Saturday, February 27, 2010

Night of Culture

Last night Kathi had to work so I had a night out with the kids.

Each forth Friday of the month the Portland Art Museum has free admission from 5 - 8pm. With Brianna's interest in art and the fact that it was free I thought it would be a good experience. We finished the night off with a little pop-culture and ate at Five Guys. Delicious.

I know that art is subjective and I tried to explain this last night to the kids as we walked through the various galleries but come on people let's face it, some art is crap. As we meandered through classic art, modern art, sculptures and paintings averting our eyes from the boobies we critiqued the art heavily. By the way, lots of boobies in art. The kids tried not to let on that they noticed but their obvious avoidance of some pieces and their occasional giggling said differently.

The negative critiquing was constant and heavy. It ranged anywhere from "I could do that" to "What the crap is that?!?". We decide that if you could paint the canvas with something bought from Home Depot it wasn't very good. Some paintings looked like they were made with a mop or a standard paint roller. There were some sculptures that looked like someone rummaged through the scrap steel bin at my work and welded some random pieces together. Again, we didn't think that was very good art.

On the flip side there were some critiques that ranged from "Wow" to "This artist is amazing!". Most of these were made about oil paintings of the classic artist who painted people and landscapes. When you stood back from these you just admired the beauty of the piece and when you got close you could see the intricate detail and precision of each stroke of the brush.

The best part was spending time with the kids. They are my pride and joy.


TaeKwonDo elevator battle!

1 comment:

Phil Steller said...

I love your art assessment: makes me laugh. I agree - much of modern and abstract art is crap. It's called laziness. Why spend hundreds of hours on a classic style that is virtually impossible - only the best can do it - when you can slop junk together and sell it for the same price?

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