Sunday, July 31, 2011

I don't get it

Today we went to the Mendel Art Gallery to check out the display they have on exhibit until September.  It is a collection of 40 photos by Courtney Milne.  If you have never heard of him, he is a photographer from the Saskatoon area who passed away last year.  He had traveled all over the world taking photos for various magazines and published a few photo books during his career. 

The exhibit at the Mendel showcases his 'Pool Project'.  Over 10 years, he spent time photographing the reflections in the pool in their backyard during the different seasons and came away with some amazing shots.  It is hard to believe that some of them are even photographs.  The colours are so vibrant, and some look quite abstract, but they are so beautiful.  I would love to hang them in our house!  I would highly recommend a trip down to check out the Courtney Milne exhibit before it ends around the middle of September.

The part I don't get is the 'art' in their other galleries.  I will admit that I know nothing about art.  I love a beautiful painting.  I don't even mind abstract paintings.  But when there are scribbles that are framed with descriptions talking about how 'clearly this is a depiction of a broken bed, which symbolizes the contrast between life and death' or something of that nature, I find it hard not to scoff.  Or when we walk by not one, but TWO gigantic old tarps hung on the wall.  I commented about how we have some tarps at home that we could bring to the art gallery to hang up.  I was mostly joking, but again, after reading the description that stated that these were indeed old tarps used to hold down loads on big trucks.  The artist took and dirtied them to make the creases and patches on them stand out more.  Uhhhh.....again, I don't get art. 

3 comments:

Jyl said...

I know exactly what you're saying...I just don't get how some things can be considered "art". I had to do an art study during university and my paper was complete BS...it was some abstract piece that I had to critique (at the Mendel) and I remember writing about how the bold lines must represent the oppression of women while the white, soft dabs of paint must have depicted their inherent femininity. Complete crap, but so much fun to write :)

Angie said...

Haha, I love it :)

Dixie said...

We went to the Mendel last week and I LOVED the Milne project. And I totally agree -- that other room with the weird/depressing art, I totally did not get -- and I'm a big fan of weird and depressing things usually! Would love to get one of Milne's pictures for my wall, if we had some money to throw around!