Wading into Contemporary Art

I had a neat experience earlier tonight. I attended a reception that included a preview of a new art exhibit where we got to see the artist finishing the installation of his pieces. The exhibit is called Luz y Movimiento (light and motion), and it’s by a Venezuelan artist named Ender Martos.

I liked his pieces a lot. They are made up of mono-filament wire (fishing line), strung in different ways, and sometimes woven into concentric patterns. The pieces are bright and symmetrical, playful and sophisticated all at once. They seemed to defy categories; that is, some looked like textiles, others like shadow-box arrangements, and the one pictured at left reminded me of a Sol Le Witt wall drawing blown up into 3D.

What struck me most about tonight’s experience was not really the pieces themselves, but what they represented to me once I really thought about it: There is contemporary art that I like.

It’s funny, for years now I’ve been saying that I don’t care for contemporary art — even though generally speaking, I enjoy art more than almost anything. But seeing this show has reminded me that there is contemporary art that I like, and maybe even love — it’s just harder to find.

Of course, that’s because contemporary art has not been sifted through art’s (and society’s) greatest editor and arbiter: Time. That is, all of contemporary art is, by definition, still around. Whereas with art of the past, the longer it has survived, the more likely it’s one of the better (hopefully best) examples from its age. That’s a guess, of course, and not a scholarly one. It doesn’t account for wars and disasters that can destroy great art, nor I’m sure does it account for a whole passel of other important factors, but I’m willing to be unscientific and say that it sounds logical to me.

So I declare tonight’s experiment a success, and I’ll keep going to these events hoping to find more contemporary art I like. This one was sponsored by Art Alliance Austin, which I just recently joined. I’m told these events sometimes take the group into artists’ studios. I look forward to that opportunity.

Who knows, maybe I’ll even start reading that book I bought several months ago, How to Write About Contemporary Art.