Modern Art of Glass Bottles

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Did you hear about the two little boys who found themselves in a modern art gallery by mistake? "Quick," said one, "Run! Before they say we did it!" Although this may be a hilarious slap your knee joke, I believe this depicts how society feels about modern art. As a popular saying goes “’Modern art’ is produced by incompetents, sold by charlatans, and bought by ignoramuses!” Why such the skepticism towards current art? Why do art historians and renowned scholars set new art aside in favor of a Monet or Rembrandt? Is the importance of modern art so infinitesimal that it is reduced to child’s play? Or, better yet, is contemporary art worthy enough to be art? Meandering through the Lowe Art Museum, I constantly find myself attracted to the Modern Art section of the museum like a magnet to a refrigerator. More specifically, I am attracted to the piece entitled Shattered Illusions. Shattered Illusions consists of five glass bottles: glass bottles that looked as if they have been around for centuries and endured extensive use by multiple people. The bottles have a yellow tint symptomatic of aging and rigid holes that suggest previous use. Inside of each of these average-sized bottles are figures that represent humans. Each bottle has a different figure; for instance, two of the bottles contain what seem to be females and the other three males. Each figure is tangled helplessly in this relentless coil that protrudes from every direction imaginable like there is no end or hope in sight. The coil wraps around the figures’ extremities, midsection, and neck wanting to choke the life right out of them. In each bottle the figures are struggling with the desire to escape, but not everyone is set free. The center bottle has... ... middle of paper ... ...and mysterious but as Gladwell states “It is one thing to acknowledge the enormous power of snap judgments and thin slices but quite another to place our trust in something so seemingly mysterious” (51). Art has no set characterization so therefore no one could declare whether or not something is art. Art is left up to perception of the viewer and not the opinion of the critic; in quintessence art is indefinable—that is the beauty! Works Cited Esaak, Shelley. “What Is Art?” Art History. About .com. 29 Sept. 2006 Read, Herbert. Art Now. London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1968. Requadt, Water E. “Modern Sculpture: Art or Incompetence?” What Is Art? 2006. 29 Sept. 2006 Richardson, Tony and Nikos Stangos. Concepts of Art. New York: Penguin Books, 1974.

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