Contemporary Art and Why I Hate It

I've been thinking about this topic for quite a while....like about 2 years since I saw Matthew Barney's The Cremaster Cycle, and I think I've come to a conclusion.

I hate Contemporary art.

(Actually, a more accurate comment might be *I hate Modern art* but since there is some Modern art that I do like, that's not quite it either.)


The era of Modern Art arguably began during the 1850s when things like human rights, the Industrial Revolution, science etc., altered the perception of the individual in society. Following this, where art and literature would previously be a result of the whims of the person commissioning the piece (e.g. the Church, Rulers), into depictions of social awareness, starting the era of Modern Art with the Realist movement. Successive movements (Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Futurism, whatever) develop out of contemporary philosophy, society, politics etc. But then after WWII...I hate most of the stuff that comes along. I mean sure, there's Pop Art that everyone loves, but that's because it developed out of using mass produced/popular images as art.

I like art that tells me a story, preferably in a non-pretentious way. I hate stuff like Performance Art. I still remember a lecture where we were told about some artist whose *art* was to take drugs, have himself nailed to a VW Beetle, be driven around while nailed to it, then have the nails extracted and sell them to collectors - all in the name of questioning religion, mass production and consumption. No it isn't. That's self-mutilation in the name of publicity.

And The Cremaster Cycle. It's supposedly an avant garde film commenting on life, death, sex, biology, mythology...best viewed one after the other. No it isn't. Its seven hours of my life completely wasted and never to return. It has everything that's wrong with Contemp Art - prosthetics, ambiguous genitalia, blood, potatoes, pointless tap-dancing, and lots of melted vaseline. Okay, maybe you could somehow figure out that its about life, death, whatever...but as far as I care, it's just self-indulgent crappy crappy crap.