Through the modern art courses I have discovered different artists and interpretations of art. It challenged my vision, preferences and made me more open minded person. What’s the difference between art and craft? Who is an artist? How to define true art? How marketing is affecting art and how it changes the definition of art? In this short essay, I present some of my favourite examples of modern art, share my thoughts and hope to answer the questions i raised above.
Definition of arts and crafts
The Oxford dictionary defines art with following words: art (noun) is the use of imagination to express ideas or feelings, particularly in painting, drawing or sculpture, it is a skill of creating objects especially when you study it. It is an ability or a skill that can be developed with training and practice. (Oxford dictionary, 2005)
Craft in other hand is: (noun) an activity involving a special skill at making things with your hands, it is all the skills needed for a particular activity; (verb) to make something using special skills, especially with your hands. (Oxford dictionary, 2005).
So the art, usually has meaning, and represents an idea, in other hands the craft may be just an object, maybe useful or not, but without crafters expressive feelings or philosophical meaning.
The world's most expensive canned fish and urinal
In 2004, at the worlds famous auction, art work of Damien Hirst, was sold for a 12 million dollars. After the auction he became one of the highest paid and recognizable artist among the K. Malevits and W. Kandinsky. His work consists of a preserved tiger shark submerged in formaldehyde in a glass-panel display case (Don Thompson’s book, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art – Wikipedia). After the sales, fish began deteriorate and the surrounding liquid grew murky. Shark and liquid were replaced. But what’s most interesting is that the ,,artwork’’ remained its name and price. The worlds most expensive ,,canned fish,, is called to be a masterpiece of modern arts.
Marcel Duchamp’s artwork Fountain, was represented for the first time with other impressionist, modernist and academic artists exhibition in 1917. It was a Readymade sculpture of a porcelain urinal signed R. Mutt. (Wikipedia, Marcel Duchamp). Fountain gained a lot of attention, discussions and debates about whether the piece was or was not art. Through many articles and books people tried to understand Duchamp’s art and his philosophy but no one succeeded. Duchamp itself in interviews added more mysteriousness to his ,,artwork’’.
It is undeniable that the impact of Duchamp’s fountain changed the way people view art. In 1999, a version of Fountain was sold for $1,762,500. But, what is more interesting is that, in the beginning of 21 century the highest prize in art world, the prize of W.Turner was given to the Fountain (NEws BBC, 2004). The act itself of exhibiting Readymade urinal affected the forming of a modern art world. But, why the ,,art piece,, itself was prized with the most prestigious W.Turner prize?
Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain came top of a poll of 500 art experts in the run-up to 2004 year’s Turner Prize. Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907) was second, with Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Diptych from 1962 coming third. Duchamp shocked the art establishment when he took the urinal, signed it and put it on display in 1917. “The choice of Duchamp’s Fountain as the most influential work of modern art ahead of works by Picasso and Matisse comes as a bit of a shock,” said art expert Simon Wilson.
NEWS BBC 2004
I think that these few examples (among others) are important for understanding modern western art world, and techniques that became popular for creating New art. I wonder how the art will change in future?
An example of conceptual art by J. Kosuth. The piece consists of a chair, a photograph of the chair, and an enlarged dictionary of the word – chair. The work changes each time it is installed in a new venue. So, each time the work was exhibited, the new installation necessitated a new photograph. The artist discovered new, and important idea of conceptual art: art work may have an idea of an art work, and its formal components are not important.
Modern art
The easiest way to become a famous is scandal. Malevit’s artwork ,,black square’’ and all the previous examples were scandalous, revolutionary for its time, generation and art field. Let’s take into account that art became more Simple in its visual appearance and complex in it’s context. For example if a modern art piece was without description, sign and outside of the museum space, I may never recognize in it priceless art for 1000000eur. Have you ever wondered why the absence of technique in art painting is still as valuable as a technical painting?
