practicing

While ancient art is much easier to appreciate, modern art seems harder to understand and the worst insult of those who don't understand is to not even consider it art. "Nope, that's not art!" My dad would shout as we watch David Dimbleby's Seven Ages of Britain where some very expressive and imaginative artists were featured. I would shout back in my head, "what is art? How can it not be art when it channels fierce emotions?" The artist we disagreed about was Francis Bacon and the piece that made his name: 'Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion'.



It was first displayed after the Second World War (London's Tate I think) and it shows the brutal sufferings endured in the war. At first you can't really tell that it is, except perhaps: is that a chicken or summat in the middle? Then at a closer look, you see distorted parts of the human body combined harsh and grotesque but distinctively animal features. And it is this distortion that screams ruthlessness. There is no vision in the first painting as it is hidden by hair neither on the second for it's been taken away by a blindfold nor the third for the painter excludes eyes altogether, portraying a sense of uncertainty. It's certainly miserable and sad and repulsive and despairing.

Yet I still like it, even if it's not light and fluffy.