U know what, johnny, i interpreted your post wrong. i guess i was in a bad mood. please disregard my last post. including this one. oh wait, that’d make a paradox. OOOHHHHNOOOOO!
My theory is that modern art has no meaning. Some weird person (like me!) made something crazy for kicks, and some art collector or gallery person saw it, thought it had meaning, and bought it. Then the weird person, realizing how cool this scam is, makes some more (cough cough) art for the money.
I think M is kind of close. Modern art is like taking a car and driving it as crazy as you can until it breaks down; how far can you take art before it ceases to mean anything? You’re uncovering as much new territory and techniques as you can with less concern for the obvious.
I always come up with meanings for my art *after* I create it. While I’m making the art, I’m totally oblivious, then afterwards I think of something. And the crazy thing is that it always makes enough sense that people have trouble believing me when I say I made it up afterwards.
For the most part, the meaning was conscious, but I didn’t even notice the whole “planet’s rotation” thing until I was done with the painting. And this one:
I really didn’t mean to be making a statement about clipped wings curtailing a parrot’s freedom, when I portrayed our bird’s clipped feathers pinned to the cloth and his unclipped ones floating free. And this one:
If you’re struggling with what the meaning is then you don’t get the point. M is correct from a cynics point of view, Double W is correct from the point of view of someone who thinks they understand Modern/Contemporary art but has also missed the point. It really couldn’t be simpler, it’s what you take away from it. Idiots.
The purpose of contemporary art is to confound meaning, thus giving purpose to contemporary art criticism. Art that serves this purpose is recognized and rewarded; art that fails to serve is suppressed.
I love this strip, but I’d like to mention that I really like a lot of modern art. It’s just like everything out there: there are a lot of hacks, a bunch of clever dicks who are in it to make money, several artists who only make sense in their own heads, and some things that really speak to certain people. You have to really like the stuff to stick around long enough to find the ones you love, but you can say that about film or comics or music.
Nah, I think guess-the-jellybeans is just another piece of our common culture that Dorothy invoked.
It occurs to me that if you’re going to put your art on display, you might as well put it in a language that more than you and a few insiders can understand. Unconventional choice of symbols is one thing. Incomprehensibility defeats the purpose of exhibiting art.
June 12th, 2009 at 3:22 am
It’s like trying to guess what the emperor is wearing when he has no clothes.
June 12th, 2009 at 3:38 am
great punchline
June 12th, 2009 at 5:59 am
I always enjoy Cat and Girl, but the recent couple of months have been just stellar.
June 12th, 2009 at 8:41 am
Psychiatrists should do that with those inkblot tests. right answers will get you rewards. wrong answers will be punished.
June 12th, 2009 at 10:37 am
When I read the title, I knew I was in for something good. A pity I can take part on the guessing contest right now. When does it close?
June 12th, 2009 at 11:41 am
Well, screw that. I don’t live near water.
June 12th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
“Head and Bottle” by Philip Guston. What do I win?
June 12th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Is that the album cover from “Bury the Hatchet” ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bury_the_Hatchet_(album)
June 12th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Nope, it’s definitely the Philip Guston painting.
June 12th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Nny: Obviously, you’ve never been involuntarily hospitalized.
June 12th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
jonathan: I guess i dont take life as seriously as you do.
June 12th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
U know what, johnny, i interpreted your post wrong. i guess i was in a bad mood. please disregard my last post. including this one. oh wait, that’d make a paradox. OOOHHHHNOOOOO!
June 13th, 2009 at 3:46 am
DON’T CALL ME JOHNNY YOU… YOU… BEAST! You hideous, beautiful beast!
Also, you’ve never been tortured by Jennifer Beals. She’s always with the rorschach stuff.
June 13th, 2009 at 4:50 am
Six and a half million dollars is what it means, apparently.
June 13th, 2009 at 8:50 am
[...] Dorothy over at Cat and Girl can’t stop poking at the problem of meaning. Here’s another of her comic-form reflections. [...]
June 13th, 2009 at 9:52 am
My theory is that modern art has no meaning. Some weird person (like me!) made something crazy for kicks, and some art collector or gallery person saw it, thought it had meaning, and bought it. Then the weird person, realizing how cool this scam is, makes some more (cough cough) art for the money.
June 13th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
rorschach! I couldnt think of the name! thanks bro
June 13th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
I think M is kind of close. Modern art is like taking a car and driving it as crazy as you can until it breaks down; how far can you take art before it ceases to mean anything? You’re uncovering as much new territory and techniques as you can with less concern for the obvious.
June 15th, 2009 at 3:34 am
the answer to the painting is ‘i have no idea’.
June 15th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
I always come up with meanings for my art *after* I create it. While I’m making the art, I’m totally oblivious, then afterwards I think of something. And the crazy thing is that it always makes enough sense that people have trouble believing me when I say I made it up afterwards.
Like this one:
http://www.erikahammerschmidt.com/erika/art.html#tomato
I didn’t even think about “tomato” being a slang word for a woman while I was doing it. And this one:
http://www.erikahammerschmidt.com/erika/earth.html
For the most part, the meaning was conscious, but I didn’t even notice the whole “planet’s rotation” thing until I was done with the painting. And this one:
http://www.erikahammerschmidt.com/erika/cutfeathers.html
I really didn’t mean to be making a statement about clipped wings curtailing a parrot’s freedom, when I portrayed our bird’s clipped feathers pinned to the cloth and his unclipped ones floating free. And this one:
http://www.erikahammerschmidt.com/erika/art.html#belief
I didn’t even think about the whole “die blaue Blume” thing when I chose a blue flower as the hidden sculpture.
Am I doing this stuff subconsciously, or am I just good at making crap up?
June 15th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
Does anyone remember astroboy?
June 16th, 2009 at 8:38 am
If you’re struggling with what the meaning is then you don’t get the point. M is correct from a cynics point of view, Double W is correct from the point of view of someone who thinks they understand Modern/Contemporary art but has also missed the point. It really couldn’t be simpler, it’s what you take away from it. Idiots.
June 18th, 2009 at 12:33 am
idiots? if it’s a matter of point of view, there is no wrong answer then. tje definition of contemporary art is gonna change in 5 years anyway
June 18th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
No, there are totally wrong answers. Lots of them.
June 24th, 2009 at 12:30 am
Adam: I’m afraid you’re totally wrong.
June 30th, 2009 at 2:39 am
The purpose of contemporary art is to confound meaning, thus giving purpose to contemporary art criticism. Art that serves this purpose is recognized and rewarded; art that fails to serve is suppressed.
August 23rd, 2009 at 9:34 pm
I love this strip, but I’d like to mention that I really like a lot of modern art. It’s just like everything out there: there are a lot of hacks, a bunch of clever dicks who are in it to make money, several artists who only make sense in their own heads, and some things that really speak to certain people. You have to really like the stuff to stick around long enough to find the ones you love, but you can say that about film or comics or music.
January 20th, 2010 at 4:18 am
Holy crap another reference to a fucking ancient Cat and Girl comic
January 29th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
Nah, I think guess-the-jellybeans is just another piece of our common culture that Dorothy invoked.
It occurs to me that if you’re going to put your art on display, you might as well put it in a language that more than you and a few insiders can understand. Unconventional choice of symbols is one thing. Incomprehensibility defeats the purpose of exhibiting art.