My Views on Modern Art

On my recent trip to the Peak District, I visited Chatsworth House, where the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, who are fans of modern art, were hosting numerous sculptures in their gardens.

I have to confess to disliking the bulk of modern art. I can attribute this to a trip to the local art gallery on a school trip and being told things like "Black with a Blue Border" (literally a black canvas with a 1-inch blue border around it), an huge ink stamp, which consisted of a piece of stainless steel attached to a black canvas with a 'hinge' and something else which involved a black canvas with a solitary orange circle on it.

I think the Guess the Artist quiz where you get to pick if Jackson Pollack, Jean Miotte, an elephant called Kamala or preschooler Ian Ford painted them. Likewise the Is this painting worth one dollar or one million dollars? quiz. Links via Kottke.

I realise art is subjective, but if it's something I can knock up in five minutes, or by throwing paint at a canvas, or, dare I say it, you can't tell it from work produced by a school child or an elephant, it isn't art, it's crap and you should go and read The Emperor's New Clothes.

It appears I've mentioned my loathing of modern art before.