Abstract Art - why talk about it if you don't get it.

[i-need-a-martini]

I volunteer at a regional gallery and get to meet some wonderful, weird and wacky people.

But the ones that get up my goat are the ones who say "That looks like something a 5 year old would do." and expect me to agree with them.

And whilst we have a lot of community exhibitions that are amateurish enough (so perhaps the comment may be fair enough), the comment is usually reserved for iconic artists in major travelling exhibitions who are extremely well known.

Does anyone here like abstract art? And if you really hate it, why?

[*pepe]

---

@j*oono wrote:

I loved it so much, I bought the wool.

---

i didn't like those colours together in the painting but i do like them in the wool - will be interesting to see what you create.

[poddster]

---

@j*oono wrote:

I loved it so much, I bought the wool.

---

Dat ain't wool dat be string disguised

[***super_nova***]

---

@watta*drama*queen wrote:

And why would anyone even pretend to like something they don't?

The same question could be asked of the OP in regard to the visitor

Why attack the poster visitor giving an honest opinion? [albeit only on a chat board]

---

There is one thing of saying that you do not like the said painting and totally another to insult  the artist and the person who is trying to explain it to you.

It is bit like me hating chocolate mousse.  I hate everything about it; its taste, its texture, its color.  So, lets say I come to my friends place and am offered chocolate mousse.  Should I be honest and say:  " Yuk, it looks like bleep, bet it tastes like bleep, I am feeling sick just looking at it" ?  or maybe should I say, as I usually do in such circumstances;  "No thanks, not for me, I am not very fond of chocolate mouse". 

[i-need-a-martini]

---

@*julia*2010 wrote:

you keep making contradictory statements. 

you say you are glad you have an open mind

and see beauty in most things but earlier you said

there was quite a bit of abstract art that you detest.

you said if people want to see easy to understand

art - they should visit ikea then you said you liked

looking at old paintings in the gallery because they

depict pretty dresses.

you acknowledge others have different tastes but

when someone describes a painting technique as

childish - you say it makes them look like a fool.

so who was the artist?  was the criticism directed

at their work in general?  or particular piece?  

i would like to know what the op is referring to.

---

Just because I dislike a piece doesn't mean I haven't considered it or can't appreciate it. Or appreciate that other people may find it beautiful. Or appreciate what the artist has tried to do.

And as I keep saying my taste in art isn't elitist. I consider everything and I like a lot of it. I'll take an ikea piece, or a pretty Victorian piece or a Duchamp landscape with beatiful colours. I keep an open to mind to art just as I do to everything if I can. It's the way I learn things.

And as I keep sayng over and over again, I love listening to peoples opinions. What I DON'T value is the offensive brush off that comes with the statement "A 5 year old could have done that". That statement is what I opened this thread with and it is the only thing I have criticised throughout.

Everyone else has managed to read an enormous amount of nothing between the lines of my comments including someone who accusing me of "attacking a visitor" lol. Get real!

I stand by the comment that anyone who makes the nonsense comment "A 5 year old can do that" looks foolish. That statement is not an OPINION. It's an ill thought out cop out when you don't have anything intelligent to say and are just full of your own opinion and not prepared to consider anything or anyone else to do with the painting. 

If Rabbit gave a REASON for disliking any of the works that have been mentioned on here then this would be a proper discussion. Instead, he trots out the old "A 5 year old could do that" amongst other equally innane comments like "It's a load of rubbish".

Julia, you yourself offered an opinion on that Duchamp piece. You didn't think the painting had depth, the colours didn't blend and it wasn't harmonious. I personally don't agree with you but I certainly wouldn't criticise you for that because that was a valid and well thought out OPINION. You didn't dismiss the painting with a dumb comment - you gave it intelligent consideration. 

And that is all this thread was ever about.

(now I will go and try and find some images of the painting you are all wanting to see).

[i-need-a-martini]

Ok so I can't find the exact same images but I will post paintings by the artists that look similar.

The comment was made by 4 different males in different tour groups over a 3 hour period in one day. Not by the same person.

The paintings were by Fred Williams, Brett Whiteley, Howard Arkley. There was a 4th artwork that copped that comment but I can't remember which one it was now.

I'll go and find images now and will post them one by one.

Knock yourselves out with the opinions. I'm not sure if I will have the time to read them all. But I certainly won't even bother with the "A 5 year old could do this" nonsense.

[i-need-a-martini]

 

Fred Williams

Beautiful evocative landscapes of the Australian outback.

[iapetus_rocks]

Martini, those sculptures I saw in Hobart; it was in the late 1970's and I don't remember where it was I saw them, whether gallery or museum.

[rabbitearbandicoot]

"If Rabbit gave a REASON for disliking any of the works that have been mentioned on here then this would be a proper discussion. Instead, he trots out the old "A 5 year old could do that" amongst other equally innane comments like "It's a load of rubbish"."

You better check back. I wasn't the first (or the second) to trot out the '5 year old'. I used it because everyone else was using it.

As far as my comment 'a load of rubbish' - that is my opinion. It is a load of rubbish. I don't have to give 10 reasons why I think that. If it were worth my time to list the reasons, If I liked it apart from x, I would say so. I wouldn't waste my time because it's 'such a load of rubbish' that I would be typing for an hour and no-one would read it anyway.

[iapetus_rocks]

I like the Fred Williams painting.

[i-need-a-martini]

Brett Whiteley

This is similar to the painting I show. It is one of Whitelys evocative Lavender bay series painted through his balcony window.