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Posters for the London Olympics...are these people serious??


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It is art. By definition, art is an expression of human creative skill and imagination. This may not be art that you like, but it is still art.

 

It does take a certain level of openness to creativity to recognize the talent and artistic thoughtfulness in several of those posters, but a study of modern art -- its aesthetics and intentions -- can go a long way in enhancing one's fine arts education.

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It is art. By definition, art is an expression of human creative skill and imagination. This may not be art that you like, but it is still art.

 

It does take a certain level of openness to creativity to recognize the talent and artistic thoughtfulness in several of those posters, but a study of modern art -- its aesthetics and intentions -- can go a long way in enhancing one's fine arts education.

 

:iagree: I really liked some of them!

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It is art. By definition, art is an expression of human creative skill and imagination. This may not be art that you like, but it is still art.

 

It does take a certain level of openness to creativity to recognize the talent and artistic thoughtfulness in several of those posters, but a study of modern art -- its aesthetics and intentions -- can go a long way in enhancing one's fine arts education.

 

If I could reproduce it then it is NOT art.

 

I am sorry, I see no skill in the posters (see my first comment on this post) and if that is imagination than those guys are either insane or complete dullards.

 

There comes a point when people need say that the Emperor is without clothes and in this case the posters are without artistic merit.

 

Further, these are advertising pieces that are to "sell" the Olympics. As the average person could in no way intimate that a blotch on a piece of paper is supposed to represent the Olympics (hence the little explanatory passages that BBC had to add to each piece) these fail not only on an artistic level but also as pieces of advertisement.

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I appreciate that they have gone for art rather than.... I don't know, corporate branding. Or those ghastly mascots from the Beijing Olympics.

 

ETA: British advertising is much more allusive than what I saw in the US. Perhaps that's part of the difference. This is a poster for the London Underground from the 1930s. It's hard to see with a small image, but I don't think it even tells you where it is of. It's intended to make you curious, so you find out more and go to see it.

 

Laura

Edited by Laura Corin
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I showed them to ds15 and ds13. Here are some of their comments:

 

Picture 2: It's a podium. First place, second place. With color.

 

Picutre 3: I love this!!! It's got movement. It looks like a swimmer. It looks like a runner. It looks deep (I think he meant it had depth in color). It looks like a ribbon (first place!).

 

Picture 4: It's Greek! Unknown runner! I know him!!! I like how simple it is.

 

Picture 5: I gotta admit. They didn't get it until they read about it. THEN they both agreed it looked like a colorful swimming pool!

 

Picutre 6: Both agreed. Not their taste. But, it's the Olympic rings. Abstract. They got it!!!

 

Picture 7: they LOVED the poem. It's about ALL sports.

 

Picture 8: My boys are runners. They LOVED it!!!

 

Picture 9: It brought tears to my eyes. I think of people who have inspired me. My oldest said he hopes he inspires someone like this someday.

 

Pictures 10 - 13: BOTH of them saw it. The wheelchair. The ball. They liked it.

 

Anyway. These are the first thoughts of my teen boys who have been exposed to art from an early age.

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I appreciate that they have gone for art rather than.... I don't know, corporate branding. Or those ghastly mascots from the Beijing Olympics.

 

ETA: British advertising is much more allusive than what I saw in the US. Perhaps that's part of the difference.

 

Laura

 

Well, fwiw, pqr was not born or raised in the US and does not live in the US. So, I'm not sure how much that plays into his thoughts.

 

I agree that some of them seem pretty disconnected from the Olympics. I

 

also have to agree that some of them seem to show a low level of skill. But, modern art isn't always about skill. Paul Klee was perfectly capable of creating what pqr might consider a work of art. But, that isn't always what he did. I don't think his intentional, simple, shaky faces are any less art because he was doing something different with them.

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While I do not necessarily like all the ones in this link:

 

http://www.mapsofworld.com/olympic-trivia/olympic-poster.html

 

I do recognize the skill needed to create them, a skill I do not see in the 2012 examples.

 

Compare them to the 2012 selection.

 

J in MI, I put the same test to mine as you did to your and in proof that children do mirror their parents my children found them all "terrible" and number 9 (while they liked the message) was deemed a poor doodle.

 

The Greek runner came out as the best (in their view).

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I think a 10 could do better, actually. That third one looked like some-one's 3 yo's finger painting. And the stripes- Oy! I agree w/ pqr's statement about the emperor not wearing any clothes. The only artistic merit that I saw, besides the one w/ the runner in the vase, was the ability for someone to pass that off as art, and win awards for it. My mother was an artist; I appreciate all types of art. Those don't qualify.

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Guest submarines

Modern art is an acquired taste. Though the posters are simple, they far from simplistic. They are subtle, harmonious, and memorable.

 

I remember a scene from one of Kurt Vonnegut's novels where a painter keeps covering large canvases with a very specific brown colour, and is famous and admired. Someone asks him whether this is art--anyone can paint a humongous brown rectangle. He replies by swiftly drawing, with his finger on a dusty surface, a remarkable likeness of someone they both know, and says, "Yes, if you can also do this."

