Contemporary Art can be confusing and ugly. But to different people the same piece can be beautiful and interesting.
What I enjoy about looking at and studying contemporary art is learning about the story behind the image, and the techniques employed to get there. As for the story…sometimes there is a good one. Sometimes it doesn’t even exist. I’ve heard many artists comment that often they just get started slapping lines and colors and materials together, to see what transpires. Sometimes when they find the art is visually stimulating they’ll stop. Sometimes they’ll rework the image until they can force something interesting out of it, and in doing so, create a story about the art. Other pieces of art are completely inspired about an event or story, or a feeling.
It’s always interesting to me to learn more about why that particular piece of art exists, and what was the intent of the artist. I also find the technique fascinating. Most often, good contemporary art conveys a technique that few others have done or are doing. Good contemporary art makes one look at it and say, “Wow, that took some skill.”, or “Wow, I wonder how the artist did that.” Sometimes through sheer determination, the artist creates a very compelling piece. Sometimes they have figured out a new way of combining materials or movement, sort of like a chemistry experiment. Sometimes they have just figured out how to become completely spontaneous like we were when we were children. And as an aspiring abstract artist, I can vouch for how difficult it can be to make art look spontaneous and energetic.
I remember once visiting the Houston Menil art collection and walking into a room that had a massive Cy Twombly painting on the wall. Many people would declare it to be just a bunch of scribbles…”I could have done that in kindergarten!” is a typical phrase you might hear. I was impressed at the paintings look of spontaneity and that it seemed to ignore any rules of how art should look. Twombly had his own style. But the magic came when the art guide gave us additional details about he work. It seems Cy Twombly took special care to interpret major historical events in the piece…tracing wars and adding poetry. I just love this description by Katherina Schmidt as written in Wikipedia, “..Starting out from purely graphic marks, he developed a kind of meta-script in which abbreviated signs, hatchings, loops, numbers and the simplest of pictographs spread throughout the picture plane in a process of incessant movement, repeatedly subverted by erasures. Eventually, this metamorphosed into script itself." In my view of art, Twombly is a great success in conveying the poetry of emotions and events.
So while much of contemporary art may not be the thing you want to hang on your wall and walk past many times a day, I believe it can be ugly yet powerful, complex, mysterious, and wonderfully inspiring. I hope to find such creative and wonderful works by artists all around Cupertino. Let me know what drives your work. What is your story and technique?
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