Boring Art

You can have too much of a good thing, and there is such a thing as boring art. I'm the first to admit that there's not much that's more subjective than art, but there's a lot of bad art out there. While I applaud all the artists who are working and struggling to create something new and original, I'm really tired of all the art that looks exactly the same.

Since the beginning of time, artists have painted the same subjects over and over again. And lots of times they've painted them in similar styles. How many Madonna and Child scenes are there in this world? Or images of St. Sebastian? When the Pope and the Church told you what to paint, you had to do it. In 2010, you don't. The world is the artist's oyster, which is why I'm so sick of seeing the following everywhere I go:

1. Realistically depicted animals suspended on a black background. I'm the first to admit that I was quite intrigued when I first saw these. That was in the early 1990s. Now there is a whole school of artists who must make it their business to paint a trout (fish are particularly popular), a sheep, or a sparrow situated on a black background. I suppose when restaurants snap these up like hot cakes, why not?

2. Muted landscapes in autumnal tones. Particularly prevalent are a flat foreground with several trees, blurred, hazy sunlight, and a highly lacquered canvas. 200 years from now, dealers will have a field day with these. I can hear them now, "In the early 21st century, every well-to-do American had one of these landscapes in their family room."

3. Abstracted, whimsically colored landscapes. The Fauves were great at using color in unexpected ways. Who can't help but love Derain's orange and green skies. To the rest of us, let's give this a rest for a while. How many department stores can you walk into and see a "bold" landscape with purple trees and yellow skies. Enough.

I have the utmost respect for working artists. It's a tough road, and not one that I could follow. But art should be original, and I wish the working artists out there would respect their own inner creativity enough to come up with something new and different. It might not be as marketable, but who knows? It could be the next salmon on a black background.