Academical painting, or any other artworks were including more high level, complex technique. Professionalism of an artist was strongly obvious. Not many, looking at Mona Lisa art work will think that it is easy to replicate, or to paint something similar. But, comparing with modern art, art pieces are easily duplicatable. It’s not hard to buy a fish and display it in the glass-panel display case and call it art. The size and exotism of art piece may be defined by the income of a maker. Artwork that is very complex because of it’s philosophical name, description and artist intentions became merits of undeniable or deniable (debatable) recognition of art piece in which the technical painting skills are not always existing.
I may admire philosophical intentions, deep and meaningful ideas, and theory’s, but what about a visual appearance and painting technique in visual arts? Modern artist is a thinker, newsmaker or philosopher who questions certain dilemmas and wraps it in visual concept. Art compositions are printed and saved. Some of them are called multimillionaire masterpiece, and as we know what cost’s fortune – is more appreciated, recognized and valued.
Media and marketing
The media industry, internet, globalization, are shapers of art field in modern days. News papers, TV and media are affecting the artists and their projects. Art managers are creating trends for one or another ,,artist and their artworks’’ to make business and money. And this reality is shaping the art field in modern days.
The role of media is growing in creating the artist, and creating them in a short period of time as possible. New star may be born in just a few minutes, and there is no need for a talent, matter of education and professionalism level of an artist. In modern days marketing is a driving force of an art field.
The law of marketing says, buy cheap and sell it high. Unknown artist is cheap artist, his discovery is low cost. Modernism means: you can buy low cost artist if you discover new artist. And new artist means: discovering new art. This chain created new era in which parting with the old is essential for discovering and creating new art, and new recourses.
Priceless art?
Marketing has significantly influenced the concept of art — shaping how artists work, how they create, and how audiences perceive their creations. Artists like Vincent van Gogh and Leonardo da Vinci were not bound by the rules of today’s marketing-driven world. Historically, artists received commissions from kings, churches, and the nobility — the upper social classes. While their work was often shaped by the cultural and religious boundaries of their time, they still managed to create breathtaking masterpieces that transcended those limits.
Their goal wasn’t to sell art as a product, but to express thoughts and emotions in a form that could evoke new feelings, reflections, and admiration in the viewer. Even today, artworks created over 400 years ago continue to move me deeply — from Leonardo da Vinci’s masterful technique to Benvenuto Cellini’s ability to sculpt elegant, lifelike figures with astonishing detail and motion.
Take, for example, the ancient Chinese art of nut carving. This intricate craft has a long and rich history, with skills and techniques passed down through generations. Even now, on the streets of China, one can find these miniature masterpieces — works of immense precision and cultural value — being sold for under 50 euros, sometimes even less than 10. And yet, despite their historical significance and the extraordinary talent behind them, such works are often undervalued when compared to modern, market-driven art.
This raises a troubling question: Has the price tag become the measure of an artist’s worth? Today, if an artist is poor, it’s often assumed they lack talent or value — as if success in the marketplace is the only valid proof of artistic merit. But is that truly fair? Or have we allowed marketing to redefine what we consider meaningful, beautiful, or worthy in art?
Boronali
Have a look at this piece of art (below) and before you continue reading, please make notes of your impressions for further art experience.
In the 1910, at the exhibition of Sociéte Des Artistes Indépendants painting by a Boronali was presented. It was called Et le soleil s’endormit sur l’Adriatique. Also, same artist published a Manifeste de l’excessivisme, that was a quite revolutionary with content for that period of Paris.
Soon after the exhibition and publication of The Manifeste, the Roland Dorgéres (french novelist and a memeber of The Academic Goncourt) revealed that the painting on canvas was created not by the person, but by the donkey. He also revealed that he was the real author of A Manifeste. The creation process of the painting is documented in the photo (below).
The group of artist, with covered eyes, in collaboration with the donkey, created painting by tying a paintbrush to the tail of a donkey named Lolo. The act was documented in a photograph capturing the moment when a group of artists collaborated with the unsuspecting animal to produce what was, at first, accepted as avant-garde art.
References:
Oxford dictionary 2005.
Duchamp’s urinal tops art survey. News BBC. Linked 20.2.2023 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4059997.stm