Sunday, July 8, 2012

A couple of art related movies

Art appreciation is a funny subject. We like what we like, but we're not always able to say why. A curiosity for finding out why people enjoy jazz got me into playing jazz. A curiosity for finding out why people make experimental / avantgarde / noise music got me involved in volunteering for festivals on that very subject. My tastes changed greatly during that time. I may not be listening to noisy free jazz at home, but I have a boner for jazz / rock fusion - in particular when guitars are involved. I like the virtuosity of the harmonies, the melodies, and the improvisation. At first it sounded completely alien and weird, but after knowing a decent chunk of the theory behind it I could appreciate it a lot more.

Looking at art my tastes are in comparison basic. I'm starting to appreciate a wider spectrum of art, but I think the reason why I'm focusing on drawing people with photo-realism as a goal is that it's easy to judge more or less objectively. We can quite easily spot if proportions are off (which they sometimes are in my case) or if the tone looks weird. When it comes to more or less "modern" art I'm still in many cases not getting it. I can't get much of an emotional response from many of the paintings that are sold for rather large amounts of money. This brings me to the first recommendation, which is a movie called My Kid Could Paint That.


For me I'd take a Renaissance style drawing any day. I like art that doesn't look like a kid could have made it. Why should you care about what some art newbie thinks about modern art? Well maybe you shouldn't, but check out the movie and tell me what you think.

The next movie is called Exit Through The Gift Shop. You may or may not have heard of the street artist Banksy, but for years he's been painting clever stencil art all over the world, and eventually opening a gallery. Almost no one knows his identity, but he has inspired a lot of people, such as Dolk here in Bergen.

What I like about Banksy, and some of the followers is the cleverness and humor of many of the ideas. They're not technically difficult like, say, a Renaissance style figure drawing, but it gives me an emotional response. As for something like this?

Not so much.

Thanks to the wonders of Youtube you can watch this movie too, completely for free.




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