Art Trends - Not!
by Barbara Schwab
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"Top 5 Art Trends of 2015 In the market for some new artwork to fill your home…" The headline of this story from Dot & Bo makes me uneasy.
This screen shot of the Dot and Bo story teaser headline. Top 5 Art Trends of 2015, set off my personal uneasy meter. Source: Dot & Bo
It has provoked me to try and explore why.
I grew up in an artist family, real deal artists, so the idea of top trends in art seems cheap. This is marketing crap. So this brings to mind how is it that imitation art, art selected by colors to go with my sofa, etc. were probably joked about among Cézanne and his buddies as they are among artists today. The commercialization of art has always been inherent, and in terms of trends we are in search of new visual highs with our insatiable Internet appetite for “style.”
Yesterday, I was looking up Klee and Kandinski online and noticed a link to buy a photographic printout of a painting in 20” x 30” have it framed and delivered for a surprisingly low price. I was actually strongly considering buying one to hang and experience for myself. I have always enjoyed posters of artists work and have enjoyed designing some. Although commercial, a promotional for a museum, show or musical tour, is like Toulouse-Lautrec promoting the Moulin rouge.
Commercialism and art seem to be mixed up. The idea of the artist creating commercial works has ancient roots, as artists are usually poor and rich people hire them. Periods in art and the ways we change tastes and fashion through out history determine what it is to be stylish, what to own, which artists are hot, and what furniture we will sit and dine on.
The most fabulous collections are most often build by people who have means, and although I can purchase a online print to enjoy of a work by Kandinski it is not the same as experiencing real art by real artists. Go to an art museum, and see the real pieces, they have a power and spirit that can be enlightening.
Beautiful things can also be collected by searching hard and continuously, with not much money but mostly passion. Investing in young artists whose work you like is also a way to enjoy original works of art in your environment.
I also was struck by the catch phase from the story “in the market for new artwork to fill your home.” I think artwork is something you want to collect over a lifetime, not the art flavor of the month club.
Everything hung on the wall does not need to be an original piece of artwork. You can hang your bicycle rims on the wall and it will be interesting. We all get a little too serious about all this.
Be creative have fun. Forget what’s in style, trending or otherwise. Better yet, get out to your local art center or museum. Take a class, go see art and you will come to understand and see things about art and choose what’s trending for yourself.
So lets talk about the 5 trends in art today.
What’s trending, Cats and Kittens!?
I am trending “Mondrian.” I painted this one myself which is a representation of: Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue, Piet Mondrian, 1930.
I painted this as a prop for a photo about primary colors. It is not to be confused with real art, a bad copy is even too kind, but it was fun.
Picture at top of page: Painting by Vasily Kandinsky, Dominant Curve, April 1936, Oil on canvas, Dimensions: 50 7/8 x 76 1/2 inches (129.2 x 194.3 cm).
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. ©2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris
This screen shot of the Dot and Bo story teaser headline. Top 5 Art Trends of 2015, set off my personal uneasy meter. Source: Dot & Bo It has provoked me to try and explore why.
I grew up in an artist family, real deal artists, so the idea of top trends in art seems cheap. This is marketing crap. So this brings to mind how is it that imitation art, art selected by colors to go with my sofa, etc. were probably joked about among Cézanne and his buddies as they are among artists today. The commercialization of art has always been inherent, and in terms of trends we are in search of new visual highs with our insatiable Internet appetite for “style.”
Yesterday, I was looking up Klee and Kandinski online and noticed a link to buy a photographic printout of a painting in 20” x 30” have it framed and delivered for a surprisingly low price. I was actually strongly considering buying one to hang and experience for myself. I have always enjoyed posters of artists work and have enjoyed designing some. Although commercial, a promotional for a museum, show or musical tour, is like Toulouse-Lautrec promoting the Moulin rouge.
Commercialism and art seem to be mixed up. The idea of the artist creating commercial works has ancient roots, as artists are usually poor and rich people hire them. Periods in art and the ways we change tastes and fashion through out history determine what it is to be stylish, what to own, which artists are hot, and what furniture we will sit and dine on.
The most fabulous collections are most often build by people who have means, and although I can purchase a online print to enjoy of a work by Kandinski it is not the same as experiencing real art by real artists. Go to an art museum, and see the real pieces, they have a power and spirit that can be enlightening.
Beautiful things can also be collected by searching hard and continuously, with not much money but mostly passion. Investing in young artists whose work you like is also a way to enjoy original works of art in your environment.
I also was struck by the catch phase from the story “in the market for new artwork to fill your home.” I think artwork is something you want to collect over a lifetime, not the art flavor of the month club.
Everything hung on the wall does not need to be an original piece of artwork. You can hang your bicycle rims on the wall and it will be interesting. We all get a little too serious about all this.
Be creative have fun. Forget what’s in style, trending or otherwise. Better yet, get out to your local art center or museum. Take a class, go see art and you will come to understand and see things about art and choose what’s trending for yourself.
So lets talk about the 5 trends in art today.
What’s trending, Cats and Kittens!?
I am trending “Mondrian.” I painted this one myself which is a representation of: Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue, Piet Mondrian, 1930.
I painted this as a prop for a photo about primary colors. It is not to be confused with real art, a bad copy is even too kind, but it was fun.
Picture at top of page: Painting by Vasily Kandinsky, Dominant Curve, April 1936, Oil on canvas, Dimensions: 50 7/8 x 76 1/2 inches (129.2 x 194.3 cm).
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. ©2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris