The Art world is a funny world isn’t it? There seems to be stories coming along on a regular basis that make you wonder about modern art and what it takes to be considered a brilliant artist.
Imagine your surprise if you were wandering through an art gallery alternatively admiring paintings and trying to make sense of others and suddenly you find yourself sinking into the floor. You have not fallen into a trance and imagining your body sinking deeper into relaxation but you have in fact wandered into an exhibit; an exhibit consisting of a pool of peanut butter. You step out quickly and look around you hoping no one has noticed but alas they have and you are in big trouble!
This in fact happened to a poor man in the Netherlands this week. He was not looking where he was going and trod into the exhibit which consisted of 1100 litres of peanut butter over 14 meters of space. To make matters worse his footprints are being considered damage which he has in fact been asked to pay for.
Now I can find a number of things hilarious about this story. This poor guy is sitting trying to regain his dignity and wipe the peanut butter off his shoes and he is told he is being held responsible for damage? Damage? It was peanut butter; what damage could he possibly have done? I don’t know why they don’t just have a trowel in a bucket next to the exhibit for such mishaps; after all it has happened three times before. It would probably take all of 10 seconds to make the footprints disappear. The Museum insists a fence would ruin the integrity of the piece so many more people may ‘damage’ this amazing work of art. How will the museum cope with the stress?
This brings me nicely to the second thing which I find hilarious about this story. How is a pile of peanut butter (even neatly smoothed over) a work of art? A major obstacle to get around perhaps, but a work of art?
Of course I know what many people will say. I just don’t get it. Art is about so many things and we cannot always see true genius upon first glance, sometimes these simple things are truly brilliant because of the thoughts and feeling behind it etc. etc. Or realistically some rich influential person calls something brilliant and so many other people who do not want to seem ignorant agree enthusiastically.
These people were recently left open mouthed when a new brilliant up and coming artist turned out to be a seven year old girl. Funny that, because the picture of the penguin she drew looked like it was done by a seven year old girl. It was very well done by a seven year old girl but done by a seven year old girl nonetheless. So now is she still a brilliant up and coming artist or do we all now have more integrity when we say of certain artworks, ‘My child could have done better than that?’
Now I am not entirely against all modern art. Art does not have to be a perfectly drawn picture to be art. Sometimes the use of colour and light can be artistic and possible genius even if the work looks like a jumble of different colours. I like Gilbert and George for instance. Yes they use shit to create art but they do so very skilfully. I might not want to put it on my wall but I can see they have talent. Whereas I do not see how it takes any kind of talent to pour jars of peanut butter onto the floor.
But I guess the art world is what it is and this was The Netherlands and we all know that artistic takes on a whole new meaning there. I suppose if certain people look at a pile of Peanut Butter and think it is brilliant then who am I to judge? The thing is I doubt whether if under the influence of truth serum these people would truly say it was brilliant.
Still it gives us all something to laugh about except perhaps for the poor man who has received a bill for damaging a work of art. Of course the other hilarious point about this story is how do you miss a 14 metre expanse of peanut butter?
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