Contemporary Art Essay

Andy Warhol once said, “An artist is somebody who produces things that people don't need to have. “ Warhol’s words can be twisted into meaning any number of things, it is up to the reader to make sense of what he is trying to say, the same goes for art. Art is not made to be some commercial poster to be hung on a dorm room wall, art is far more than that, and it is the window into the imagination, the truth of an artist. My thoughts on Warhol’s quote is that he is trying to say that everyone has the ability to create art, art is the imagination creating things on paper, if you want a portrait of someone, take a photo, if you really want a “portrait” of somebody, you do a drawing. The drawing creates so much more emotion and affection then any camera can ever do. The simple fact that everyone has an imagination should be enough reason to create your own art work, whether it is good or not is up to the artist itself, not the viewer.
It seems to me at this point the idea of art is to cross the boundaries. Go somewhere that no one has ever gone before, but this idea has formed this whole new flow of artists constantly trying to outdo each other with ridiculous concepts. Danto, a philosopher and art critic puts his words in this cryptic English that makes himself sound intelligent, profound and philosophical, when you cut the bull shit he is basically saying that art has gone through changes over the centuries from the Italian renaissance to minimalism, with those changes, have added baggage from critics to supporters to what have you. The bottom line is that people either like it or they do not. In reality there is this conceptual warfare which Danto speaks of, this idea that art has to be so abstract yet still have this concrete idea to make the mind provoke crazy ass ideas. It is like a nuclear bomb has gone off in your brain. I see a broom, and the artist may see a provocative black hole opening up into a worm hole, showing the alternate reality, of which we