Are Paintings Over?

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R1 I understand why you feel offended.

"OP, I hear you! Hubby and I are in a similar situation. Money is nonexistent. It's hard to get the basics in our town. We moved here three years ago, popultion 2400. In that time, the only grocery store in town closed, a Dollar General opened, and the gas station two blocks away closed to open a shiny new location far on the other side of town (which is not a pedestrian friendly town). As of November, we've been living in a "food desert", we cannot walk to a store to get any food."

But is there a Blick, R2?!?

Can you still walk to a place with oil paint and pre-stretched canvas are readily available?

I look at paintings and feel sooo wealthy!

Dope thread OP. This is why I love DL. Very good question.

[quote]Are Paintings Over?

Ask Mark Rothko. Oh wait...

Winslow Homer makes me feel something but to be fair he's in the spare bedroom.

Paintings are the new Franklin Mint Figurines. No one needs that shit.

Where can I buy paintings? Even the working class used to be able to buy paintings at those hotel liquidation sales. They used to be advertised on late night tv, along with midnight madness carpet sales. I guess those “art fairs” with tents in summertime.

Art major here (drawing and painting). Universities and colleges do exhibits of student work. The students usually will show up for the exhibit. If you see something you like, you can ask the student to sell it to you. Or if you just like the style, you can probably ask them to do a painting for you.

R10 unfortunately I live in the Hamptons. The entire area is saturated with art shows/galleries/exhibits. We’ve had art shows in the local delis. The university (on the edge of bankruptcy) has held art shows. Prices are outrageous.

The local restaurants have “exhibits.” All artwork hanging on the walls is for sale.

Years ago we went to a restaurant and noticed a photo on the wall had the name of our friend’s artist sister on it. It was a pretty dull Lester landscape and I can’t remember if it was a b&W photo or an etching. We thought we’d buy it to help her out. It was $800. In the 1990s. We don’t have that kind of money for a small black and white piece.

[quote] It was a pretty dull Lester landscape

*Water* landscape. I do fucking hate Apple After thr latest iOS update the spellcheck went crazy and my cursor deletes words when I try to go back and change a letter..

I think a Lester landscape would be wonderful!

Still curious about how many DLers cream themselves over paintings anymore. I mean, they make you feel things, but hasn't the art itself become a disgusting, capitalistic, status jerk circle?

P2 Who are you quoting?

Idk OP, 2 years ago I witnessed an older woman weep in front of the Mona Lisa at the Louvre......

Sorry.

R2 Who are you quoting?

"I like them but lets face it, they are not the apex of civilization anymore".

Who says they ever were? Do you consider painting more important than literature, music, sculpture, architecture?

A history book you read. A painting you view.

R16 Mona Lisa is a perfect example. A tiny painting enclosed in plexiglass surrounded by mobs. The only way you could feel something is relief that your ordeal is over.

But that has nothing to do with the quality of the Mona Lisa.

Mona Lisa is a weak example. It's like the Eiffel Tower, a sight to tick off on your list of must sees in Paris. By following the herd you're contributing to that mob.

[quote]But that has nothing to do with the quality of the Mona Lisa

And the mobs are there because of the 'quality' of the painting, not because it was a stop on the bus tour.

My argument is that paintings don't function in the same way that they did in the past. The mobs are there not because they feel things but because they are told to feel things. Paintings aren't art anymore, they're a hobby.

They're a hobby, for who?

Your argument makes no sense. When do you think this decline/change began?

In a post-SSRI world I guess feeling anything about anything is up for grabs for some of you zombies. Vincent van Gough would've never existed in your paradigm. So the answer is "yes". Feel better?

Gogh*

You're a bit late to the party, OP.

[quote]Vincent van Gough would've never existed in your paradigm.

It's not that he doesn't exist, but he doesn't have the same impact. I bow to no man in my admiration for Van Gogh, but who can top him and his fellow genuses?

Paintings are colorful dabs on surfaces, objects to put on walls because they match your color scheme or trumpet your wealth. Paintings don't change things anymore.

Van Gogh didn't change things until after his death, R27. His work had ZERO impact in his lifetime.

What did Van Gogh change R28?

His techniques directly contributed to the development of Fauvism and Expressionism. The two earliest styles of the 20th Century.

R30 So what?

His stools were more interesting than you on your best day, R31.

So, R31, I'm answering your question. His technique and use of colour would influence leading modernists who totally upended painting- changing the course of art history

For certain painters, yes. People today want only a small number of trendy artists.

Art galleries across the US are experiencing considerable downturns in sales.

What I mean about that is the kind of original art you would buy as a decorating item, not as an investment.

Some people familiar with it think it is because the same class of people (middle-middle to upper-middle class people) are blowing such a huge pile of money on new electronic toys every year (new phone, new pad, and new tv for each and every member of the household), not to mention cable/netflix/fiber expenses, and that $5,000 you would splurge on an art item is no longer there.

"Art galleries across the US are experiencing considerable downturns in sales."

Every second person with a paintbrush on instagram is an 'artist' now. The aim is for instant gratification on the part of the viewer and instant visibility for the artist.

Art galleries are experiencing the impact of people preferring to view art on their phones.

A painting is either a financial instrument or a decorative wall covering, leaving everybody who owns one feeling anxious or duped. Big money ruined the visual arts.

There are too many people on the Earth and too much of their lives are lived online for physical things to have widespread value anymore. Society agrees on absolutely nothing anymore and people live in their own algorithm-driven, neon world. So each person has to experience and enjoy art for themselves and MAYBE share it with extremely close friends or family. But be realistic and expect that most of them won’t know or care what you’re talking about. In a world where nothing can just be “good” anymore, some things just aren’t meant for the masses. Same thing with classical music which I love with all my heart. It matters to me and that has to be enough.

I used to love Mozart and now he bores me, "good" as I know he is. Nowadays I love 20th century "classical" music that I couldn't stand. Maybe people are stuck emotionally today and that's the real issue.

Paintings are out. Vinyl wall quotes are in.

[quote] Idk OP, 2 years ago I witnessed an older woman weep in front of the Mona Lisa at the Louvre......

I had the entire nation fingering themselves to one of my songs.

Music seems pretty played out as well, no pun intended. There's a finite number of notes in arrangements.

I want DL to come up with a new art form.

Are millennials broke?

Or maybe stop putting paintings in museums and let people experience them in their mundane lives.

Museums used to be free. What happened? Who are we trying to keep out? Why?

I'm not sure why I should go through the hassle of airplane travel to stare at something in a crowd of people. What's the point of looking at objects that other people decided are precious?