Many viewers question nowadays whether modern art can be classified as bad art, or if they just aren’t thinking deeply enough about it. Because of the new demand for pieces that are supposed to represent something, many artists are spending their time working on objectively bad art.  A lot of contemporary art pieces are incredibly simple and lack originality, effort, and authenticity from the artist.

The controversial perception of modern art as actually being bad is being expanded with recent meaningless art pieces, such as Maurizio Cattelan’s “Comedian” and Salvatore Garau’s “Lo Sono.” The first piece mentioned is a banana duct-taped to a wall that sold for $6.2 million, and the latter is a sculpture made of literally nothing so that the viewer can imagine whatever they want in its place. 

Ridiculous pieces like this lack pretty much anything that makes art valuable: the raw, human emotion expressed in the work, the effort that the artist put into a piece, and the creativity that an artist needs to create a work that is actually worth anything. And the price? Insanely high. It’s not art that’s being sold anymore- it’s the name. 

Not all contemporary art is bad- some of it is just fine, and the artist should be applauded for maintaining their standards for valuable artwork. However, many artists have, well, awful ideas. The potential is there for them to create something amazing, but they waste it on being “trendy.” Take, for example, Sean Scully’s Paul. This piece is nothing more than 3 colors of the same striped pattern arranged in a rectangle. I suppose designs like this are supposed to make you think more deeply about what it could represent, but the only conclusion I could come to from looking at them is “Why would someone pay to get into a museum to see this?”. 

Another example of foul modern artwork is Untitled by Cy Twombly. “Untitled” seems to be a name that artists give a piece intentionally nowadays if they’re too lazy to come up with a name to go with their scribbles. Twombly has a series of untitled works, all of them being the same scribbles on a dull-colored background. Some of these meaningless pieces have been sold for upwards of $40,000,000. 

The popular artists that are making art (that is next to worthless) are drawing attention away from the lesser-known artists that are actually putting valuable time and effort into their work. Similarly, the art world is centered around American and European artists and much less attention is paid to those of other ethnicities or nationalities who create work of the same quality. There is a strong element of injustice in the artistic community. 

For us as viewers and potential art purchasers, the wool is being pulled over our eyes when questioning the true worth of a piece. We are told by the rich trend-setters to buy the newest pieces by popular artists that are meant to unlock our complex feelings and depth, but nobody really knows what contemporary art composed of simple geometric shapes and primary colors is supposed to represent. Instead, the focus should be shifted to the artists that create timeless pieces with creativity, effort, images that can actually be understood, and some real emotion. Any artwork that has to be explained with a plaque next to the canvas is not worth all of the attention it is getting.