1. Andres, not David Serrano.
2. Judging by the various descriptions, I think people are talking about Contemporary rather than Modern art.
3. Why are some things art and some things not? I think a better question would be, Why is some art commercially succesful? Or perhaps, What is art and what is merely decoration?
What distinguishes paving stones in a museum from paving stones on your patio? For one thing, they are in a museum, and not in a patio. The context is different and important. This is particularly true of site-specific installations, but is generally true of all art. The context is partly the geographic and physical space in which the art is exhibited, is partly the intention of the artist, and is partly the perception of the viewer.
Paving stones in a gallery might have to do with a number of things: perhaps it's meant to draw attention to the physical property of the materials, perhaps it is a commentary on the relegation of the manual arts to a reduced status relative to the fine arts, perhaps the artist conceived of it as a sort of homage to his father who was a builder.
When confronted by a work in which the artist's intentions are incomprehensible to me, I generally try to look at the physical properties of the piece. Some minimalist work, such as large color fields, offers very little beyond the impact of that particular color of paint and the texture of the surface of the canvas. I for one find it very pleasurable to sometimes stop whatever else I'm doing or thinking about and just enjoy a particular color. Paving stones are almost too rich visually, don't you think? And I like the way the smell. |
