walker trip respose
Well I understand that Modern art does have it's place and there have been pieces that appeal to me, the majority of it I just don't get. For me though, I follow my gut reaction on a piece, and with modern art it is often "...but why?" as it is hard to see the purpose or point of a piece at times. A great example of this is a piece they had up at the Walker. It was a rectangle, hung vertically, that was painted black. Just black. No interesting textured in the strokes either. It was just matte black. This begs the question why? What could you possibly be saying with this and if you have no message why did you even do it? Modern art just confuses me more than it inspires respect most of the time.
On the other hand, there was a small gallery of photographs away from the main gallery. These photos were mainly of people and places, two things that greatly interest me. Art that represents people, especially in such natural states as were depicted here, gives a light onto how people act and also how their personlity shows through them. There were pictures of couples and friends and one can see the interaction between them. The emotion that drives movement and action. The ability of an artist to see and capture this kind of energy is what I believe to make beautiful pieces of art, more so than the ability to paint a black square.