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submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by Spiderwort@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

What art is formulaic? What art is just the old stuff rehashed? What art is shallow or simplistic?

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[-] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 12 points 1 month ago

This is a very nuanced question, because art isn't always about skill.

I remember I was one of those guys who thought modern art was stupid. My family took me to MoMA and I remember I was looking at a painting of a red square. It was a large 2 foot by 2 foot red square. I remember saying "but anyone could do this" to my aunt. She replied:

But nobody else did.

Stopped in my tracks and it clicked. The fact that they had done it, and we were there talking about it and discussing it, that right there proved it was art.

So it's not just quality. I'm sure AI could spot out 1000 red squares, and some would consider that low effort, but no one would ever discuss them.

[-] happybadger@hexbear.net 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

"But you didn't" is such a powerful idea in art. The only reason European artists aren't stuck in strict biblical representation with church-approved colours is that people pushed boundaries. The modernists rejected boundaries altogether and embraced pure creativity to such a degree that their own audience couldn't recognise it as art. I've seen that same Malevich painting in the MoMA and that's revolution. That's a communist rebelling against centuries of only realistic paintings of idyllic landscapes and aristocratic portraits being taken seriously. He's saying a red square is art for the sake of creative expression, an idea that would mature into "common people are alienated from art which is restrained to a professional class. Everyone should be entitled to its production and consumption" with proletarian art. He destroyed the idea of subject as a model of patronage as much as he did as a creative restraint.

Art should do that. It shouldn't just have a message, but a call to some greater action that enables better art. We wouldn't have modern music without Wagner violating the tonic as the most sacred principle of European music. Modern music, and especially classical music, is fucking beautiful in completely new ways because someone had the courage to reject centuries of what Serious Adults said was beautiful.

[-] kambusha@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

I mean, if a duct-taped banana can fetch millions

[-] Even_Adder@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 month ago

But there's already tons of generative art that gets discussed, lauded, shared, and remixed. Even when in negative connotations, it's proving that generative art, warts and all, is a new form of art that is shaking things up, challenging preconceptions, and getting people angry - just like art should.

[-] robot_dog_with_gun@hexbear.net -1 points 1 month ago

But nobody else did.

because it's stupid.

you were bamboozled

[-] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 4 points 1 month ago

Yet here we are talking about it.

[-] robot_dog_with_gun@hexbear.net -1 points 1 month ago

you brought up a time you were bamboozled, that's on you.

[-] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 4 points 1 month ago

I brought up a story about a red square, of which you are, 15 years later, still trying to convince someone that it's not art. Something that is still being debated on 15 years later is pretty interesting, especially for it being just a red square. The more we talk about it, the more it legitimizes it.

[-] robot_dog_with_gun@hexbear.net -1 points 1 month ago

The more we talk about it, the more it legitimizes it.

no it doesn't. i didn't say it's not art i said it was dumb. You were fooled into this false profundity.

[-] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 3 points 1 month ago

Is it false? Even if it is dumb, here we are 15 years later talking about it. Still, after hours we're still going back and forth about it.

[-] cypherpunks@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 weeks ago

i bet you're going to love to hate this wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monochrome_painting πŸ˜‚

because it’s stupid.

you were bamboozled

presumably you find value in some things that some other people think are stupid too; it's OK

[-] robot_dog_with_gun@hexbear.net 2 points 4 weeks ago

oh cool a bunch of people lied about their money laundering and/or cia shit.

this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2025
-18 points (27.5% liked)

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