer, Bosch – the list goes on.
Most people could correctly identify a Picasso painting; virtually everybody recognises that the famed “Mona Lisa” was painted by Da Vinci. However, ask someone about their thoughts on the work of Virginia Patrone, and all you’re likely to receive is an uncertain laugh and a shake of the head for your troubles.
So apart from time, what is it that separates the old masters from current practising artists? Why is it that with so many creative minds on this little planet, we praise the past before the present?
One reason may be the connotations, or stigma, associated with the phrase “modern art”. Upon hearing these words, many conjure up images of large canvasses of nothingness in our heads. Child-like scribbles on paper. A mouldy-looking brick in a white room. All of these, no matter how deep or meaningful the artist intends them to be, have a tendency to skip over the heads of the public, who more often than not believe that “anyone could do that.”
Unfortunately, those words are often uttered by the people who never did, never could and never will. But, it does raise an interesting point.
The deep abstractism that is commonly associated with modern art is all well and good when you have a narrator to pick apart its aesthetics and reveal the true intentions of the piece. However, as the narrator disappears over time, will these pieces be able to hold their own and appeal to a wide range of people? Will their messages still be relevant ten, twenty, fifty years down the line?
The common thread that binds all of the work of the “greats” together, and perhaps what is missing from modern art, is simple: reactive emotion.
The popularity of an artist generally does not lie in their technique, but how people feel when viewing their work.
It seems that, as today’s society becomes more and more desensitised through cinema, television and the media, current artists have to reach to the furthest extremities of conception and distaste just to achieve the “shock” factor needed to get their work noticed. With this, they loose the emotional connection between art and observer under a barrage of “so simple it’s complicated” concepts.
So what future does art have if the practice is drowning under the weight of a thousand white-washed rooms and paintings using animal dung? Recently, there have been moves to try and bring the figure back into painting (also known as Stuckism) and gradually, balance is being found between conceptual art and analytical/figurative art.
Modern art is neither masterpiece nor mockery. It is simply another chapter in art’s long, colourful history. However, will the artists of today inspire another generation of artists like those who inspired us? Only time will tell.
April 2009
