Something a little different today. I was asked in TNET to watch this video, and what I thought about it. A quick glimpse informed me that ‘LindyBeige’ is a person who lives to complain. I made it through the modern art hate video, decided to skip the rant about global warming. I’ve known a number of people who live to complain, and I can’t say I’ve cared for them much.

Oh, art. In general, people adore spouting off about art, and the sport of art hating has been going on since forever. That’s what a lot of modern art haters miss – they aren’t super bright and doing something new. I’m pretty comfortable saying there were most likely a host of cave art critics who never shut up, and had a great deal of trouble with that modern art. Every generation – modern art. All that said, most people operate on a “I know what I like” basis when it comes to art of any kind, and that’s fine. I do that myself, even when it comes to work I can appreciate, but don’t particularly like personally. There will always be things which grab you immediately, and things you’ll hate, and things which will leave you cold.

Mr. Beige had a problem with one artist in particular, I wasn’t able to catch the name, but this artist worked with shit, or least that was Mr. Beige’s assumption. [Being told who the artist was, and looking up some of their work, it seems rather doubtful dung of any kind was used.] That got a shrug out of me, because that’s hardly new or unusual. Such art tends to be done in order to make a statement. If you get so hung up on the material, you’ll miss that, and I guess that’s fine, too, you don’t have to ‘get’ everything in the art world.

I did almost snort my tea laughing when Mr. Beige announced, in such a sniffy manner, “It made no attempt to please me.” Spare me, please. Artists are not making the slightest effort to please you, Mr. Beige. I’d say most of us are gratefully unaware of your existence, like I was a short while ago. That’s not what art is about. Well, not most of it anyway. There’s an almost unimaginable amount of art in the world, and only a sliver of it ever gets into shows or museums. If you go looking, you’ll find plenty which manages to please you.

As for Mr. Beige’s “I am so insulted” reading of  Mirsad Begič’s blurb, I would have thought that a professional whinger would be, at the very least, marginally aware of all the pretentiousness in the art world, and know to take it all with a healthy dose of salt. That said, life, love, death? Yes, they all do involve a great deal of shit, on the physical and metaphorical levels.

There was then a very rapid look at some other work, and more complaining. All Mr. Beige saw were works which were made without taking his personal sensibilities into account. I saw a number of works which were thought provoking. One function of art is to make people think, to open up, change, or twist perception. It’s not all about painting a pleasing little picture, and if all you’re after is a pleasing little picture, there’s plenty of that to go around. If you’re a person who is going to get their knickers in a knot over going to a particular show based only on the pretentious blurb, that’s on you. A difficult to please person should learn to do their research.

I see a great deal of art work which I find disturbing on a personal level, but even then, I take the time to find out just what it was the artist was out to express, and view it all through different eyes. I may still not like it, or still find it disturbing, but I generally come away with a more thoughtful understanding, and often, a new perspective. That’s rather the point of art.

As for Mr. Beige, I can’t say I think much of his creative endeavors, but I don’t find whinging to be all that.

The artist who set Mr. Beige off?

Mirsad Begič

Graduate of art, born in Glamoč in Bosnia in 1953. After completing art school he continued his studies at the Academy of Art in Ljubljana, where he graduated from the sculptural department under Professors Zdenko Kalin, Slavko Tihec and Drago Tršar. Between 1982 and 1983 he undertook further training in London at St. Martin’s School of Art.

His creative heritage includes several independent exhibitions and many group exhibitions at home and abroad. He has taken part in various international sculptural symposium and colonies. He lives and works in Ljubljana.

He has received a number of awards for his work, including the Prešeren Award in 2000.

I’m now busy looking at a whole lot of Mr. Begič’s work, and I’d be more than pleased to see any of it in person.