people who comment about how "modern art isnt real art" are insufferable. they almost always mean CONTEMPORARY art instead of modern (~1860-1970 iirc), which. really shows how much they know about it. (warning: kinda long rant under cut)
klein's blue monochrome (which IS modern, but had a pretty big impact on contemporary art) is brought up a lot in this argument. klein spent YEARS developing international klein blue (ikb). he wanted to capture the pigment in a way nobody else had before. ikb is made to make the viewer admire the color. the open color is FREEDOM!!!!!!
one that i cannot STAND insults to is just anything by felix gonzalez-torres. he is my favorite artist. his works are a reflection of the AIDS epidemic and how america was at the time. my personal favorite, perfect lovers, is often disregarded as just two clocks. it is a beautiful piece on the passage of time, protesting queer censorship, and the looming fear of death, all while immortalizing the love he shared with Ross, his partner. for those who are unaware, perfect lovers is a work depicted as two identical clocks, hung side-by-side, that slowly fall out of sync as time passes. it was originally drawn by gonzalez-torres in a letter to ross, where he wrote the beautiful quote:
"dont be afraid of the clocks, they are our time, and time has been so generous to us. we imprinted time with the sweet taste of victory. we conquered fate by meeting at a certain time in a certain space. we are a product of the time, therefore we give back credit where it is due: time. we are synchronized, now and forever. i love you."
im not going to entirely dismiss the other side, though. damien hurst, for example, killed thousands of animals and put them on display as "art". in my opinion, art that requires you to harm any living being shouldnt be called art. in addition, many contemporary artists really are just looking for cash. however, that just isnt an excuse to disregard all contemporary art, imo.
furthermore, lacking context really shouldn't be an argument here. art has always been best understood within the context in which it is created.
sorry for the long post, i was just very angry. i am also very tired (it is nearly 5 am) and a bit sick, so i will be cutting myself short before i ramblet too much. thank you if you read this all the way through
