BERLIN, GERMANY – I visited the Art Forum in Berlin recently. Art Forum is an art fair where the best art galleries in the world present their collections. To say that I was unpleasantly surprised is to say nothing. I hated looking at people in expensive designer clothes, who would stay for hours in front of a piece of tape floating in the air and talk about the depth of the concept, etc.
I was actually afraid to express my opinion out loud. What if I criticized some work of art which I just didn’t understand as an under-average minded and old-fashioned human being? What I did understand after visiting this art fair, though, was that there is no more division between art and trash. The name of the artist is the only thing which influences the level of admiration or hate of his work by the audience.
I know an Australian guy in Berlin who didn’t sell a single picture in two years, but then suddenly had the luck to meet some important people from London and now he is exhibited in the best galleries and sells his paintings for 10,000 euros each. Some people previously said that his art is “disturbing” in an ugly way. But now it is disturbing in a good way, because he is famous.
And so I will continue on my exploration of contemporary art. It all started about two years ago when I went to a contemporary art exhibition in one of Berlin’s museums with my class. It was called “Into me, out of me.”
The name was intriguing but it didn’t have any second meaning to it except for the literal one – it was all about puking and defecating. One video pictured a guy on a bed naked who inserted bananas covered with mustard and ketchup into his anus. My professor said he is very successful now. I bet in some “Leather and Rubber” club he is. Finally, what got me was a video of two people having sex in a missionary position. Maybe they went doggy style afterwards, but I didn’t dare to watch further. I asked my professor what differentiates this piece of, let’s say, art and some old porn video clip.
“Well, you see,” he said, “when it is on the Internet it is porn, but when it is exhibited in a museum, it’s definitely art.”
So what is art today? The 20th century was all about experimenting and forgetting simple aesthetics. People totally forgot that you should take some drawing lessons before calling yourself a painter (remember Jean-Michel Basquiat (Dec. 22, 1960 – Aug. 12, 1988), the pineapple-haired guy from the early ‘80s. He had luck to be discovered by Andy Warhol. He couldn’t really paint. But he got himself into history – slept with Madonna (check), got an autobiographical movie dedicated to him (check) and died young (check).
There are no “painters” any more. There are only “artists” now. They are everywhere. Living in Berlin and not seeing them is not possible. It usually goes like this: “Hey you! Yeah, you, the artist! Not the one, who cleans the floor while waiting for his great breakthrough, but the one, who waits tables in this cafe. Now hurry up and get me my espresso and you can keep the change for your next very conceptual, but overly underestimated art project.”
A few are actually talented and I beg their pardon. But now is the time for attention-whores and rich self-promoters. Many people want to be artists because they are actually lazy.
If you look at many prominent artists of today, you might notice that they are all ideas, and no execution. Honestly, do you remember the infamous Damien Hurst exhibition at the Pinchuk Art Center in Kyiv?
This guy is the richest artist in the world. But he actually only painted those ugly blue skulls with a distorted perspective. Everything else was done or crafted by someone else. Usually people are ashamed that they cheated. But Hurst is actually proud of it. About another assistant who worked for him, Hurst said: “The only difference between one painted by her and one by me is the money.”
That’s why Leonardo was a true artist. Or Monet. And even Dali. They not only had ideas. They knew how to physically make them happen. And Damien doesn’t. Nevertheless, he is rich and famous.
The American classic of landscape photography and true photographic genius, Ansel Adams, once said in an interview: “You have to visualize the final image the way you want it to appear. That means you must have enough craft to be able to use the camera…”
Well, if I follow some contemporary artist paths correctly, I would just go to some good photographer, pay him well and tell him: “I have an idea for a picture. It should be beautiful. And there should be a couple kissing in front of the sunset.” This doesn’t really make me Annie Leibovitz, does it?
Nevertheless, it looks like we have returned to the Gothic age, when the architect’s name remains unknown. But the one who pays stands out.
Michelangelo lost his health while painting the Sistine Chapel (which took him four years).
To sum up, shock therapy and lack of skills – these words describe the artistic scene nowadays. But if, in the 1960s and 1970s, using the words “masturbation” and “God” or equivalents in the same sentence was shocking and new, nowadays it is hard to impress the audience.
Artists did everything. They defecated into boxes and sold it as art. They jumped onto canvases from the top floors of a building, they had sex with audience and nailed their genitals to the table (Google it, all real art pieces). Now almost everything has been done. Showing your penis in public won’t shock anyone, unless you’re in kindergarten.
If you watch child porn on your computer, you’re a pedophile and pervert. But if you exhibit sexual pictures of kids in a gallery, you’re an artist who expresses himself.
I guess that the only thing one can do nowadays to shock the public and to make a name in the artistic world is to paint something beautiful, not disgusting, not disturbing and actually put together well.
In the end, however, we all like to see dirty laundry and the skeletons in other people’s closets. We like the idea of doing nothing and getting lots of money for it. That creates hope for the artist in each of us, allowing us to scream “I could do it!” every time we see a floating tape worth millions.
Alina Rudya is a freelance journalist living in Berlin and a Kyiv Post columnist.
