AN ART TO ART DISCUSSION

Recently I visited an exhibition of modern art. Is digital photography responsible for the obscure interpretation of still life in paintings? Now that cameras on our mobile phones coupled with photo-editing apps can help fumbling thumbs reproduce reality, painting has become a medium solely to demonstrate raw beauty and emotion.

To understand the meaning of some of these colourful works it is almost compulsory to browse with a gallery guide in hand. If you actually want to experience the impact you could do what many of the couples I followed round were doing: ignoring the guide and working out for themselves the effect and impact of some of the larger pieces. Trouble is that art can be a very personal encounter that isn't always made for sharing.

Net result (or maybe it was just the effect of a miserable, wet Saturday) was disagreement. Raised voices followed together with a hasty exit on my part to avoid embarrassment and the compulsion to hand out business cards, or, as in my last post, to usher the offending pairs to the tearoom.