Image: Keith Haring.
Some artists I find can depict life in the simplest terms and others take a more convoluted approach. Then again some others don’t bother, rather they let you stand in front of their work and you are expected to sort it out yourself.
I had been invited to the gallery by my cousin a woman who considered herself an authority on most things, art being one of her foremost know-all subjects.
‘Its brilliant,’ she had said to me. ‘You have to come and see it in the flesh.’
Yes there was no doubting the magnitude of the work, the entire wall a mass of black and white.
To me it was clear there was a path being laid down in this piece. From sort of birth to death and all things in between.
I thought the artist was very clever in this work. By using simple figures to convey his message he had made the work accessible to so many I thought. But artistic merit I had long argued lay in the eye of the critic. Was this work worth millions as they said it was or was it an over inflation of this artists ego?
I stood there for some time taking the work in, looking at the multiple stories I could see within the images. After a while I did begin to see the merit in all the praise the work was generating.
As I stood there my cousin arrived and stood with me gazing on this imposing work. I said to her that is was a magnificent work and then launched into my version of its meaning.
I was waxing lyrically I thought when she interrupted me to say the piece she wanted me to see was the next one along.
A small A4 size painting, a white background with a rough red splodge in the middle.
I looked at her somewhat perplexed as she stood back admiring it.
‘Brilliant isn’t it?’
Written for: http://magpietales.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/mag-232.html
Morpethroad 
Art is and always will be subjective. It’s all in the eye of the beholder. 😉
So true Jackie thanks for the great comment.
Ha! That’s the one I liked too. Red is my favorite color!
Another red person I see. Thanks RoSy, appreciate your comment as always.
You totally got me, and I loved the feeling. I was ready to be outraged at the narrator. I heard me thinking, Who is he to say what’s artistic or not? What a tool! Then I continued reading a started nodding and liking the narrator’s point. All the way to his perplexity towards that last piece. Then I laughed at my previous thoughts. This was a good one, indeed. Thanks for sharing. 😉
Hey that’s a great comment, glad I could entice you to read on. Thanks so much for that comment.
So clever. As an art history student, I had to write about stuff that I really didnt like. Someone likes the red sploge. I like the art that looks like something.
Thank you so much. I have a son who is doing very well in the art world at present, has just recently sold a piece to the National Gallery of Australia, so that is very exciting for us down here.
Laughed at this one, Michael. I am so art-challenged that I’m afraid I shy away from galleries. But I like your explaining the three approaches an artists takes so now I don’t feel so bad for not “getting” it. (Maybe I wasn’t even supposed to?) 🙂
Thanks Mandy, that my words generated a laugh is good, happy you did so. Art is a funny business, someones treasure is another persons monster. That’s the beauty of art I find.
You have to come see it in the flesh! That one line tells the whole story! Sensational feel.
Thank you Karen I appreciate your comment. In the flesh always makes a difference.
Perspective is a beautiful thing …
Yes it is Helen. Thank you so much for your comment.
It’s amazing what we will pick up when viewing art. I enjoyed reading your perspective.
Thank you so much.