Originality And Aesthetics in Art Are All But Practically Dead
I am shocked to discover that young artists have bought into the cynicism of modern art and elevated garbage to a holy realm, just because fraudsters like Jeff Koons are making a lot of money at stealing other people’s art and turning it into kitschy pieces by adding sentimentality to elements that once were moments of beauty.
https://petapixel.com/2017/03/11/artist-plagiarized-french-photographer-naked-sculpture-court-rules/
In the above article we see a b&w photo of two children sharing a touching moment by Jean-François Baudet being turned into a silly ceramic figurine by Jeff Koons for which he gets sued. But since he has made a lot of money fooling people with his kitschy art he can pay the court costs. Young artists quickly came to his defence by suggesting that Koons is great because he exposes kitsch, but that is just a rationalization for creating garbage and making young artists believe that is what they should be doing as well, making them believe that a beautiful photograph of children is something not worthwhile only cynicism rules. No wonder there are so many monsters and cartoons in art now.
Young artists think that touching moments of love and life are kitsch. They are saying that even photographing children, pregnant women, loving couples is in itself kitsch.
Jean-François Baudet is a REAL artist, showing the beauty of life, while Jeff Koons, on the other hand is only a stupid imitator with nothing to say except that life and love are pointless sentimentalities that we should ignore and be left with what? Violence of course…
What concerns me when I posted this article, was the response of young artists who defended Koons and called him great, thinking that because he makes a lot of money he must be doing something right. There is no aesthetic discernment in their evaluations, it is all based on money and fame in our day and age. I am curious what they are teaching young minds in art colleges these days?
Also people like Koons who are regularly sued for plagiarism have given them the permission they sought to simply steal not only ideas but whole styles and almost exact replicas while signing their own name to art pieces. Theft is rampant…corruption is rampant and cynicism is spreading like wild fire. The art world is just a miniature slice of the rest of society, where those same debased values rule.
Originality in thought and in execution is slowly dying in art, by being buried under a mountain of garbage just like our poor earth.
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