What is art? What isn't? Why does Evan dislike art?

What is art? What isn't? What did you see at the Museums? Did you like or dislike the artist work?

I attend an art’s school, Columbia College in downtown Chicago. I am a writer, a visual learner, a person who likes pictures but I hate art. Hate is a strong word. I dislike art very much. I just cannot get into art like some others can. What is art and what is not art? If you take away the Picasso’s and other famous artists and sculptor’s what are you left with? Art from the past one hundred years which is not really art.

                Our class took three different tours of art museums in Chicago’s south loop. We visited the Chicago Cultural Center, the Art institute, and Columbia’s Museum of Contemporary Art.  Through all these tours they have only reinforced my opinion of art. ART IS STUPID. No disrespect to any artist but certain things that are considered art, you could walk into a pre-school classroom with a kid who has a Crayola crayon stuck up his nose who drew the exact same patterns. The little does not know any fancy words or tricks or patterns. He just drew but what he did is not considered art. It makes me mad thinking about how so many people have so much better work but are not recognized because some of the crap that is in Art Museums.

In the Art Institute, specifically in the European art section like there were thirteen naked pictures me and a couple classmates counted. They were painted naked and some angel wings were added and other things. My two year old nephew does better work using the crayons he gets from red lobster. I just think that outside of some of the historic work that are in museums that other work is just plain ridiculous. People try to make you think its art by adding some type of reasoning behind it that does not make sense. In the same gallery there was a guy projected on four TV screens rubbing him with black paint. The artist said that the reason he made that was to show “the mind under stress when it collapses.” I was disappointed when I walked into Columbia’s art museum.

I know a lot of Columbia’s art work in their museum is student work but I did not like it one bit. Particularly on the first floor where they had 60 candid’s made into a collage made up of random items in a household or business. Quite possibly the dumbest thing I have ever seen outside of watching a cub’s game. As I continued to walk through the museum through my hate for art I found something I liked. It was still a bunch of candid photos all lined up together. The candid were houses and business and even a factory. What made these so special were they all shared a common address, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. This was made clear by the artist Mark Beregan who I think did a great job. Unlike the other artist who took candid’s of random items and really had no meaning behind it, Beregan did. The top floor of the museum consisted of five TVs were politicians and others who were about to go on for an interview practiced making faces. This really got you thinking that if they practice their face are they telling the truth. I did not think it was art but it was very informative which I guess makes it art like newspaper doodles in the Sunday paper.

What is art, what isn’t? Are oil painting and naked angel babies’ art? Why are a bunch of photos with no purpose either alone or together art? It makes so f****** sense to me, like at all. The more I think about it the angrier I get. I see real art every day. Wall Murals, sculptures, oil paintings of real people, QUALITY CANDIDS. Those are some examples of real art that I see every day just walking down the street. Those artist do not need a bulls*** paragraph to convince people why its art, the artist I see you know its art.