Lesson 6 - Hughes - Shock

"One of the myths of modern art is that it began like a prophet in the desert. The avant garde, the rejected outsider, armed with truth. Today that myth is lost, but at the start of the 70's the idea of an avant garde in painting and sculpture was winding down. It's now over, part of a period style and in the mean time Modernism itself has become our official culture." These were the opening remarks of Robert Hughes in this documentary where he speaks about the Modernism art style during the 60's and the artists who fulfilled this type off work. .

What I really liked about this documentary, that makes it so different from the others, is the introduction of a female artist. Women were mentioned and shown in other documentaries, this is true, but they were either the model/muse for the painter or in the most recently made documentaries they were the curators of a museum. Until this documentary, there was never a women shown and credited for her paintings. The female artist spoken about in this film was Bridget Reilly and how her work was severely critiqued for commercialization.

What I found extremely interesting is how art critics and historians can determine what is art and what is not and whether it should be shown in a museum or not. I feel like once something is pegged as not being art then the public is going to completely write of that artist altogether as either mediocre or just not very good. Which brings in art investments. People aren't going to buy a painting by an artist who is considered to be mediocre by the professional art connoisseur, because after 10 or 15 years they won't make a profit off of it when they finally decide to sell it. Now I find this interesting because as Professor Peck has stated before "Not all art is designed necessarily for you to enjoy it - visually or conceptually" and that is exactly what is being shown with some of these artists in the Modernism style of painting. Essentially during this time, there is no avant garde and with no avant garde there is no shock or stir to the style of painting which made it very hard for the modernist artist to commercialize their work. Especially since the critics are practically telling art investors not to buy it when they don't showcase in a museum or gallery.

I particularly liked the introduction to this documentary. I liked the ripple effect that occurred while showing different excerpts of a different clip or art from the artists spoken about in this film. It got me engaged and even more interested in the film because it made me feel like I was about to enter into an episode of The Twilight Zone.