Modern Art is all bosh, isn't it?

In Brideshead Revisted, one of my favourite novels, the following exchange takes place:

‘Charles,’ said Cordelia, ‘Modern Art is all bosh, isn’t it?’

“‘Great bosh.’

“‘Oh, I’m so glad. I had an argument with one of our nuns and she said we shouldn’t try and criticize what we didn’t understand. Now I shall tell her I have had it straight from a real artist, and snubs to her.'”

Evelyn Waugh, himself an artist, probably would not have predicted the level of bosh to which modern art would eventually sink. Here is an exhibition of invisible art currently on display in London:

It looks like the aftermath of a museum robbery.

But this empty sculpture stand is in fact the main attraction at a leading British gallery – and punters will be charged £8 a head to see it.

The ‘work’ was created as a stunt by Andy Warhol and will form part of an exhibition of ‘invisible art’ at London’s Hayward Gallery.

Visitors will be asked to look beyond ‘material objects’ and ‘set their imaginations on fire’ by looking at the empty gallery spaces.

Also included in the 50 ‘invisible works’ will be an empty piece of paper, an empty canvas and an empty space.

Asinine as it is, it may be preferable to this less than appetising portrait of Stephen Harper:

 

11 thoughts on “Modern Art is all bosh, isn't it?

  1. It’s a horrible painting, the proportions are all wrong. Nobody would be paying it the slightest attention if it wasn’t of someone famous.

  2. I’m reminded of the “work of art” in another London art gallery, the Tate Modern, which, to all intents and purposes, is a glass of water on a shelf. However, the “artist” insists that it’s a tree unless and until he says otherwise. I dread to think how much the Tate paid for that…

    • er, “the Tate …” = the taxpayer, us. I thought we were supposed to be in a deep recession, hard up, and our masters had said “we’re all in it together”.

  3. Here’s another one that I saw in the palace of Versailles in 2008. It was an exhibit by Jeff Koons; the curator I spoke to was disgusted by it, but hinted that the only reason for the exhibit was that Koons was friendly with a local politician.

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