A For and Against Essay. Vera Murashova

Modern Art is Similar to Vulgar or to a Deep Meaning?

Once upon a time, while discussing the modern art, my teacher had told me that any fool can make the same works as modern artists do. Indeed, we often have to listen that the works of 21^st century are vulgar and even raunch. Thus, the question that I have chosen to speculate about is: are the masterpieces of contemporary artists really such as described above or they hide a very deep meaning that could be interesting to think about? Let us see all the pros and cons.

To start with, there is the opinion that there are a lot of modern works that are made ‘easily, without much effort’; therefore, they cannot be called the works of Art. For example, the installation by Glenn Ligon which is called “Negro Sunshine”, is made of cambered shining wire, hanging on a white wall – nothing special. Moreover, such people claim that the most of modern works are unaesthetic, especially in comparison with the masterpieces of 19^th century. For instance, the Gerhard Richter’s paintings depict the nature only by colors, without any details.

On the other hand, despite that some works can be done ‘easily’, it could be very hard to come up with the idea. Thus, coming back to the Ligon’s installation, it reflects a very deep one: it does not matter whether the African American is a sunbeam, s/he will always be in a black skin. Then, speaking about the straightness of lines, as for me, it does not always necessary for conveying the main idea; moreover, in most cases it can even distract the viewer, switch him/her on the other, less necessary aspect of work. In addition, I find it necessary to say that the art is developing together with people; consequently, it reflects the reality through the contemporary view, which, by definition, cannot be the same as hundred years ago.

All in all, tastes are different. I think that all depends on what you personally call Art. For some people it is similar to beauty and aesthetic pleasure, while for the others the idea and the whole sense are more important and interesting. Nevertheless, I hope that this essay turned out to be useful and I was able to prove that the modern art is not vulgar or tasteless.