For me, these are indeed the thoughts that accompany my ears' reception of the phrase “modern art”. Or at least it was before taking this seminar.
I still have rather ambivalent feelings about a lot of the stuff that gets classified as modern art, but this class did legitimately change the way I see much of it.
The change in my feelings is especially notable because it occurred without my realizing it at first.
But I realized that this made it a very significant work. This feeling is something that would be extremely difficult to create for a viewer on command. Even if this piece's shape was completely random (as one is tempted to conclude), it was able to evoke in me a feeling that I can't even rightly put into words.
The next visit was to the Crocker museum in Sacramento. This museum had a more diverse selection, with the first floor devoted to modern art, and the second floor reserved for older pieces collected by the Crocker family. I reacted to the first floor of the museum much like I had reacted to the MoMA, remaining rather skeptical (with the exception of a couple of pieces that were simply astonishing, such as Stephen Kaltenbach's "Portrait of My Father", featured below).
Before I wrap up this post, I have to talk about the last stop that we made as a class, which was a trip to the home studio of a guy named Dave Lane.
He discussed these creations as if they were really created to live up to their names.
Overall, the visit to his home studio is probably better illustrated than described, so here are some pictures to give a better idea of what it was like.
So together, all these things have constituted the highlights of my experience in my art seminar this quarter. I certainly encountered new ideas and gained fresh perspective. I'm still pretty reserved toward modern art, but I have definitely gained a new appreciation for it, and have found that much of it can be very worthwhile when given enough consideration.