Art and Identity: The Museum of Modern Art

An artwork is a reflection of an artist’s idea and imagination. Different art has a different plot. Depending on plot it expresses its own story. An artwork shows its own identities based on its theme. Self identity is a main factor so that the viewer can easily switch their viewing mind based on the piece of artwork.  

An artwork of personal identity expresses the individuality of the character. The character could be the artist him/herself or may be a character from imagination. The artwork should be able to shade a light on to the character to bring its on focus of the artwork. In the exhibition of Cindy Sherman at The Museum of Modern Art I found most of her artwork expressing personal identities. The following piece of artwork is an example of personal identity artwork. In this artwork the artist Cindy Sherman pictured herself at young age. This artwork is showing age of her mind and imaginations.  

Cindy Sherman 

Untitled #466

Year: 2008

An artwork of historical identity expresses some events in history. It should be able to relate the work with life in past. The artwork "Diaries of Milan" by George Condo is a compilation of different lifestyle of people in history. The artwork is not only expressing a single event but also giving an overview of lots to activities of people in past. It is an identity of historical time and place and it differs from the one with personal identity. Their theme totally differ from each other. 

"Diaries of Milan" 

George Condo 

Year: 1984

The following artwork I think represents cultural identity. In the artist is trying to express a party theme. In the artwork the character is dressed up in party outfit holding a cup representing a cup of beer. This is an cultural event of modern lifestyle.

Cindy Sherman

 Untitled #463

Year: 2007-08

All the above artwork has their own individual theme. One way they overlap is they bears an identity. The artwork should have their own capability of expressing their own theme. This is how an artwork becomes  expressive.

Narrative Digital Collage

In this picture I have created a scene where the main character mistakenly landed on another planet. After he landed the law enforcer of that foreign planet is trying to catch him. On the right there is a police officer and his space craft and on the left side there is another officer who is calling for backup . There are few space craft hovering over the main character to keep eye on him. The main character is trying to get into his space car and escape from the planet.

Good Art vs. Bad Art.

What is an art? Common definition says an art is a work produced by skills and imaginations typically expressed in a visual form. From the definition, an art should be able to express itself in order to be a good art. It should have the ability to attract the audience and express itself in such a way that there is no need of further details. This is where the creativity of an artist functions. In my opinion a good art can be anything creatively produced which can express itself and has a meaning behind the visual presentation.

Now talking about bad art, as I said on my first paragraph that an art should have the ability to express itself which directly shows the properties of a bad art. So an art which fails to express itself to the audience and the audience doesn't have any sense of what the art tries to express which in my opinion is a bad art.
  

In my opinion this is an example of good art. This art from my point of view says a story of a girl who is a master in solving Rubik's cube.

This picture is an example of bad art in my opinion. I didn't understand what the artist was trying to express.


Picture credit: First one is taken from "http://www.scottmcd.net/artanalysis/?p=655"
                      Second picture is taken from "http://www.museumofbadart.org/collection/recent11.php"