Can't We Just Admit That Modern Art Is Garbage?

I have to say something that needs to be said: Modern art is mostly garbage.

This week, the internet was abuzz over a story that some famous modern art painting by Piet Mondrian, called “New York City I,” has been hanging upside down for decades.

This painting by Piet Mondrian was apparently hung upside for decades, and no one realized it. pic.twitter.com/XeBxe2F3gH

— Margolis & Cox (@MargolisandCox) October 31, 2022

“‘New York City I’ has long been shown with the thickest cluster of lines at the bottom of the frame, according to an exhibition catalog from the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, the German gallery that acquired the painting in 1980. The museum is hosting an exhibition dedicated to Mondrian’s work,” reports CNN. “But a photo of the work in Mondrian’s studio shows the painting with the reverse orientation — suggesting this might be how the artist wanted it to be shown.”

Mondrian died in 1944, so we can’t ask him how it’s supposed to hang, and frankly, who cares? The painting is garbage.

For sure, there are plenty of hoity-toity progressive art fanatics who will insist that art is in the eye of the beholder, and that may be true to an extent. But there’s a world of difference between comparing impressionism to realism and comparing modern art to virtually every other style of art there is.

Related: Obama Worship Continues With Barack’s Emmy Win

Modern art can be pretty much anything that consists of two ingredients: 1) zero talent and 2) a gullible audience convinced of its value.

A case in point is perhaps one of the more famous examples of modern art sculpture, Marcel Duchamp’s 1917 piece called “Fountain,” which is literally a urinal hung on the wall and signed. According to Wikipedia, “The work is regarded by art historians and theorists of the avant-garde as a major landmark in 20th-century art.”

It’s as if art admirers and critics have become real-life subjects of the emperor with no clothes, insisting they see something wonderful because they want to prove how enlightened they are — or in the case of Hunter Biden’s artwork, to justify an apparent influence-for-sale scheme.

Who am I to judge what art is? Well, in an alternate universe, I might have become an artist. As a kid, I had an appreciation for art and even some talent for it. More than once, I was voted “class artist” despite being otherwise socially invisible. I was far more likely to take private art lessons or visit a gallery than participate in sports.

I also have eyes and can see when something is garbage or requires zero talent to create. Jackson Pollack may be one of the most famous abstract expressionist painters in history, but his work is garbage, too.

Many years ago, I went to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, N.Y., and one of the most memorable moments for me was seeing the Joseph Marioni piece called “Yellow Painting,” which is literally a canvas covered in yellow paint.

Joseph Marioni, "Yellow Painting" (1997)

This is actually hanging in a museum. pic.twitter.com/lun6bPdIPt

— Margolis & Cox (@MargolisandCox) October 31, 2022

It’s garbage. Don’t pretend otherwise.

The modern art movement may have preceded the “participation trophy” culture that has become prevalent in recent decades, but the two are no doubt related. Suck at sports? Don’t worry, we’ll stop keeping score and give everyone a trophy. Don’t have any artistic talent? Don’t worry, there’s a rich liberal out there just waiting to prove how cultured they are by buying your piece-of-crap painting or sculpture for thousands of dollars.