What Happened to Art ? Letter from regular reader Leonardo Theodopolous
Summertime 9a - Jackson Pollock
In 2001 the £20,000 annual Turner Prize for art was awarded to Martin Creed who exhibited an empty room with lights that flicker on and off every five seconds. Enthusiasts had called it a statement against the clutter and consumerism in the world. Other short-listed artists were: Mike Nelson, who works with rubbish; Richard Billingham, who exhibited photos and videos of his family, notably his alcoholic father who lives in a Glasgow slum; and Isaac Julien, who exhibited short films featuring homosexual cowboys. (Yee-ha!). So, what has happened to art? The question is not new. Remember when art used to be something that the average person found very difficult to produce? - one needed to be “Artistic”. Not any more however. Now, it seems, the essential requirement is the ability to talk about what your art means. It’s like a huge game of poker and almost everyone is bluffing. Modern art thrives on the ambiguity of interpretation. As a modern artist, it will surely raise your profile if your Interpretation of your work takes longer to explain than your artwork took to complete. As for the tools of the trade: for god sake don’t use a paintbrush! Use some elaborate catapult system, or the leg of dog. Hell, you might not even choose to use paint. You could use compounds produced by the body( there’s surely a limited colour palette though, and of course it’s already been done). Ok, so when did all this self delusional, self absorbed nonsense begin? When did this monstrous game of Call My Bluff take hold? Well, for me, the 20th century has to be the springboard. We have to start somewhere, so I’ve chosen to begin with Matisse and Picasso at the start the century.