WHICH IS THE “ODD MAN OUT”?

 

A Kandinsky, a Picasso, a Knox Martin, African art and a Ben Lau in their order of appearance. Which is the “Odd Man Out” ? I have an answer and an analysis at the end of this posting.

 

 

Answer and analysis: If you have picked African Art– understandable to a certain extent as it is “primitive art”– not a product of the contemporary West and because of that it has become your “Odd Man”. That assessment unfortunately would have made you a blind ass— in the same category of the posmodernists in Academia– who can only see “cultural significance” in “art”.

    If you have picked Ben Lau because he is a virtual unknown entity–understandable! It is true that hardly anyone has seen Ben’s work before. The other artists are famous in various degrees.

    In that sense you are 100% correct but that assessment would have made you a person of blindness and snobbishness– because you are overly concerned with the price of Art inside a frame. Your eyes are only sensitive to money– not art!

     If you have picked Knox Martin–and I do not see any truly legitimate reason for picking Knox as the “Odd Man”–unless of course, if one is weak- minded enough…

     I don’t see the slightest reason in  picking Picasso as the “Odd Man “  but one can always get funny surprises! Yes–one has to be a complete fool to do that! I have seen people mistaking Mickey Mouse for their dates–and that actually occurred in real life, too! 

    Talking about fools,the painting by Kandinsky is the only thing left. Really, Mr. Kandinsky should not have been in a business even remotely associated with art, being such a boring person as he. But History has informed us that Kandinsky just had enough dumb luck to get him going–eventually he was able to come home to tell  Mom that he’d got it made! Remember the name Clement Greenberg ?– He was the “Bishop” in Academia who put Kandinsky on the map.

       Trust your intuitions,which are your best friends in judging artistic merits! A thousand years from now, a person from a museum must pick among this group and he must throw the bum out. Say you are that person. You probably won’t know the names of their authors anyway, time has a way of putting everything in perspective: Oblivion is the order of the day. One has only one’s instuitions left to rely on. The name Greenberg would have probably become too inconsequential to come to the aid of this awful Kandinsky. 

       All of the above images except # 1 have strong compositions and great metaphors. The more you look at them, the more you would fall under the spells of their charm and swear your allegiance for them– owing to the complexity in their compositions and the heavenly metaphoric forms sustained therein. But most importantly, your intuitive good taste must have informed you that any human of average intelligence can derive sublime visual pleasure from great Art–that is to say, all being great Art except image # 1.

     What is wrong with  image # 1 then? 

                  Everything!

      Here is my suggestion: when you are home, pour yourself a cup of tea and relax. then look attentively at image # 1 for a certain length of time and ask yourself how that seeing experiment affects you. 

       I bet it would bore the tears out of any sensible person with generally above average intelligence if he is truly serious about his seeing!

       The longer you look at great Art, the more likely is that the complexity within the composition will gradually surface. 

        Conclusion: True Art delights us and uplift our spirit. Fake Art delivers only the mundane and the vulgar. It is certain to bore and depress us.

       

Ben Taishing Lau