Painting is pointless

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I think the point of painting as an art
form was very much gone the day the colour photography was
invented.

Abstract-expressionism looks like children's paintings.

― Gringo Hero, Sunday, 27 April 2003 02:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Some of the best things in life are pointless.

― Aimless, Sunday, 27 April 2003 02:04 (twenty-two years ago)

this thread isn't one of the best things in life.

― RJG (RJG), Sunday, 27 April 2003 02:28 (twenty-two years ago)

pointing is paintless.

― Lance Uppercut, Sunday, 27 April 2003 02:31 (twenty-two years ago)

gringo could you elaborate on what you think the point of painting is/was ?

― Sébastien Chikara (Sébastien Chikara), Sunday, 27 April 2003 03:02 (twenty-two years ago)

children's paintings look really cool

― ejad (daje), Sunday, 27 April 2003 03:21 (twenty-two years ago)

if it's pretty isn't that a good enough point?

― Maria (Maria), Sunday, 27 April 2003 03:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I can't take a photograph with a rubber flogger and a feather duster, but I can paint with them.

Point enough for me.

― Tep (ktepi), Sunday, 27 April 2003 03:38 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm glad color photography was invented, because without it we might never have had Cubism, Surrealism, or any number of -isms which have produced really beautiful works. Ok, he predates color photography, but I have a huge poster of Klimt's "The Park' (I think that's the name of it) in my living room, and I love the texture & movement he created with his brushwork, and the wonderful way he built up the colors with his brush.

I studied digital photography & manipulation of images & stuff in college, and we had a lot of talks about what Photoshop meant for photographers- that you could be careless in the field with a camera now. If you take a roll of halfway decent photographs, come home, scan the negatives, and merge them together, you can create a work which looks just as if you'd spent hours on it with an SLR, waiting for just the right moment with the light. It's hard to decide whether it's any less real because instead you made it on your laptop in 5 minutes with Photoshop & two layer masks.

I keep meaning to read more about the philosophy of art, and to decide how much I think an artist's intent and methods really matter, because it can be a pretty fascinating field to study.

And this is almost a completely different topic, but the difference between an actual object- like a 11"x14" photo on nice fiber paper, and its digital reproduction on a computer screen, or its projection as a slide- can vastly alter how you think about it. The intensity of light in a slide vs. the technical limits of brightness and color differentiation in a LCD vs. holding a piece of paper with silver emulsion on it- all kind of lead me to be unsure whether you can really say that they're all the same work, or 3 different ones, even if each was created with one negative.

― lyra (lyra), Sunday, 27 April 2003 03:45 (twenty-two years ago)

</art dork>

― lyra (lyra), Sunday, 27 April 2003 03:47 (twenty-two years ago)

This is a comedy question obviously, but it is what some people think. Personally, I think photography has made photorealism in painting a pretty pointless target, but you can't convince me that there are any photos that render Monet's landscapes or Rembrandt's portraits or Cezanne's still lifes redundant, to take some fairly 'realistic' examples, let alone all of the 20th century moves away from attempts at realism. Abstract Expressionism was just one of these (only Americans centre modern art on it, because it was the first time the US was the leader and had the stars in a movement). One of my favourites too, and hardly a response to photography.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 27 April 2003 10:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes but colour photographs have proper melody, song structure etc etc. DO YOU SEE?

― Matt (Matt), Sunday, 27 April 2003 10:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't know Martin - Photoshop does a mean Cezanne

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 27 April 2003 11:59 (twenty-two years ago)

You can't take pictures of things that don't exist.

― Stuart (Stuart), Sunday, 27 April 2003 18:03 (twenty-two years ago)

What isn't?

― felicity (felicity), Sunday, 27 April 2003 18:06 (twenty-two years ago)

You can take pictures of things that don't exist. I do it all the time. The problem is they never show up on film.

― Millar (Millar), Sunday, 27 April 2003 18:16 (twenty-two years ago)

They almost never show up on my canvas, either, but the odds are better with paint.

