a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by kazren
kazren  ·  3846 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: QUIZ: Can You Tell The Difference Between Modern Art And Paintings By Toddlers?

This doesn't demonstrate anything. This is an absolutely ignorant 'buzz' quiz indeed...

This just perpetuates the stigma that: Art is all about 'talent' and technique; you can sum up the quality of art exclusively by its physical appearance, looking at it almost like a scientist dissecting a rat - the idea, the context, and how it functions in culture at the time it was created versus now doesn't matter or isn't present.

I really can't stand the "My kid can paint that" stereotype. Here's why it doesn't matter why your kid can paint that:

1) Your kid can paint that because they don't have motor control and perception like an adult - it's impossible for them to paint anything else because they just can`t. Some kids develop faster in certain areas than others.

2) Your kid is barely aware of what they're creating. They think their brown potato-like scribble looks like Dad... An artist is fully aware of what they are doing and they have a preconceived intention to their work based on their background in the arts (even if they deny it) and that is what makes an artist an artist. This is also why, just because your middle-aged friend Margaret had a good day and drew one really great drawing, it doesn`t suddenly elevate her to the level of a skilled artist with years of practice... it is similar to, if you fixed your car successfully once, it doesn`t make you a mechanic. When a young child makes striking artwork, it`s more coincidence and their creative potential showing itself, but it`s really apples and oranges if you try compare what is going when a child makes art versus an adult.

3) Having fully developed motor skills, perception, and a lot of life experience and knowledge to inform your artwork makes creating work like that, as an adult artist, really challenging - it's very hard to just let go like that. It`s hard to go back to that way of thinking as well. This also isn't the same as an average adult with completely undeveloped artistic skills doing something like this, because they're working from basically where they left off as a child.

4) There`s a lot of research out there now showing we lose a lot of our imagination as we grow up. Having an imagination after high school pretty much is a gift in itself. Having an imagination as fresh as a child`s is special.

5) Art isn`t quantitative. You can`t measure it in a beaker, you can`t give it a fair mark out of 10, you can`t really compare two pieces of art. There`s no wrong answers, like there are in math.





thenewgreen  ·  3842 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    This just perpetuates the stigma that: Art is all about 'talent' and technique;
My point exactly. Art can be about mastery of technique but it can also be about so much more. I find myself connecting in a more emotive way to abstraction in art than realism. I will often finger-paint with my daughter and the results are cool. It can be difficult to tell where my fingers did the work and where hers did. Does it matter?