Today I hit the SFMOMA with a few hours to kill. As usual I left feeling pretty disappointed and blue, which often happens when I go there. I’m not quite sure what it is but I always end up thinking, “boring, lame, not interested, crap…” I should walk in to the museum giving my apologies to the artists in advance, it's terrible.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love art with all my heart and soul. When I was a little kid I never thought of what I wanted to be when I grew up because I always knew I wanted to be an artist, it was just a given not to be questioned. I got my degree from a prestigious art school, I’ve had my share of exhibitions and although my life has taken a different direction and I’m not in the studio all day, there are not many things that I hold closer to my heart than my love of creativity and the arts.
But man, there is a lot of bad art out there. And just because it's in a museum doesn't mean it's good. Really, who am I to judge, art is subjective and in the eye of the beholder, blah, blah, blah... But to me a piece should grab you from across the room and pull you in. It should make you giddy with delight, your heart swell up with hope, your mind overflow with inspiration, your body fill with calm or flight, challenge your perspective and perhaps make your eyes swell with tears (mind you not all these things at once). But simply stated, you should be moved by art and I see very little that moves me these days. Maybe I’m looking in the wrong place, I don’t know? Maybe my life is too over saturated and over stimulated to be uplifted by art. But I know when I see and love a piece because it hits me, and nothing has really hit me for awhile.
I see work that is analytical and visually uninspired, work that had been done before and merely replicated, and the fear and challenge that goes with deeply exploring new idea is painfully obvious. So what’s an art lover to do about it? I'm not quite sure I have an answer. Simply look more? But to wade through all this bad art is painful and monotonous. Perhaps I should just sit back and the good art will come to me? Brilliant art is out there for me to soak up, so I know when I find it, it will be all the more worth it.