It is not always easy to understand contemporary art - it seems too strange, if not often provocative. That is why some viewers take modern paintings and sculptures at face value. In this article, we will try to tell by example what is the difference between modern art and classical art, what is its trick and why collectors are willing to pay such huge money for some modern paintings.
In 2017, the Pushkin Museum placed "garbage cans", i.e. sculptures by the Recycle group art group, and many visitors were genuinely indignant - how could it all be next to the classics?
However, there were similar outrages back in the XVII century, when Caravaggio dared to write Madonnas from local courtesans, because they easily agreed to pose and took for the work is not too expensive. But all this caused considerable indignation on the part of "good believers" and now the works of the genius artist are taken out of the church, and he himself is threatened with terrible penalties.
Caravaggio. Madonna with a Snake.
And the Impressionists from a much more civilized XIX century. "The design of the wallpaper looks more attractive than their daub." - this is the verdict of typical Parisian philistines, enraptured by Bouguereau's paintings in the academic style. Well, let there be a minimum of innovation there, and all the plots have already been used by artists many times, but what a technique.
William-Adolphe Bouguereau. The Birth of Venus
It got to the point that pregnant women were strongly discouraged from looking at Impressionist paintings, especially Edouard Manet's "Breakfast on the Grass" - in case they had a miscarriage from such a lewd spectacle.
Edouard Manet's "Breakfast on the Grass."
There is no telling how people will perceive the works of Recycle group in the future. By the way, they were at least 100 years late with the real provocation - then the artist Marcel Duchamp dared to display a toilet bowl for public viewing, calling it a work of art.
Henri Matisse. Dance
Many have seen Matisse's painting "Dance", recognized as an undoubted masterpiece, one version of which hangs in the Hermitage. But what is so special about it? Naked, sloppily painted red-skinned people leading some kind of round dance - to hell with such art.
But a comparison with a similar painting by Rubens, executed in a more classical manner, will help us better understand its meaning.
Left: Henri Matisse. Dance. 1909-1910. The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. Right: Peter Paul Rubens. Rural Dance. 1635.
Rubens depicts the dance, and at a very good level. Everything there is beautiful, realistic, authentic and decorative - an excellent example of "classical" painting.
Matisse expresses dance, and there are reasons for this. The whole point is that since the middle of the XIX century, photography appeared, albeit black and white at first, which took on many pictorial functions. Magazines no longer needed to draw a lot of illustrations from the scene of events - it was enough to get by with a photo, expensive portraits, which earned many artists, often gave way to more budget photographic portraits.
And artists had to convey their creative ideas through images, often abstract or not quite realistic, but still as expressive as possible. "Dance" Matisse - is a painting about the idea of dance, so he removed everything unnecessary to interfere with the general perception. There are only 3 colors and skimpy lines, there is no perspective, no volume, no realism, no proper decorativeness, and they are not needed in this case, but would only interfere with perception, to see the main thing that is in this picture.
Henri Matisse. Music.
Matisse tried to focus on the illusion of weightlessness, impetuosity, and red dancers, depicted with sparing lines, symbolize the passion and self-forgetful energy of the dance.
And if Matisse had painted a "correct" picture, like Rubens, we would not focus on the dance, but on the external attributes - clothes, character, landscape, wondering where these people dance like this, what is their holiday and occasion. This would be a genre painting or a domestic sketch, but not the quintessence of the dance itself.
That is why Matisse's Dance is so popular, while only art historians know about this painting by Rubens, and that is the difference between a true masterpiece and just a good canvas.
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