10.02.2025
Hi! Welcome to the blog of Artify YLS Social! One of the core values of Artify YLS is to condemn negative art. But first it’s worth defining the “negative art”. Because not knowing what the term means, it’s impossible to condemn the concept, isn’t it?
Well, hopefully you agree to that thesis. So to the definition of negative art. I think the “negative art” is mostly senseless art or execution of art so that the purpose of the art work is gone missing. Obviously each piece of art should have a purpose or meaning to the author and it should convey its meaning to the audience.
So one of the signs is a lack of meaning. It needs to be absolutely meaningless work to be classified as negative art, because a lot of artworks are abstract and it’s very hard to give a meaning to an abstract piece of art. Additionally to that, it depends from the viewer’s mindset whether the artwork has a meaning. Art-oriented viewers may accept “more meaningless” art in comparison to the average persons, because they are trained or indoctrinated to think in a more art-friendly way. I hope they are not brainwashed to find a meaning in meaningless.
I personally am a hobby artist. I try to see art from artist and average Joe’s perspective. I have seen abstract paintings that convey some value or energy regardless of being mix of stripes and lines on a canvas. It’s very hard to decide whether those should be classified as negative art and therefore condemned. I think one of a deciding characteristic is lack of value. When there are only 2-3 lines or stripes on canvas and nothing else, then what kind of value it gives to me? None. Definitely worth condemning as negative art.
Even if an artwork has more “info” than 2-3 lines on a canvas, can it still be a negative art? Too much going on on the canvas. Well then it would be poorly executed art, doesn’t have to be “negative art” though. Too much skirmish? Sometimes it’s intentional and can give “ a soul” to the work. A lot of things going on and looking too vague? That would be definetely a good candidate for negative art title.
What to do with the negative art. Condemn it so that artists would put more effort in giving some value in some ways to the audience… Not all the artwork that doesn’t make sense is a “negative art”. Because sometimes art is to be surprising and bringing in things that don’t make sense…
E, Artify YLS Social