We must confess: we don’t always get the visual arts. Some stuff, sure, but more often than not we’re confused. That’s right — we can stare at works by Jackson Pollack all freakin’ day and end up as enlightened as a lamp post. Or the one where the artist framed the canvas that formerly lived under another work of art. Oh yeah baby, nothing says creative expression like a square formed by paint splotches.
On the other hand, nothing offers us more pleasure than attending openings at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. We cannot pick our favorite moment, but suspect it may have been the earnest art woman explaining to her companions that the giant (huge) block of chocolate that had been gnawed by what we thought was a mutant rat but turned out to be the artist wasn’t “the original.”
Her implication, of course, was that the work had lost meaning. Our takeaway: someone had far too much time on his or her hands.
All of this leads to an ideas whose time has come: let the unwashed masses describe the art. The Tate Museum is now accepting contributions. If you do it live, could you look for the phone with the fish on it for us? The husband dragged us up and down for hours, swearing it was something we couldn’t leave without seeing. Alas, the fish and phone were out of the country that day. We got to see some very nice blisters instead.
- Chance for visitors to tell the Tate what that splodgy picture means: Gallery opens dubious art of label writing to the public
