In addition to the Karneval parade, John and I spent part of our Sunday at Berlin’s Musuem of Modern Art. Formerly a train station, the space itself is massive and visually interesting. The art inside the space? Well...well, it’s there...We went to see a highly-advertised show, Kunst ist Super (Art is Super) because it was billed as the highlights of the Museum’s collection, the best of the best, what more could we ask for?... We arrived to massive crowds, snaking lines and felt for sure that this meant we were about to be blown away by the art inside...
Art is super. That may very well be a true statement - even of modern art - but I’m not sure that what I saw was art. I saw a lot of stuff - a pot on the floor, a video of a man screaming for a minute, Ikea-esque pieces of furniture, a mirror “artfully” leaning against a wall - but I’m not sure I would qualify any of this as art.
There was this sculpture...
because all the world needs is one more tribute to MJ.
We also saw very large bugs.
The last time I saw these they were in my college apartment.
When we wandered into this room we were a little confused...
because this looks remarkably like a messier version of my dad's garage.
There was a wall painted blue. “Untitled” of course.
I’m sure we can all agree what the artist was trying to communicate.
As I was ranting about the relative value of modern art in my head and to John, I stumbled across this article which presents research showing that people are more likely to enjoy a piece of art if they are NOT given contextual information. I’m going to have to respectfully disagree on this one, guys. As I was staring at a plain wooden box in the museum, desperately trying to draw out some metaphysical, socio-political, or philosophical meaning, it might have been nice at least to have a title to inspire my thinking.
Needless to say, I’m 'bout done with modern art for a while. Sorry, art world.
Update from the last post: We tried to cook the "sausages" from the Karneval parade. Was that meat? Not sure. Was it edible? Absolutely not.
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Gotta agree with you on the art. Titles would be nice. And I laughed out loud at the "sausages."
ReplyDeleteI'm relieved to hear you weren't blown away, either. I didn't want to overly influence your opinion going in, but yeah, room after room of non-representational art just made me want to bang my head against a concrete wall.
ReplyDeleteOddly enough, "Individual Banging Head Against Concrete Wall" is now on display at the New York Museum of Modern Art! Okay, not really, but it's totally plausible, right?
ReplyDeleteWhat?!! You don't see the artist's 'process' in the studio piece or the wild abandon of the blue streaks? Naw. Who are they trying to fool? I'm fairly certain an elephant in Columbus, Ohio painted that blue mess. And my guess is that the show was about to open when the director realized the studio was a disaster but it was too late to clean up, so they left the 'inspiration' and called it art, just to mess with the patrons. Hope it was a free show. Let them know I'll be submitting my own messy office and one of Judson's scribbles for their next opening. The world won't know what hit them!
ReplyDeleteDidn't you guys capture one of these giant bugs under a glass?
ReplyDelete