Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 8051562, member: 128351&quot;]I think it is precisely the purpose of contemporary art. What is art? Greek and Romans had a definition for fine art like painting or sculpture, it was supposed to be an &quot;imitation of nature&quot;. But why was the imitation much more worthy of admiration than the model? And when the Ancients described and commented on a picture, it was always an <i>ekphrasis</i>, a classical school exercise of the time which was a speech telling the story behind the subject, who were the characters on the picture, what they were doing, saying, feeling, thinking... The way the subject was painted was not interesting at all, just good for amazing simple and ignorant people. See the &quot;Syracusan women&quot; of Theocritus who comment on the tapestries : &quot;it&#039;s well woven!&quot;. </p><p>Other definitions of art have been proposed since. The art of the icon which facilitates the contemplation of God in the Byzantine world, the figurative art as a sin for some people in the islamic world, art as the &quot;quest of beauty&quot; in modern Europa. Beauty... but must art be beautiful? Are the witches of Goya beautiful? Would you hang this picture in your living room? </p><p>Then came all these artists of the 2nd half of the 19th c. who radically questioned realism, imitation, and the quest for beauty. Their art was totally different, and they were not accepted in the official exhibitions. Van Gogh could never sell one painting in his whole life ! Then came the cubists, the surrealists, all these people who did not give a damn about beauty, craftsmanship or even good taste... For many people Pablo Picasso is still synonym of &quot;My 4-year old can do it!&quot;. </p><p>In contemporary art the idea is all, and the work not that much. Street artists like Bansky mostly paint on walls that are just impossible to sell and buy. Sometimes he paints portable works that can sell for millions. But also one time he painted a dozen small pictures and, incognito, offered them for sale on a sidewalk in New York City, each for $60.00 ! An authentic original Banksy for $ 60.00, do you realize? and passers-by were just not interested, not knowing who he was, he just sold a few of them to tourists convinced they were buying cheap imitations of Banksy by an obscure broke artist, as a souvenir...[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in