That's not art!

Jackson Pollock

That’s not art !.

Have you ever been in a gallery, or at home, or travelling to work, or surfing the internet when you’ve seen a piece of art and muttered the words “that’s not art”? Or if not you, have you heard someone say it. I have to hold my hands up here and say I have done or witnessed it before. Most recently from my wife when I was watching a documentary on Banksy. Which has led to me exploring this theme and writing this blog.

I think to understand art regardless of what genre or movement it is I think we need to understand why we like art in the first place no matter our tastes. You may read this and think “well I am not particularly into art so this does not apply to me”. But if that’s the case what hangs on your wall at home? Is it prints of a painting? perhaps bought at a shop, or pictures of loved ones? Or movie posters? Their all art, “ah you may say I have pictures of loved ones because their closest and dearest”. But are those pictures of loved ones on a beautiful beach or landscape, maybe there from a professional photo shoot. We all pay for professional photographers for our weddings after all. Well art is something that offers us an escape from the real world. It’s a portal to another world good or bad. A temporary release to lose ourselves for a while. That’s why we hang pictures on our walls why we pay for paintings or photos professionally done to harness the ability to temporarily escape from reality into that world. Whether fictional or not.

Now that’s a very simplistic way of looking at art as it’s so much more and always has been its, an expression of the soul, an important historical record, a scientific study, an architectural drawing etc. etc. But I want to look at art from a consumer’s point of view from a viewer’s stand point, because I think a lot of the time it’s misunderstood. I want to look at just two types of painting which we will call representational or traditional art. Such as Canaletto’s View of the Grand Canal. I also want to talk about abstract art or as it’s sometimes called modern art such as Wassily Kandinsky’s Composition X.

Canaletto

So let’s firstly look at the Canaletto I think we can all agree its superb piece of painting and supremely beautiful image. I chose Canaletto for a reason as when he was painting there was no such thing as photography so artists of the day were capturing what they saw, capturing how life was. Representational if you will. They were painting what was in front of them what they saw. It’s a representation of the world a piece of the world, the material world, that is which we can all touch and feel and see and hear. Which for us now looking at Canaletto’s as well as other great masters work provides us with a fantastic look back into what life was like.

Now let’s look at abstract art such as Kandinsky’s composition X it’s all shapes and colour's and lines it’s hard to make out exactly what it is and what it means. On first glance it’s hard to understand it. Which is often when the words “that’s not art” maybe muttered. But what is it? what is abstract art. Well let’s see what Kandinsky himself thought. Kandinsky argued that artistic experiences were all about feeling, and different colour's affected mood. He wrote about this in his book “Concerning the spiritual in art”. I certainly agree with him about colour's after all why do we paint our walls in our homes different colour's. Or wear certain coloured clothing.

Wassily Kandinsky

But if he says that his art is spiritual, does that mean his art is trying to depict the spirit or feelings? In which case how do you do that? You can try this yourself at home, get four pieces of paper and chose 4 emotions, maybe, anger, happiness, sadness and joy. Try to depict them, don’t draw things or persons that evoke that emotion in you, try to draw the emotion itself. It may look a little bit like an abstract painting. So can we say that abstract paintings are trying to depict something that is beyond our material world? In some cases very much so. The key to each piece of art and understanding it is understanding the artist and what they wanted to achieve or say.

Jackson Pollock is probably one of the most famous abstract expressionist painters. His paintings which look like large canvasses someone has dripped and dropped large amounts of paint on command great sums of money. But what are they all about. Well Pollock’s technique was to lay or stretch the canvas on the ground and then with household paints and using hardened brushes and sticks or basting syringes sometimes hanging above the canvas he would pour and drip paint on the canvas. So even by looking at that technique alone each of his works are unique because how can you recreate the exact same conditions to recreate the exact same painting. Pollock called this process action painting. Of his painting he said “when I am painting I’m not aware of what I am doing it’s only after a sort of get acquainted period that I see what I have been about". So if Pollock was not aware when painting was his subconscious painting? Or was he painting his subconscious? Again how do you do that how hard is that? If I asked you to do it could you?

Arthur Schopenhauer who was a German philosopher had a theory around art he said “art is the practical consequence of brief aesthetic contemplation as it attempts to depict the essence/pure ideas of the world”. Is abstract art the purest form then as it tries to depict feelings or the subconscious or something on a higher plain that cannot be seen and touched. Perhaps Schopenhauer’s thoughts on music might help. He believed that music was the purest art form because it was one that depicted the will itself without appearing as subject to the principle of sufficient reason. Schopenhauer thought that music was the only art that did not merely copy ideas but actually embodied the will itself.

So is that it? abstract and expressionist artists are trying to embody that which cannot be seen. In some cases absolutely that is the case. But not in all cases I am sure. Again I think the key is to understand the artists and what they were trying to say, much like I explained how Pollock created his works and what he said.

I myself am not an abstract artist I paint representational art. What I find beautiful or intriguing. I think there is absolutely a place for that art for all the reasons I have mentioned previously. I want people to see things through my eyes how I see it and interpret it. But there is also a place for the abstract art we don’t understand and something I think I will try myself in the future. The aim of this blog was simply to give you food for thought next time you see a piece of art that challenges you and the words “that’s not art” dance through your mind. Stop and challenge yourself and ask why? That work still may not be to your taste but take the time to look at it properly and you might just discover something new.

On a final note there are a lot of artists out there undiscovered creating incredible works of art all across the genres for every taste imaginable. These artists don’t do it for the money they do it for the love of it ( I speak from experience). Next time you redecorate instead of going to Ikea or the Range or Dunelms or whatever your choice is and buying a print of a painting that hundreds if not thousands of people like lemmings have bought as well. Look for that local artist there all on the internet look at places like Etsy, or Saatchi, there’s thousands of us out there. They may not be a household name or the next big thing. But here’s the secret the more people buy our work the more chance of them becoming that household name. Not only that you will have an original unique piece of art that will hang on your wall and will always be a talking point as opposed to a friend coming round and saying “oh I’ve got that” pointing at the Ikea special. Buying that painting is a 3 way investment. You invest in that artist and their career you invest in the art itself because what if they are the next big thing and that paintings value goes through the roof and you invest in your soul.