oh no, i don't think i am more "informed", i think it's a really personal thing... i really love art, kind of live and breathe it a lot lol
i kind of ended up specialising in art history up to the early to mid 1900s, mostly around the collections in Paris museums like the Louvre, Orangerie, Pompidou, Orsay and Versailles lol, and have grown to love them, some of those paintings and sculptures really come alive and i find them so moving... love a wide range of stuff really, from the ancient classics, thru to the more contemporary art... realism thru to abstract... i'm not fussy lol
but yeah i absolutely agree with you - sometimes i just can't get my head around things - i really really really hate the pretentious stuff, and a LOT of it is very formulaic - there's a lot of cynicism involved, especially by some of those in the industry who know how the formula works, so you end up with the nonsense with no depth or artistry behind it, just pseudo-intellectual money-making hoo ha lol sometimes it feels to me like the emperor's new clothes
out of some of the recent high-profile Brit artists, Tracey Emin for instance - well i just don't have time for that kind of self-indulgent crap, and i have trouble with Damien Hirst too as i feel he lacks draftsmanship - sure he had a good idea in the past, but he's certainly milked it and repeated himself endlessly, and his recent "paintings" have been quite an eye-opener, not in a good way lol
Banksy though i really like - i do like his humour - he did an amazing show at the Bristol museum not long ago - i didn't manage to see it but wish i had... i think it's nice he's been able to get some humour into the art world...
speaking of which, have you heard of the "Turnip Prize"? - it's a piss-take on the Turner Prize, which also annoys me sometimes... but the Turnip Prize is very funny - some of the entries are hilarious! the art world really does take itself too seriously sometimes, and i am guilty of that as well, so a bit of humour and irreverence is very welcome ha
ps- i just slapped my wrists, it's Millais' Ophelia, i got the spelling wrong - Millet is a different painter lol both wonderful though...
ok... enough of my rambling - i could rabbit on for hours spouting crap like this lol
eta: here's the link to the Turnip Prize - i swear i'm going to try and enter it one year haha
http://www.turnipprize.com/
lmfao!!!
The Turnip Prize
The Turnip Prize is the antidote to the Turner Prize, an art competition based in the UK which annually dazzles the public of the World with a dire tribe of pseudo artistic litter.
As the artistic press gasp and feign in awe as a line of what appears to be a line degenerates and fruitcakes queue up in front of the world to give verbose justifications about how their "piece" should be "appreciated" by everyone and what "inspired" it. The rest of us just stand gaping at the wanton peddling of crap and are then astonished as some "more money than sense" business man snaps up the winner's output for hundreds of thousands.
Lets face it, the Turner prize set out to be new, innovative and shocking, maybe even anti establishment. Now it is the establishment, if they wanted to be really shocking they should give it to someone who actually shows some talent and ability (and someone normal with no obvious outward psychological problems)....
Whilst the motto of the Turner Prize appears to be "We know its art, but is it shit?" the Turnip Prize clearly states its motto as "We know its shit, but is it art?"