Daily Visionary Post # 64: Modern and Contemporary Art has always had certain sections of the populace at large scratching there heads, decrying "A child could do that!" or "I just don't understand what the hell is going on here!" Often, these statements say more about the viewer than the art, belying the fact that for many, experiencing art is nothing more than an excuse to rub elbows with others with a glass of wine in one hand or taking a cursory glimpse into the "freakish" minds of artists and promptly moving on - the socially acceptable equivalent of a Victorian tour of a mental asylum. For such people, it's easy to dismiss provocative, advanced, or avant garde work out of ignorance and shortcuts to thinking critically about the connections the artist is making between the artwork, the viewer and the world at large. In truth, Modern and Contemporary art very rarely approach the same visual and relational dynamics as children's art. Children occupy a very different mental space than adult professional artists do. The process of living past childhood adds layers of depth to the mind that children can't appreciate - the ability to think abstractly and to appreciate nuance. Just imagine a child trying to make a piece of art conveying the abstract idea of tragedy versus an artist like Mark Rothko, whose whole abstract oeuvre is based on conveying the idea. First, one would have to explain the concept of tragedy to the child, and after some artistic endeavor, one might get a picture of the child's brother taking a cookie from him. Children use abstract symbols, but they use them to to make figurative art because they are coming from a mental space of undifferentiated and unified thought into a world that demands differentiation and a thorough understanding of physical embodiment in order to survive. Modern and Contemporary artists reverse this course going back to a more unified field of thought, only they return to this space with an expanded mind that takes both the figurative and the abstract into consideration as two sides of the same coin. The reason that these artists took this course is because Western Art and Science had respectively reached a point of figurative expression and empirical reductivism as to bring the culture full-circle around the turn of the 20th century. Renaissance ideals of figurative perfection in the arts had run dry in the face of the new realities being discovered in physics and psychology. Thus began the unmooring of the arts from figuration into a sea of abstraction. The general public was slow to appreciate this new reality and the art that sprang from it. In essence, this was the break that separated Fine Art from the general populace due to its ignorance of the new discoveries being made in science and the ramifications these discoveries were to have on people's lives. Thus, it became easy for the "Average Joe" to dismiss avant garde art because it didn't fit his image of "reality."
  • Mike Doyle Artist likes this.
    • The Daily Visionary Post
      The reason I've gone through this whole explication of Modern and Contemporary Art and it's relation to the general public is because the problem of its acceptance in the hearts and minds of the general public only becomes compunded when a ...less than spectacular piece of art slips into the galleries of a culturally esteemed institution. Case in point, the work of Cameron Frederick Sands, which is part of the Southern Open 2010 at the Acadiana Center of the Arts. What is the viewer to make of his art? The piece pictured above is titled "Fiber." It is a wall sculpture composed of badly painted sections of lumber in primary colors, arranged and affixed on a sheet of plywood painted white. Sands' states "In 'Fiber', I have used three basic shapes and primary colors to represent the simple joy in inspiration. The inspiration is the energy that I speak of which has kept the creative process moving forward." Many people view contemporary art as illogical and irrational. This is not the case. Due to the prevalence and importance of Sigmund Freud's work to Western Civilisation and the horrors of World War I, it was only natural for artists to turn to Dadaism and Surrealism to create images that document the human condition of that time with nightmares, phantasmogorias and absurdities. Nothing is more logical than seeing the work of the Abstract Expressionists as a sincere confrontation with the realities of the Atomic Age. However, Sands' logic seems quite circular to me and devoid of any substance. Sands' art recalls the art of early abstractionists such as Arp, Malevich and Mondrian, who sought to reduce pictorial space to a supreme and ideal, Platonic order. At the time, this was a revelatory move. In fact, there is a trend going on right at this moment, whereby contemporary artists are reinvestigating the art of the Early Abstractionists, trying to find marrow in their old bones. Yet, I find nothing new in Sands' work, except a touch of Abjection (read as neglect) and a lack of articulation and/or foundation in the work. It is profoundly empty and inertial art, lacking in higher thought and even the sincere playfulness of children's art, which I beleive the artist is trying to articulate. In the case of Sands' work, I don't even think the two dismissals reared above would be appropriate to exclaim. Walk by with your glass of wine in one hand and save your breath. See More
      June 23, 2010 at 12:37pm
    • The Daily Visionary Post
      In deference to the Acadiana Center of the Arts, the curator for the Southern Open 2010 was Bill Arning, who is the esteemed curator of the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston. He was responsible for Sands' placement in the Southern Open 2...010, and he was subject to the restraint of not being able to see the work in person or read an artist's statement. Selection in such a blind jurying process can become somewhat of a craps shoot, and is necessarily shaped by juror taste. I actually see where, Arning was going with this selection - as stated above reinvestigating early abstraction is a trend in contemporary art right now, but in the case of Sands, I believe Arning missed his mark. See More
      June 23, 2010 at 12:50pm
    • Susan David Bravo!!! Awesome post- Im speechless.
      June 23, 2010 at 2:45pm
    • The Daily Visionary Post Thank you, Sue! It was a tough one to wrestle with - not a big fan of calling anybody out, but in this case I had to call it like I saw it. Just a matter of personal integrity.
      June 23, 2010 at 3:57pm
    • Alfred Vidaurri Word.
      June 29, 2010 at 3:00pm
    • The Daily Visionary Post Thanks, Alfred. Solidarity, my brother!
      June 30, 2010 at 8:54am
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