IT IS TIME THAT IT IS CREATING TODAY IN THE WORLD OF ART, IT IS SO DIFFICULT TO PERCEPE, AND MORE THAN EVALUATE THAT WE DON'T EVERYBODY MYSELF TO MAKE AN ATTEMPT. ADVENTOR OF CLASSIC FINE ART AT A DISTANCE FROM NEW “MASTERPIECES” AND SHOCKED FROM FABULOUS AMOUNTS WHICH OFFER TO PAY FOR THE “DIMMER DEMIERO JERIUJELLI JERAJUJERI KHEJUJERJA JERJUJAJERJA DELAJA. Let's try to figure it out.
Aved modern art is much more understandable, closer and dearer. It is only necessary to understand what laws it obeys. If you wish, you can easily pick up the key to the secret door leading to the world of contemporary art, and decode the most incomprehensible art object. You will see that the works created over the past decades have not gone so far from those that were presented to the audience 100 years ago. Indeed, it is often the past that explains what is happening.
Contemporary art scares, puzzles, provokes, intrigues, arouses curiosity, calls for thought, satisfies and, finally, delights. Here is the path you need to go to get to the top of the "mountain" called contemporary art. You need to have a desire and a certain courage to go on the road, while preliminary preparation will help you quickly overcome the distance. Climbing is not easy: confusion, uncertainty, and sometimes disgust are the traveler's faithful companions. Great is the temptation to go back (which many do). But for someone who passes at least halfway, a kind of reward awaits - a change of fellow travelers: now curiosity and satisfaction are walking alongside, and at the top there will be delight. A work of modern art can be immediately understood, or it may take time to collect information, read the source, ask questions, think and discuss.
There is no such professional, amateur or connoisseur of contemporary art who would like absolutely all the works. But throughout the history of art, contemporaries praised some and scolded others. Someone was a universal favorite, but someone hated. Over time, some were forgotten, while others went down in history. Things are more complicated with contemporary art, as the test of time has not yet been passed. In this case, you have to rely on the opinions of professionals and listen to your own emotions. We draw our own conclusions: an art object is either worthy of a place in a museum or not.
Another scenario follows from here, directly opposite to the first. Contemporary art scares, puzzles, provokes, intrigues, arouses curiosity, calls for reflection, does not satisfy and repels. The traveler goes to the mountains in the hope of enjoying the view, and he turns out to be mediocre and does not cause emotions.
And why was there anyway? However, such trips are always a good workout for the whole body: endurance develops, tone increases. Projecting this idea into contemporary art, we gain knowledge, broaden our horizons, intense reflection, which sometimes has a therapeutic effect, and also participate in an intellectual game.
The period in the history of art, which began in the 60-70s of the last century and continues to this day, is associated with modern art. The creators of the new are farther and farther from the canons of the past, the concept of art has expanded: installations, performances, land art, video art have appeared.
To understand all this, you need to know the rules of the game, which until the era of romanticism in the first half of the XIX century were unchanged. The romantics made a small, but revolution, the consequences of which are felt to this day. Since then, the rules of the game have been constantly changing.
The word "game" is far from accidental. Many artists perceive their works in this way. Judge for yourselves: is it really possible to take seriously Pierrot Manzoni's "Shit of the Artist", which he created back in 1961? Tin cans with such an inscription were created by him as a mockery of a society that, having forgotten how to think, takes everything that is slipped to him. "Is that art?" - you ask. However, what is called art today is often not intended to "decorate" a bedroom or living room, so drive away the thought "I wouldn’t hang this on my own."
Contemporary art, especially conceptual art, does not care about the issues of beauty, aesthetic pleasure, skill and complexity of performance. Now the most important thing is the idea, design, concept. Philosophical reasoning, personal experiences, reaction to events - this is an incomplete list of what the author wants to convey to us. When you are in front of the exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art, ask yourself the question: do I like the thought inherent in this work? That is, you should not like the work itself, but what it personifies. This, of course, is more complicated than the landscape of Shishkin or the portrait of Renoir, but with a certain training you will enjoy such intellectual games with an inanimate (or maybe animate) object.
A work of art can be anything, any object created or "picked up" by an artist ("readymade") and declared by him as such. This idea, expressed by Marcel Duchamp 100 years ago, is more relevant than ever in our time. His "Fountain" was created for the exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in 1917, although the word "created" is not entirely appropriate here. The author bought a urinal in a plumbing store, put a signature on it and put it in a different perspective. So, the subject - the read-maid, taken out of its context - with an easy supply Duchamp was called a work of art. Although Duchamp himself spoke of anti-art. Conceptual art, born in the 60s, owes much to this eccentric Frenchman who has made a real revolution. Subsequent generations went further and included action, play, humor, and gesture in the concept of art. A vivid confirmation of this is the performance "Light Turns On and Off" by Martin Krieg, who received the prestigious Turner Prize in the field of art in 2001. The artist stood at the hall reserved for him in the museum, turning the lights on and off.
It seems that to be a modern artist, drawing and painting skills are not needed, because the idea embodied in the work is more important than its external similarity with a real object. Nevertheless, many modern artists attended art schools, studied with recognized masters, while being in search of their own style. It is to him that the artist is sometimes obliged to avoid classical painting.
It is necessary to consider any work in the context of the time when it was created. Remember the Olympia by Eduard Manet. She fascinates, delights, beckons. But at the Paris Salon of 1865, she was assigned a different role: to show how modern art has reached, how vulgar and cynical it has become. The picture provoked a real scandal. Security guards were assigned to her and placed rather high so that the audience could not spit on her, hit with a cane or umbrella. Connoisseurs of painting noted the plane of the image of the figures. It will take some a couple of decades - and the simplification of forms and images will become an integral part of the new pictorial language and a hallmark of many Western artists. Damien Hirst very accurately noted: "People who scold contemporary art forget that any art was once modern."
We were partly lucky, because when studying contemporary art, we have the opportunity to turn to the primary sources. Artists of the 20th and 21st centuries are happy to back up their works with manifestos, declarations, and articles. Thanks to the theoretical works of Kazimir Malevich, we can understand his "Black Suprematist Square", his discovery of pointless painting. Standing in front of this small canvas in the State Tretyakov Gallery, you may be disappointed, because apart from the cracked black paint on a white background, there is nothing there. But this is not what is important for understanding, but its hidden meaning, its place in painting, access to pointlessness, the location of this black square "in the red corner" at the exhibition "0.10" in 1915, finally.
Art is the mirror of its time. Contemporary art reflects the feelings of people living now, and not 2000 years ago. It speaks in our language about our realities and our everyday life. In this way it is clear and close. If you are confused, do not know how to relate to what you saw, read books on the history of contemporary art. It is not so important that you like it right away, but if your heart and soul are open to new, sometimes strange and incomprehensible ideas, this means that you are approaching the top of the mountain, where interesting interlocutors are waiting for you.
Text: Katerina Baginskaya, art expert and art critic
