I don’t understand modern art!
A couple weeks ago, while Lori and I were in New York City, we spent a rainy morning at the Metropolitan Museum of Art enjoying the impressive collection. We started with the Egyptian collection (from my point of view more for the history), checked out the photography and then the 19th century European art. I really enjoy Monet, so this was a treat for me.
Last, we decided to check out the modern art. The collection includes some familiar work by Andy Warhol which was interesting have a chance to see somewhere other than the web or TV. On our way down the stairs to another part of the exhibit, I noticed a florescent light mounted on the wall diagonally just before the stairs. It wasn’t until Lori pointed out its title that I realized it was art.
Someone (the Artist, who’s name I don’t remember) attached a working florescent tube light to the wall on an angle, titled it and therefore it was art. When I do this, it’s considered a DIY project gone terribly wrong.
Mind you, someone out there may enjoy that piece just as much as I enjoy Monet and I am fine with that. However, at that moment I decided I had to admit to myself, I just don’t understand modern art. I guess it can now keep modern dance company in the part of my brain where I store things I don’t get.
I think the artist was making a brilliant observation/commentary in an ironic way. You went to the museum to see “art” so he gave you a boring, mundane, everyday object, gave it a title and called it art - and you looked at it and pondered “why is this art?”. Yet in real life, we pass by many beautiful things in our everyday lives and never look twice at them. No one has pointed them out to us or labeled them so we don’t care. Was it art? I think yes - in the sense that it very simply made you ask the question.
I could, of course, be full of crap but I’ll let you decide
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