What is Art?
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Today I went to the Art Institute, which is probably one of my favorite things to do in Chicago. I love wandering around the Impressionist wing, looking sideways at the Picasso and the Cezanne paintings and trying to imagine how these men could work with globs of paint that were splattered haphazardly across the canvas and step back to reveal a bridge, or some water lillies, or a monastary. It is fascinating to me. Then there is Picasso, who works with squarish globs of paint and when you step back it doesn’t resemble anything but is fantastic all the same. One of the largest paintings in the Impressionist area is the pointillist Seurat painting, Sunday Afternoon at La Grande Jatte 
The brilliance of this painting is the millions of tiny dots that make up the different shadows, people, animals and details of the afternoon. So, please explain to me why there are people taking pictures of this masterpiece on their cell phones… isn’t that kind of beside the point? Granted, pointillism could probably be defined as the first foray into pixelized images… however it is too much of a stretch for me to believe that a tiny grainy cell-phone pic can somehow capture Seurat. As I wandered around the museum I saw hundreds of people with their video cameras or camera phones or digital cameras trying to record their experience with some of the greatest masterpieces of all time. Isn’t that why they sell art books in the Museum Store? So you can appreciate and wonder at the amazing talent of the artist without having the shaky hand, the uneducated voice-over, the random people standing in the corners and the grainy, pixelized shots? I don’t know, call me crazy. After a while I actually got quite frustrated with the papparazzi-esque individuals who were snapping away at artwork they couldn’t identify, explain or take 2 minutes to appreciate. They just wanted to fill their memory card up with haphazard photos of Real Art. I guess in their minds that made them Sophisticated and Refined. With a few dozen clicks of their cheap digital camera they can imagine themselves as the type of people who admire art, or travel, or wander through museums just for the pleasure of being surrounded by beauty and talent. And perhaps my turning up my nose at Those People makes me a snob, I don’t know.
The brilliance of this painting is the millions of tiny dots that make up the different shadows, people, animals and details of the afternoon. So, please explain to me why there are people taking pictures of this masterpiece on their cell phones… isn’t that kind of beside the point? Granted, pointillism could probably be defined as the first foray into pixelized images… however it is too much of a stretch for me to believe that a tiny grainy cell-phone pic can somehow capture Seurat. As I wandered around the museum I saw hundreds of people with their video cameras or camera phones or digital cameras trying to record their experience with some of the greatest masterpieces of all time. Isn’t that why they sell art books in the Museum Store? So you can appreciate and wonder at the amazing talent of the artist without having the shaky hand, the uneducated voice-over, the random people standing in the corners and the grainy, pixelized shots? I don’t know, call me crazy. After a while I actually got quite frustrated with the papparazzi-esque individuals who were snapping away at artwork they couldn’t identify, explain or take 2 minutes to appreciate. They just wanted to fill their memory card up with haphazard photos of Real Art. I guess in their minds that made them Sophisticated and Refined. With a few dozen clicks of their cheap digital camera they can imagine themselves as the type of people who admire art, or travel, or wander through museums just for the pleasure of being surrounded by beauty and talent. And perhaps my turning up my nose at Those People makes me a snob, I don’t know.NEXT POST FROM CHICAGO: Walk About Town: The Scultpure Edition
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I am miserable at admiring art, but I find the photo snapping annoying, too.
As for the Chicago Art Institute, it reminds me 50% of trips to Chicago as a kid and 50% of FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF.
Comment by L Sass 2007 July 20 @ 7:30 am