[vonjuice]

We have art galleries displaying things like empty canvases or toilet bowls that make a statement, it's definitely not about difficulty. The fact is that the debate about what art is is part of what makes art art, it escapes definition because part of the spirit of art is rebelling against definition.

[AlecSchueler]

> We have art galleries displaying things like empty canvases or toilet bowls that make a statement, it's definitely not about difficulty

You're under selling the difficulty of using a toilet bowl to make a convincing statement.

[thatcat]

It's a water fountain

[AlecSchueler]

That one was done over a hundred years ago, sadly. The public wasn't original and topical statements for every new opening.

[ben_w]

Mm.

I'm 50-50 split on thinking I regard that kind of art as a vehicle for tax evasion, vs. thinking the "difficulty" is the money wasted on it (which is still Veblen "look at me I'm rich I can waste money on something pointless").

[kzrdude]

We can't judge all of the art sphere just from the worst examples. Think of people who judge software by our worst examples (crypto scams, I don't know)?

[danielbln]

Why is a simple modern art piece necessarily one of the worst and examples?

[lancesells]

> art galleries displaying things like empty canvases or toilet bowls

This is so far from the norm and feels like a television lens version of artists and art galleries. Yes, Duchamp used a toilet bowl in 1917 as art which was over 100 year ago. This is known because no one had done it before and presented an everyday object as art. This is 106 years old but still referred to so you can guess it was a big deal.

My suggestion is to visit a modern art museum in a larger city and you'll see this kind of "easy bullshit art as a statement" doesn't really exist.

https://www.tate.org.uk https://www.hauserwirth.com https://www.moma.org https://www.davidzwirner.com https://gagosian.com

[vonjuice]

I have visited modern art museums. I have seen similar "low effort" pieces among a wide catalogue of high effort ones. It is evident that real artists are very prolific and are not lazy or anything like that, that was not implying that, I don't even think of it as bullshit.

My example was more about how the appearance of effort is not necessary for the viewer. Many people can look at abstract paintings and say "this is bullshit, my kid could do that!", and yet many people can also look at it and recognize beauty, and it's not because the latter group sees the piece as more effort, they're just able to parse the language of the piece better (imo).

[pawelmurias]

Those are the old school NFTs, the AI tools are for the skillfull kind of art.