Artspeaking topic
Put a child's drawing next to a famous abstract painting and most people cannot tell them apart, yet one hangs in a museum and the other on a fridge. How does the same image become genius in one place and scribble in another? Is value decided by the image, or by the story?
— context and authenticity in art / Abstract Expressionism
practice with this topic
Set the timer (5-30 min), take 20 seconds of prep if you like, start talking. Jot your thoughts onto the sticky-note board.
similar topics
- The birth of conceptual art: can the idea behind a work be more valuable than the object itself?
- How did Rembrandt's mastery of chiaroscuro and sense of movement in 'The Night Watch' transform the tradition of the group portrait?
- Do Andy Warhol's 'Marilyn Diptych' and Campbell's soup cans criticize consumer culture and fame in the language of Pop Art, or celebrate them?
- A composer who went deaf wrote the greatest works of his life without ever hearing them; he 'heard' the notes only inside his head. Is music made with the ear, or is music born in the mind before it ever reaches the ear?
- Before they can even speak, and without being taught, babies prefer soft curves to sharp corners. It is as if the rule 'round is safe, sharp is danger' comes built in. How much of our aesthetic taste is culture, and how much is survival instinct?