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I've always enjoyed Christo's work. I think he is a true original - no one else - that I know of - has done what he's done. I think it's very interesting how his work forces us to see a landscape (Running Fence for instance), in a new way. Or his Wrapped Reichstag or Wrapped Pont Neuf- what a concept. - to see a famous, - HUGE - landmark piece of architecture completely wrapped in fabric - it forces us to reassess the thing itself, it's often beautiful to look at - and it's just so much fun!
Now I agree with Kimber that there is a lot of ...poop - out there (literally!). In fact most of what I see as modern or "post-modern" "art" isn't very interesting, or it's self-indulgent, or, occasionally, it's vulgar or obscene. Certainly, "art" that is simply designed to shock has run it's course, thankfully. But to dismiss everything from Impressionism on - I think it's like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I think there are some great works from Impressionism, Fauvism, Abstract Expressionism.... This is our history, a history of revolution, exploration, experimentation, innovation...Even if most of it is garbage, not all of it is. I see here and there among certain representational artists an attitude that seems...reactionary in an almost militant way - as if there is a war going on between representational and "modern" art. Their rhetoric sounds politicized - and familiar - the Salon defenders of the late nineteenth century. I can understand the concern of the writers and critics then, at the dawn of Impressionism...but now? - it almost seems comical.
Representational art does not need defending. If it represents the highest form of art, it will last. Whatever is crap will not. There is poop everywhere.. literature, cinema, television, politics....art. Why dwell on it? Isn't it better to spend our precious days searching for that which is noble and beautiful in the art that we ourselves are moved to create?
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