― Stuart (Stuart), Sunday, 27 April 2003 18:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Painting is pointless? For observers or the painters? I personally disagree. Painting, I suppose, is like writing. A way of getting your thoughts, feelings and emotions down on canvas. A way of expressing yourself. Sometimes a good way of detaching yourself from the world. You can lose yourself in painting. And if the end result is good, great, you're completely ecstatic. It's a way to relax. And I do love to see a great painting. But of course it's all down to the individual. If it was pointless, why the hell would anyone bother?

― ThErEdNeD (ThErEdNeD), Monday, 28 April 2003 19:28 (twenty-two years ago)

*blink* For a second I thought the thread title was "Painting is pointillist."

― j.lu (j.lu), Monday, 28 April 2003 19:48 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

Is it really? :(

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 16:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Chuck Close would choke Gringo Hero out.

― Austin (Austin), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 16:54 (twenty-one years ago)

the idea that photography killed what we retrospectively term photorealism needs interrogating. because obviously neither photography nor 'photorealism' are transparent media.

― Miles Finch, Wednesday, 19 January 2005 16:54 (twenty-one years ago)

does mspaint count as painting? mspaint is the work of god.

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 16:58 (twenty-one years ago)

"All art is quite useless." Oscar Wilde

I like that no-one mentioned the influence of Abstract Expressionism on photography.

ken, you blasphemer, you. 'Tis the work of a lesser god, if any.

― Michael White (Hereward), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 17:01 (twenty-one years ago)

haha by God i meant microsoft

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 17:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Miles Finch -

Egzarktly.

― Austin (Austin), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 17:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I think the point of sculpture as an art
form was very much gone the day that the world became three dimensional.

― dave225 (Dave225), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 17:41 (twenty-one years ago)

five years pass...

never gonna post it in its finished form, but here's a work in progress:
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg187/nick-uptoeleven/DSC_0836-2.jpg

― niminy-piminy cricket (Upt0eleven), Saturday, 20 March 2010 01:51 (sixteen years ago)

pretty pointless imo/

― niminy-piminy cricket (Upt0eleven), Saturday, 20 March 2010 01:52 (sixteen years ago)

worst tetris spin-off yet

― 12 monkeys of sex (acoleuthic), Saturday, 20 March 2010 01:55 (sixteen years ago)

420 individually mixed shades of green beg to differ.

― niminy-piminy cricket (Upt0eleven), Saturday, 20 March 2010 02:06 (sixteen years ago)

it's gonna be a frog, right

― 12 monkeys of sex (acoleuthic), Saturday, 20 March 2010 02:36 (sixteen years ago)

420 shades of greed? duuuuude...

― everybody on ilx u have dandruff (Pillbox), Saturday, 20 March 2010 02:39 (sixteen years ago)

lol "green"

― everybody on ilx u have dandruff (Pillbox), Saturday, 20 March 2010 02:39 (sixteen years ago)

btw PAINTING IS NOT POINTLESS

http://fineartamerica.com/images-medium/polar-bear-pointillism-heather-ward.jpg

(sez pointilist bear)

― everybody on ilx u have dandruff (Pillbox), Saturday, 20 March 2010 02:40 (sixteen years ago)

I can't believe no one has pointed out that the OP's handle is an anagram of GEIR HONGRO

― hills like white people (Hurting 2), Saturday, 20 March 2010 02:45 (sixteen years ago)

I thought the same thing!

― ABBAcab (Trayce), Saturday, 20 March 2010 03:18 (sixteen years ago)

It's pretty self evident, no?

hypothesis: Gringo Hero's views on art = Geir's on music

― ●●●●●●●● (EDB), Saturday, 20 March 2010 03:29 (sixteen years ago)

I thought it was Geir. Glad it's not. Utterly wrong opinion just the same.

― WARS OF ARMAGEDDON (Karaoke Version) (Sparkle Motion), Saturday, 20 March 2010 05:17 (sixteen years ago)

Also this book is utterly brilliant

http://press.princeton.edu/images/k2590.gif

― WARS OF ARMAGEDDON (Karaoke Version) (Sparkle Motion), Saturday, 20 March 2010 05:19 (sixteen years ago)

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