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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

I am going to stick to ducks


Stadtpark today

I think I am just a philistine and will never really appreciate art. I have always had great trouble with modern art and impressionism in particular – and as for pointillists – well I always thought they were impressionists with significant problems with alcohol - probably absinthe.

Mind you – I really appreciate the work that goes into impressionist and post-impressionist paintings. We saw some of Van Gogh’s paintings in Amsterdam recently and they are truly breathtaking.  Some of them do not make a lot of sense to me but that is not the point – they made sense to him - and that is all that matters.

As does the fact that now people line up every day to marvel at his work.

But I do love it. I just love going to the Tate Modern or to MOMA and looking at a half a rabbit stuck on a piece of cardboard and covered in glad wrap and wondering how the artist thought of this piece of wizardry – let alone managing to translate it into a practical display.

I mean it cannot have been all that easy to get half a rabbit and preserve it so that the patrons can get near enough to see its innards and the work that has gone into engraving Beowulf onto its front teeth.

And the best part is that you can never really be sure that the artist is not pulling your chain.

Now me – I prefer something like John Constable. I like paintings you can understand. And photos. Give me Ansel Adams – there is no misunderstanding what you are looking at.

But clearly – based on recent events - the world has passed me by. I am going to stick to ducks. 

11 comments:

  1. "Badger" the Philistine - that seems to have a hidden rhyming pattern to it.

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  2. 木々それぞれ色を持って綺麗な一枚の絵みたいです!
    これぞ秋って感じかな

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  3. you know, when you find something you do well, and you do ducks well!

    i guess the whole point of art is to be subjective. ppl are willing to pay millions of dollars for a painting that, to me, looks like the japanese flag - yet i know many brilliant photographers who struggle to make ends meet. so... support what you like, and keep up the good work, is what i say! : )

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  4. why not keep the ducks, but make a series w/ odd abstract-sounding titles that have nothing to do w/ ducks? best of both! :)

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  5. esbboston: I am still looking but you may be right

    li'l muppet-lhead; who could not like ducks! And I may do that series thing!

    angiv: thanks

    Todd Martin: I agree

    michiko: what you said

    carmar76: You are too kind

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  6. I bet if you fill up all the write places you'll have pried open the hidden meaning. (Oh, that was a fun sentence to build.)

    Art is a strange thing. I know what you mean about being in the presence of greatness. I'll never forget the first time I walked through the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYCNY, and just a big wow inside me. Getting to see the massive wonder of S Dali's 'Madonna' 1958, I remember viewing/studying it from several distances to get the full effect, and having a guard warn me that I was getting too close. But the very best part of art is the creative process.

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  7. esbboston: You are a clever man! I did pry it open.

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