deKooning vs the cows -- seeing a difference

Are you culturally savvy and artistically astute? Then tell me, can you tell the difference between a Willem deKooning painting and one done by a farm animal, maybe a cow, just by looking? Not just you, could an expert, could deKooning? No doubt he’s a giant of modern art, his work worth millions with influence in all directions, so who am I to impugn his work? Well I didn’t, and that wasn’t the question. The answer to the original question is probably not, especially later on when his work became more lyrical, as alcohol-induced dementia overtook him, so sad. None of this is about me at all, or even deKooning, it’s about you and just what you are willing to believe, and by what authority. This is a test. If you aren’t familiar with deKooning or the art of farm animals there are plenty of examples online for comparison, so look a few up and let’s begin.

Take ten images by each lined up in any order, and then try to sort them by artist, and for extra credit assign reasonable price tags to each. Why should this be hard? Now a real expert doesn’t even bother to look at the front, doesn’t care really, and instead audits the paperwork back to the dealer, scrapes a little off for spectroanalysis, before pronouncing a work as unbelievably expensive or a barnyard curiosity. How dreary.

What does it mean, this genius/bovine confusion? I don’t know. I’m asking you, what do you think? This is the most important question of all, because finding the confidence to decide what your eyes see, instead of relying on someone else’s professed expertise, is going to come in handy for more than art, in time becoming an advantage across the board. Are you telling me, am I telling you, that being in charge of my own taste in art affects the clothes I wear, the car I drive, the way I think of myself? Yep. The art you own is like an ongoing conversation you have with yourself, with the artist, and with a time and place. Farm animals have a quiet dignity but lack the consciousness to keep up their end, mostly just dabs and smears, so ‘lyrical.’

Art will find out how gullible you are, and the ‘experts’ will tell you some pretty silly stuff just to see what you’ll go along with. The best thing to do is look at all the original art you come across, and learn to listen to, and then to believe your own responses. Sooner or later you’ll trust yourself to like the art that speaks to you, and learn to trust your own eyes.