I must confess ... art sometimes confuses me

[rexee]

Originally Posted by Terrencejones

It tends to be those with little or no artistic/creative ability that peddle this sort of shite as art and insist those of us that see it for it really is are narrow minded. I was told at art school never to say I don't like a piece of work but instead say it doesn't work for me. Well it doesn't work for me because it's crap
It's an insult to those who can paint and have creative ability and an insult to the intelligence of any normal person. It is what it is, a load of meaningless squares with a meaningless description of why it was done, bollocks in other word's. The Emperors new clothes.
IMO of course

Terry

But do you like it?

[Terrencejones]

Originally Posted by rexee

But do you like it?

I have to admit it would look very nice on my fridge door

[Chock]

I'm tempted to email the seller and tell him he's got it upside down, for a laugh.

Al

[Russell Smith]

Originally Posted by chock

i'm tempted to email the seller and tell him he's got it upside down, for a laugh.

Al

rotflmao!

[AAC Cadet Leader]

some awesome pieces so far. especially rexee's landscapes - those are really cool!!!

[rexee]

Originally Posted by Terrencejones

I have to admit it would look very nice on my fridge door

Hey your right! makes me want to eat my frozen TV dinners!

Thanks AAC Cadet Leader.. a great compliment coming from a fellow artist!

[Bonehead]

Interesting thread here! Okay, a little off-topic.

The eternal argument: what is art? The representational artist who has invested so much time and thought into how to portray something tangible and three-dimensional on a two-dimensional surface will naturally balk at the "abstraction" of another person who is trying to speak to people in a different language. I know. Been there, done that.

Russell, while I admire your great work, your work only represents one particular language in a world where the different languages may be endless. I too am an artist, although what I do is different from you. I too had my fill of splotches of paint on canvas and piles of junk foisted onto the public as some rarefied form of art. But I had an epiphany one day. At one time I read a lot about primitive cultures because I had an interest in them and more to the point, I had an interest in discovering what was basically human behind the disguising facade of culture.

I read an account of some New Guinea natives who met the wife of an anthropologist and they were utterly fascinated by her jewelry. Why? Jewelry is abstract art. It is an artform that relies almost entirely on form and texture to make items pleasant to the eye. In its way, it is no different than Russell's paintings in that it is designed to please a certain type of viewer. I have also read where certain primitive people were shown photos and they were unable to understand what they were. They could not identify these shadows on a flat piece of paper as representations of anything real. Simply, the language of two dimensions was foreign to their way of thinking.

But anybody can understand jewelry. And, if you suspend judgment, you can understand abstract art in the same way. A very well-known realist painter, Robert Bateman, when asked about an abstract painting, "what does it represent?", replied that "it is a painting of paint". Just because it does not represent anything tangible does not mean that it represents nothing. It represents a communication of beauty, color, form or whatever, just like jewelry.

You are an American who speaks only English who steps into Serbia and insists that their language is just gibberish, and thus invalid, only because you don't understand it (and perhaps make no effort to understand).

Once you have gotten past this hump, you find that abstract art is subject to the same vagaries as representational art. You have color form, balance, composition and communication. There is good abstract art and bad abstract art, just like representational art. The only rub is it takes an open mind to appreciate it.

Just to show that I am a representational artist by instinct, here is some of my stuff:











If you can appreciate these works of mine, then it is only because they are portrayed in a language that you are intellectually attuned to understand. In fact, my little epiphany about jewelry was a big help when it came to designing cars, such as my design for the Batmobile shown at the top. Auto design is a discipline spoken in the language of form alone.

By the way, I like the "airplane" painting at the start of this thread. It manages to portray movement by the simple juxtaposition of rectangles in primary colors. If you think that is "easy", try it for yourself.

Mike Good

[rexee]

Question:How many Dadist's does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Answer : A Fish !

[Chock]

Here are the late football scores... Real Madrid, 2, Surreal Madrid, Fish

Al

[AAC Cadet Leader]

bonehead, also very nice works! glad to see more artists here and different styles. anyone up for a unique painting challenge on a ww1 aviation theme with broad styles as the idea?