The Supertrash Culture Thread

[broneck]

So this is a thread for all the stupid bohunks like me who don't understand certain artistic endeavours and need to be spoonfed the stuff. If anyone else is culturally limited, feel free to join in.

I honestly need Matthew Barney explained to me. I need to know if anyone on here takes him seriously, and I need to know why GQ listed him in their "Legacies" of the past 50 years. I hope the answer is pseudo-intellectualism. Please help me. I'm not trying to change and start loving this shit or anything, I just need to know why things like this exist and if there is any actual merit/meaning/etc.

Smart people go.

more questions will follow. i'm concerned that this is a big one though.

[sawyer]

GQ

this is your first problem, taking GQ seriously

[ProfMonnitoff]

i think you have to see matthew barney's shit in person to really appreciate it. he had an exhibition in vienna a while ago and while i maybe didn't "get" it, everything was amazing to look at. a fucking stranded boat made of wax! also seeing videos of how he works really puts things in context.

i haven't really seen anything by him except for the "drawing restraint" series.

i know you dont speak german but this is a decent look into the stuff he did for that exhibition

[surfed57]

Matthew Barney's videos loaded with symbolism and an underlying meaning, but part of the point of it, at least as far as I know, is that you don't necessarily have to get/understand the symbolism for it to be a valid artistic experience. The imagery is enough on its own.

[Tyro1]

ok... I know his movies probably arent rated here anyway, but what's the deal with Vincent Gallo?

Why is that guy famous? He's an intense looking guy, with a paedo voice? Brown bunny? what the fuck was that movie about?

[kunk75]

^he's famous cause he's fucking nuts and generally awesome but his movies suck royal dick.

for what it's worth, here are my favorite artists:

francis bacon

edward keinholz

bruce nauman

cindy sherman

goya

[bouwnt]

not all gallo's films were bad.

buffalo 66 is one of my all time favourites

[sawyer]

^he's famous cause he's fucking nuts and generally awesome but his movies suck royal dick.

for what it's worth, here are my favorite artists:

francis bacon

edward keinholz

bruce nauman

cindy sherman

goya

run from fear

fun from rear

[gramps]

Kunk, good list. I was reading a Nauman retrospective just yesterday after I found out a bunch of quotes from him were used in this Mungo Thompson exhibit I dig.

These days I'm really into:

Raymond Pettibon

Rothko

Stan Brakhage

Rembrandt

Cai Guo-Qian

[landho]

I was going to fly to NY to watch all the Cremaster movies when they came out, but then they released it in Austin! So lucky. Watched the entire cycle over three days.

Also, this book is a good starting place.

[landho]

P.S. Clopek, get your ass back to your book club!

[broneck]

i'm reading books that the book club isn't reading

[mspark]

some favs of mine:

Basquiat

Warhol

Chris Ofili

Flavin

Rembrandt

Goya

Jasper Johns

Kara Walker

Kerry James Marshall

[kunk75]

can't rep but he is awesome. gramps, good calls as well. i'm not as up to snuff on contemp art as i should be, but i still paint and painting for me kind of begins and ends with bacon. love rothko as well.

run from fear

fun from rear

[kunk75]

i'll get shit but i don't get radiohead at all. don't see anything new or novel or anything really.

[capa]

i'll get shit but i don't get radiohead at all. don't see anything new or novel or anything really.

I like Radiohead but at the same time I don't get why they're such a big deal :confused:

I like Ok Computer and In Rainbows, but don't understand why everyone praises Kid A so much. It has some decent tunes but idk, I guess it's just over my head. Every time I listen to it, I think that listening to music shouldn't be this hard. Someone tell me why it's so great.

[landho]

I like Radiohead but at the same time I don't get why they're such a big deal :confused:

I like Ok Computer and In Rainbows, but don't understand why everyone praises Kid A so much. It has some decent tunes but idk, I guess it's just over my head. Every time I listen to it, I think that listening to music shouldn't be this hard. Someone tell me why it's so great.

What Radiohead did with Kid A is similar to what Talking Heads did with Fear of Music or Remain in Light: they synthesized a lesser-known genre of music with more-mainstream pop. Some argue that Radiohead was watering down musical pathways already explored by Autechre, Aphex Twin, et al., but that's not really true, as they saw minimal electronic music in a way that those other bands never did.

[kunk75]

being a big fan of autechre is part of why i don't get radiohead. nothing new IMO.

[landho]

being a big fan of autechre is part of why i don't get radiohead. nothing new IMO.

Synthesis can be original, too.

[High Monika]

some favs of mine:

Basquiat

Warhol

Chris Ofili

Flavin

Rembrandt

Goya

Jasper Johns

Kara Walker

Kerry James Marshall

I will never pretend to know anything about fine art but from everything I've seen and read, I genuinely dislike Basquiat.

[Lab]

what is neo-dada.

[salaryman]

As I understand it, its known for the use of normal everyday or found objects to critique or comment on society--politics in particular. In this way its like Pop Art, but its also known for iconoclastic performance art, rebellion against traditional cultural standards.

[mspark]

the most well known Dadaist is probably Marcel Duchamp. The movement mainly dealt with the recontextualizing of banal,everyday objects to make them "art". His most famous piece was The Fountain, a urinal mounted on a gallery wall.

[Tyro1]

/\ I think he described it as ready made art. Art, not because how it was made or by who, but art because it was selected by him for a certain purspose.

[mspark]

^^zactly^^