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General => The Arts => Topic started by: Lotos on December 17, 2008, 09:28:41 PM

Title: Too simple to be art?
Post by: Lotos on December 17, 2008, 09:28:41 PM
I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art yesterday for an Italian field trip (I'm still trying to figure out how this was related to Italian).  Anyway, one of the pieces of "art" I come across is this:

(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2133/2042562734_910613a078.jpg?v=0)

Blue Panel - According to a Flickr user who posted a pic of it, the artist is Ellsworth Kelly made in 1977.

Is it me, or is this a little too simple to be art, or at least what you think of when you hear the word "art".
Title: Re: Too simple to be art?
Post by: YPrrrr on December 17, 2008, 09:31:25 PM
What they take as art now is ridiculous
Title: Re: Too simple to be art?
Post by: sans culottes on December 17, 2008, 11:59:45 PM
I could dip a canvas in piss and add a few sloppy paintbrush dots and it'd be a successful piece of art. I get the idea of abstract art, but abstract art has a PURPOSE, just like a portrait or a typical painting. If you're not making a picture of something or doing something creative in the way that Escher was creative, it's not art.
Title: Re: Too simple to be art?
Post by: Meyer Lansky on December 18, 2008, 06:36:21 AM
Seems like some of you need to take a basic college-level art class.
Title: Re: Too simple to be art?
Post by: Samus Aran on December 18, 2008, 08:17:24 AM
Art is subjectivity at its finest. Take it or leave it.
Title: Re: Too simple to be art?
Post by: Daphnia on December 18, 2008, 09:09:38 AM
The finished piece is just a symbol of the process and ideas behind it. Along with a bunch of other bull, but it is art. And it's in the Met for a reason.

Though I do think it's completely retarded to exhibit these things with no explanation.
Title: Re: Too simple to be art?
Post by: thezerofire on December 18, 2008, 09:13:59 AM
I guess I'm not really qualified to judge what is "art," but it seems to take no talent to put, say, three vertical line on a canvas.

I could do that as a child.

I mean, it could have some meaning, but not if that meaning isn't properly explained.
Title: Re: Too simple to be art?
Post by: Meyer Lansky on December 18, 2008, 09:31:22 AM
Whoever said art takes "talent"?

All you need is a creative mind and some materials... your finished product ends up being what YOU want it to be, and it's art regardless of what anyone else says.
Title: Re: Too simple to be art?
Post by: Blaze-Senpai on December 18, 2008, 11:09:32 AM
Maybe behind the blue overlay was a gigantic masterpiece, and the artist say "fuck this doesn't seem like art" and decided to bluewash the entire thing.
Title: Re: Too simple to be art?
Post by: Selkie on December 18, 2008, 11:51:04 AM
Wiki: Art is the process or product of deliberately and creatively arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions.

Basically, art is highly subjective. You can't say that isn't art, because somewhere in the world there is someone who would be able to find meaning in that. You can find meaning in everything.
Title: Re: Too simple to be art?
Post by: YPrrrr on December 18, 2008, 12:01:12 PM
Quote from: Selkie224 on December 18, 2008, 11:51:04 AM
Wiki: Art is the process or product of deliberately and creatively arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions.

Basically, art is highly subjective. You can't say that isn't art, because somewhere in the world there is someone who would be able to find meaning in that. You can find meaning in everything.
Can I say it's really shitty art
Title: Re: Too simple to be art?
Post by: Selkie on December 18, 2008, 12:42:32 PM
Quote from: YPR on December 18, 2008, 12:01:12 PM
Can I say it's really shitty art


i guess, it's just an opinion
Title: Re: Too simple to be art?
Post by: YPrrrr on December 18, 2008, 01:07:29 PM
Quote from: Selkie224 on December 18, 2008, 12:42:32 PM
i guess, it's just an opinion
and I'm entitled to it ;)
Title: Re: Too simple to be art?
Post by: The Hand That Fisted Everyone on December 18, 2008, 01:51:56 PM
Art is by far one of the most interesting things to discuss.

like actual art.

So far I don't really see a point in saying "This Isn't Art". Who is to say something isn't art? Who is given that position?

Look at your local suburb. Everything uniform, Everything seemingly the same. It's basic. But is that to say it's not art? It's beautiful in it's own respect.

Sometimes, a person's creative license is stretched, and somethings can be a bit ridiculous when you first think about them (A situation where a man claimed a toilet to be art, for example.) When you first see it, you scoff at it. "A Toilet? What is this? Am I an art owner for having a Toilet? If I have more than one bathroom, am I an art collector?" But if you look deep at it. Look at from the inside. You can kind of get a feel for how this thing is art.
Title: Re: Too simple to be art?
Post by: Houdini on December 18, 2008, 02:11:37 PM
Art is art. There is no objective reference by which to determine whether or not a given piece is art. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it's not art.
Title: Re: Too simple to be art?
Post by: The artist formally known on December 18, 2008, 11:13:22 PM
Notice that it's not a square, nor a rectangle, it's actually a rhombus.
Title: Re: Too simple to be art?
Post by: me003 on December 23, 2008, 06:08:16 PM
You guuys arent seeing the beauty in that first painting!!!!!!

IT'S A RHOMBUS!
Title: Re: Too simple to be art?
Post by: The artist formally known on December 23, 2008, 10:02:07 PM
Quote from: Methree on December 23, 2008, 06:08:16 PM
You guuys arent seeing the beauty in that first painting!!!!!!

IT'S A RHOMBUS!
Egg zack lee
Title: Re: Too simple to be art?
Post by: YPrrrr on December 24, 2008, 09:47:17 AM
Quote from: Methree on December 23, 2008, 06:08:16 PM
You guuys arent seeing the beauty in that first painting!!!!!!

IT'S A RHOMBUS!
OH GOD!!!!!!!!! IT'S GENIUS!!!!!!!!!!!

nah, it's still trash
Title: Re: Too simple to be art?
Post by: russell on December 26, 2008, 12:56:21 PM
Yeah I remember seeing that when I was there.

The question is whether there is a textbook definition of art, or if art is whatever inspires something in the viewer. If you, as a viewer, look at this blue canvas and think "bullshit" and keep going, then it's not art. But there's a lot of people who might stop and think about something, like what we're doing at this moment. Additionally I like the theory that all good art is controversial, hard to look at, brutally moralistically challenging, and repulsive; this fits most of that description. Same reason you might debate Bukowski's place among 20th century literary greats.

Personally I'd say this is a lot more interesting than, say, the Mona Lisa. Who gives a shit about the Mona Lisa? It was commissioned by a rich family half a millennia ago. It has virtually no meaning now and I'm pretty sure Da Vinci wasn't trying to inject much emotion besides what was necessary to sell it.

But that's just my preference for art.
Title: Re: Too simple to be art?
Post by: me003 on December 27, 2008, 04:22:49 AM
Quote from: reefer on December 23, 2008, 10:02:07 PM
Egg zack lee
Dang, I didn't notice you said that right before me.....