Bad Art?

It seems like a lot of people I hear talking about art are also saying they are tired or fed up with all the bad art out there. Haven’t we all stood in a museum or gallery looking at some Modern work and said “my ____ could do that?” (If you met my cat you would know she could, too.)

What exactly is bad art?

There are different types of art and artists out there. Primitive art, done by people from primitive cultures, is really cool and highly collectable. Children’s art, done by little and big kids who are congratulated, encouraged, and their pieces hung on any vertical wall space. There is art done by Outsiders, or uneducated hobby-ists, or even just unfinished art.

People also strongly contest what constitutes an art form—classical mediums vs photography, computer painting, installation, graffiti, earthworks, body painting, erotic art, photos of or actual use of blood, urine…OK, you get the idea.

Ah, then there is art to which we simply do not respond or like. Which I believe is what many really mean when talking about “bad” art. That says more about us as viewers than I think we would care to have known.

This spring I visited a major exhibit in Detroit and was severely turned off by much of what I saw there. When I was complaining and describing one piece to a friend, which involved shelves and common kitchen tableware, my friend nodded and simply said “Marcel Duchamp”. My perception changed in a heartbeat and gave me whip lash. Of course.

We each have every right to settle for ourselves what we like and what we do not like. But we should understand it is a reaction, and a personal one at that. The more knowledge we have, the more we are exposed to a variety of creativity, the less we will fall into the snap judgment trap.

“We tend to see the world through our beliefs and expectations.”