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> MOCA: YOUR GUIDE TO SURVIVING CONTEMPORARY & MODERN ART |
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MOCA:
By: Grace de la Aguilera It seems that each time I walk to a museum someone is making faces to their friend, cringing and smiling, elbowing and smirking - pointing with the urgency that you point out something funny or ridiculous on the street. People our age are refreshingly honest: they will tell you when they don't like it. Or better yet, not feeling obligated, they'll skip the museums and art in general; especially when it comes to modern or contemporary art. Modern and contemporary art doesn't look like what we're used to: realistic paintings, drawings and sculptures. We want to be able to say "There is a pretty [insert object's name]; I could never draw anything that looked so real," which is probably the reason people tend to pick out rabbits and unicorns between the spaces of an abstract painting. Or the reason we always measure the quality of a piece of art by our relative ability to produce it. We first need to recognize that art that has been made recently (let's include the 20th century to be fair) is a lot different from art made in the Renaissance. The media we use to make art have multiplied. Now you can walk into a museum and not only see paintings, sculptures and drawings, but photographs, found art (art consisting of found objects --- like Marcel Duchamp's urinal), films, performance art, soundtracks, and installation art. Installation art is art that is site-specific meaning each time it goes to a different museum it has to be reassembled or arranged. It can be anything from a furnished shack, to the piece of a realistic apartment furnished just as a real one would - cigarettes and all. We need to understand that there are many different kinds of art. One type or kind of art that gives people the most trouble is abstract art or non-representational art. Non-representational art doesn't depict an object, a scene or a landscape, but it often makes up for this "deficiency" in other ways. Non-representational art is aesthetically pleasing - it looks good. Often the artist arranges the lines, shapes, and spaces and coordinates the colors to achieve an emotional response from the viewer. So you may be looking at the painting wondering what am I supposed to think and maybe all you are supposed to do is feel. If you are worried about "getting art"--- don't be. Art is not a confusing riddle or stubborn puzzle purposefully trying to fool you; the artist wants you to understand even if you reach two separate understandings. Most artists that I have spoken to are extremely happy with attempts to understand their art - even if their exact vision isn't conveyed. Finally, go
to a museum and go more than once. This May, the Museum of Contemporary
Art is still exhibiting Helen Frankenthaler and Trenton Doyle Hancock
- a perfect introduction to modern and contemporary art. |
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