Modern Art
“Lidless Eye” by Adrian Ghenie
The Lidless Eye is a 2018 mixed media collage piece by Adrian Ghenie. This piece stood out to me because on the MOMA’s virtual gallery, the work was smaller and initially I only recognised the original portrait by Van Gogh. By incorporating and basing his new artwork on a very recognisable painting, I feel that Ghenie deliberately is able to control a certain aspect of how a viewer will receive his image. A museum goer will already have a past recognition with Van Gogh’s piece and therefore hold some sort of connection with Ghenie’s.
The tile “The Lidless Eye” relates to the cut and pasted papers incorporated into the subjects face to replace certain traits. These papers’ images are very difficult to determine but after some analysis, they are recognisable as cut outs of snakes. Van Gogh’s right eye is replaced by a snake’s eye which depicts the large difference in eyes of humans versus snakes. This directly connects with the title.
“Untitled” by Robert Gober
It is very difficult for me to choose a piece that I really dislike because as soon as I see artwork and start criticizing its simplicity or lack of aesthetics, I am hit with some sort of emotion relating to the title or its relationship to its neighboring pieces. I find that the only artwork that really feels unlikable is the art that was not meant to be art in the first place. (That being said, some of my favorite things to collect are little sketches or rough drafts so that’s not really true either)
An untitled piece by Robert Gober was made with graphite and pastel and it is relatively unimpressive technique-wise and does not really add to the artist’s previous reputation as a sculpture. Gober is known for realistic sculpting of body parts, food, or structures with ominous energy. I feel that this untitled piece may have been a plan or quick drawing to influence a future sculpture. The reason I do not think that this piece should hold a place in the Museum of Modern Art is that it does not instill any sort of emotion in me as a viewer. It only makes me wonder why it's in the gallery at all and conclude that it must not really be a piece of art but a reminder of the artist’s studio process.
:Love is in the Bin” by Bansky
An incredibly famous and respected artist who is not featured in the MOMA is Banksy. Known for his counter culture and stunt pulling street art, Banksy does not often use a conventional setting to display his artwork. I think that his piece “Love is in the Bin” is a very remarkable piece that greatly represents certain aspects of modern art. This piece is most notable because it was sold at auction for millions of dollars before being shredded and then consequently gained even more value. This is very telling of the state of modern art in that it is almost entirely based around the art market world. Art has been surrounded by financial aspects for centuries with religious commissions or portraits of nobility, but I am reminded of the lesson on the Baroque period where Peter Paul Rubens was credited with prompting the first value of quantity over quality in his studio where assistants completed large amounts of work for him to sell through a sort of marketing agent. Since this sort of capital-based artwork, art has become entirely based on financial value as Banksy comments on in his piece. I understand modern art to be a combination of the hundred years of accomplishments from various periods of art and the cynical or at least well-rounded perspective that most contemporary artists hold.