16
How to Care About Contemporary Art
If you recently saw coverage of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's
The Gates
contemporary art project in New York's Central Park on mainstream network news and thought it looked like a waste of time and money, well, you may be right and you're entitled to your opinion.
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But you're probably also the sort who rolls your eyes when forced to attend a museum housing anything other than paintings of frigates in heavy seas or dogs playing poker. What is it with these "artists" who think they can paint something just blue and get away with it? Why would anyone care about an apparently random assault of leftover paints and twigs on a perfectly good wall? If you've thought, "I could do that, and if I can do it-it ain't art," then give it a shot. Once you've realized that drawing like a child or making a surface convincingly monochrome is a lot harder than it looks, you're ready to find out why someone would do such a thing and how it could be relevant to your life. Relax, no need to admit it to your friends and co-workers just yet.
Do it yourself:
Surrender a lunch break or a lazy Sunday afternoon and pay a visit to the Museum of Fine Arts (107 W. Palace Ave., 476-5072) or SITESanta Fe (1606 Paseo de Peralta, 989-1199). Instead of shaking your head in silent confusion or disgust, arrange to tour the exhibition with a docent. Feel free to ask just what the hell is going on. They'll tell it to you straight and it might even make sense.
