Professional Documents
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Appreciating Art
Appreciating Art
William Anastasi’s Untitled (Method & Madness A) Jul. 19, 2010, 2010 – $16,000 on
Artspace
When you look at it, most art just sits there, static, a picture or object on
display. But the sensitive eye can rewind the video tape, so to speak, and read
the way the artwork was constructed. Were the brushes laid down fast or
sedulously? Where was the camera placed? Like a detective at a crime scene,
take the time to unravel the way the artwork in front of you as a record of a
performance—one that expressed the artist’s virtuosity.
3. DOES IT SET YOU FREE?
Artists often operate from a step off the mainstream, using an outsider’s
vantage to offer new perspectives on things we often take for granted and
suggest possible alternatives. These can relate to anything from the
way Picasso saw a bull’s head in a bicycle seat to Robert Mapplethorpe’s
photographic revelation that male sexuality has a wide ranges of orders that
aren’t listed on the normative menu. Allow these works to untether your
imagination.
Wade Guyton’s Untitled
Claire
Art doesn’t have to be “about” anything, really, but sometimes it’s about you.
Or your friends. Or your political order. Or the fate of people half a world
away. Artists frequently use their position to put their own particular lens on
society, illuminating ills, underscoring hypocrisies, offering potential futures,
or delving into resonant traumas of the past. If that’s the case, take the time to
decode and absorb the artist’s message.
6. IS IT AVANT-GARDE?
Br
Think of artists as the scouts of their tribe, slipping out in the early half-light
to explore the uncertain terrain ahead. What they bring back might not look
like art—it might be confusing, unrecognizable, irritating. When you see a
work that you just can’t place—as in, it’s not a painting or anything else you’ve
seen before—and its disagreeability makes you uneasy, pay close attention. It
may be the next breakthrough in art.