Camas kind of like a blank canvas with
some like some texture I didn't see a
white dot there that's that's supposed
to be there it looks like something I
would could be a lot of flies to flip it
of paper here cuz I will put this down
on my floor my floor tiles these people
are describing Robert diamonds painting
bridge it sold for twenty point six
million dollars at a Christie's auction
in 2015 how was an all-white painting
considered art and why would anyone
shell out millions for something like
this there are a lot of these
quote-unquote white paintings many
people trace them back to kazimir
Malevich is 1918 work white on white but
there are many artists who created these
kind of paintings Agnes Martin
Joubert Josef Albers most of these
artists were associated with an art
movement called minimalism which emerged
in the late 1950s when I say the
minimalist I mean minimalism with a
capital M not a lowercase this is
Elizabeth Sherman she's an assistant
curator at the Whitney Museum in New
York it's tempting to look at one of
these paintings and think some jerk just
took a tube of white paint and spread it
on a canvas but it's not actually that
easy I mean mine rules obviously because
I'm a genius but there's usually a lot
more than meets the eye
white isn't really a pure thing white is
always tinted in some way paint is made
up of a variety of pigments if you've
ever painted the walls of your house you
know how many different whites there are
to choose from and maybe if you only
look at one it looks like pure white but
when you hold them up in an array you
can see the subtle differences it's blue
it's green that's purple it's warm it's
cold and when you get close not too
close there's a lot going on here lines
texture patterns even color there are a
lot of subtle intricacies that make it
more than just a white canvas minimalist
artists wanted their work to embody
order simplicity and harmony these
artists began with these ideas as a
rejection of Abstract Expressionism
Abstract Expressionism was a movement of
artists in the 1940s and 50s who thought
that art should be gestural expressive
and emotional evoking the unconscious
mind through movement and color so if we
think about Jackson Pollock as being
some kind of the abstract expressionist
that many people think of you can take
that picture of him with the canvas on
the floor of his studio spilling paints
everywhere and it's his gesture it's his
physical body it's his arm it's who he
is as a person that's creating that
canvas that painting minimalist weren't
about that all that paint splashing
everywhere no thanks and there was a lot
of desire to get away from that
sensibility where the individuals
expression was put into the canvas the
idea was that the art object be it
sculpture or painting or installation
should kind of be as far removed from
the author as possible you can see what
she means when you compare the two
schools of art abstract expressionism
minimalism Abstract Expressionism
minimalism okay you get it
minimalist artists stripped art of the
burden of being about something else
they presented art not as an imitation
of reality but as an object unto itself
artist frank stella summed it up nicely
when he said what you see is what you
see one of my favorite things about
modern art is the rage that it seems to
provoke in some people cue videos of men
freaking out I'm not gonna sit there try
to find a meaning in a red circle on a
blank white canvas because I'm not gonna
find any meeting I may not understand
art but I do understand the English
language and that's pretentious nonsense
did you see the painting that was just a
white painting that had nothing on it
it's like super pretentious meets uber
pretentious Modern Art sets people off
and believe me when I say that I am here
for it but with modern art by definition
every interpretation is genuine and
legitimate and ok or not how about not I
love it
there's even an entire play about a
group of lifelong friends who are torn
apart when one of them buys an all-white
painting for $200,000 with a very kind
of absent blank painting you have to do
a lot more work in
some ways then maybe you have to do with
let's say pop art that has tons of
obvious references and you see the
coca-cola or the American flag and you
can say I have all of these
relationships with these objects with
these brands with these things when
you're looking at simply a square of
white paint you have to do a lot more
work but sometimes there may be is
something more rewarding in the end
another common reaction to modern art
specifically minimalist pieces like
white paintings is come on say it with
me now I could do that good almost no
matter what show I've worked on in my
career somebody has said that while
there is a lot of skill in a lot of
modern and contemporary art there's also
a lot of art that is more about the idea
than it is about skill and so yes you
could do it but you didn't dam Elizabeth
and that may sound obnoxious or flip but
the reality is is that once art begins
to live just as much in the mind as it
does in the eye you have to bring your
ideas as well as your physical
construction of the work white paintings
are a fascinating kind of Rorschach test
they offer viewers an ambiguous I'm so
sorry but canvas to project their own
interpretations emotions beliefs and
stories on - so if looking at a white
painting makes you feel angry or excited
or soothed those are all valid responses
but take a moment to think about why
that was your response it's very easy to
be dismissive of things that were not
immediately attracted to so if you have
a kind of negative gut reaction one of
defensiveness or fear or anxiety or
rejection maybe try to move past that
and see what's available afterwards and
it doesn't have to change your mind but
it's sometimes the process of working
through that reaction that you learn the
most both about the work but also about
yourself