 

A child can recreate some of those posters, but most children and adults wouldn't be able to conceptualise these posters on their own.

 

(My apologies to those who remember the scene better--I read it years ago, and it probably grew in my mind :D.)

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Modern art is an acquired taste. Though the posters are simple, they far from simplistic. They are subtle, harmonious, and memorable.

 

I remember a scene from one of Kurt Vonnegut's novels where a painter keeps covering large canvases with a very specific brown colour, and is famous and admired. Someone asks him whether this is art--anyone can paint a humongous brown rectangle. He replies by swiftly drawing, with his finger on a dusty surface, a remarkable likeness of someone they both know, and says, "Yes, if you can also do this."

 

A child can recreate some of those posters, but most children and adults wouldn't be able to conceptualise these posters on their own.

 

(My apologies to those who remember the scene better--I read it years ago, and it probably grew in my mind :D.)

 

 

Here you go.

 

http://reverent.org/true_art_or_fake_art.html

 

Try this one.

 

I have to admit, I actually recognized two of them so had an advantage.

Edited by pqr
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While I do not necessarily like all the ones in this link:

 

http://www.mapsofworld.com/olympic-trivia/olympic-poster.html

 

I do recognize the skill needed to create them, a skill I do not see in the 2012 examples.

 

Compare them to the 2012 selection.

 

J in MI, I put the same test to mine as you did to your and in proof that children do mirror their parents my children found them all "terrible" and number 9 (while they liked the message) was deemed a poor doodle.

 

The Greek runner came out as the best (in their view).

 

Lol! I can see that. I tried to be quiet about what I thought about the pieces, but I really liked the words and the simplicity of that particular piece. Maybe my kids picked up on that.

 

Also. My kids are athletes. So maybe they could see things that a non-athlete couldn't?

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Here you go.

 

http://reverent.org/true_art_or_fake_art.html

 

Try this one.

 

I have to admit, I actually recognized two of them so had an advantage.

 

Wow, interesting! I was wondering whether I'd eat my own words :lol:. After all, I have no artistic training, and am not very knowledgeable in modern art. But when I encounter it, I most like it, while DH cringes. I feel that I get modern art on some subconscious level, but I really have no basis for this. So I was really, really curious about the test. And a bit nervous too.

 

 

I got 92% (1 wrong answer) and I recognised only 1. The one I got wrong (the first painting) was the one where my first inclination was the correct answer, but I hesitated and chose the incorrect one.

 

ETA: I really want to test DH now!

ETA: DH scored 33%, interestingly answering the first one correctly, and marking my favorite pieces as fake!

Edited by sunflowers
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Here is another one.

 

Now I will say this, I would never mistake a Rembrandt, a Constable, a Titian a Caravaggio (one of my favorites) or even a Remington for a complete amateur.

 

Anyway, here is another one.

 

http://reverent.org/bremen_artists.html

 

83% This one was harder. Number 4 and 6 are gorgeous, though! I swear I see a horse in #4. Loved it!

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Here is another one.

 

Now I will say this, I would never mistake a Rembrandt, a Constable, a Titian a Caravaggio (one of my favorites) or even a Remington for a complete amateur and certainly not for an ape or a horse.

 

Anyway, here is another one.

 

http://reverent.org/bremen_artists.html

 

Well I may not know my art, but I know what a animal can paint. I got 50% on the previous test comparing true art, with fake art. But I got 100% on this one.

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Is there many a culture with artistic worlds yet to explore? Point me in the direction. lol

 

There are wonderfully interesting things being done with technology.

 

ETA: Here are some interesting public art displays, an area of modern art that's currently rather dynamic. http://weburbanist.com/2009/03/07/nine-breathtaking-and-inspiring-pieces-of-public-art/

Edited by Stacy in NJ
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Image 5 cracked me up! It says she, "began painting stripes in 1967." Wow. Imagine if *I* had started painting stripes in 1967! Where might my art be now?! :lol:

 

That's it exactly! And how come you DIDN'T start painting stripes then? Huh? HUH? :D

 

These all may be "art" but few of them, if any, should be used in conjunctions with advertising the Olympics. Seriously.

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I got 75%.
Me, too! One piece of "Real Art" I thought was a fake and two the other way around.

 

Like others here, the only 2012 London Olympics poster I liked was the runner on the vase. The rest went downhill from there to the one with the lines.

 

While I am not an artist, I do enjoy looking at art, even some modern art. These posters just didn't do it for me.

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Is there many a culture with artistic worlds yet to explore? Point me in the direction. lol
I must say that I have been very impressed with some of the new architecture being built in Singapore lately.

 

Here is a new resort hotel:

 

attachment.php?attachmentid=6832&stc=1&d=1320574769

 

Same hotel, from the inside:

 

attachment.php?attachmentid=6833&stc=1&d=1320574783

 

And a view of the botanical gardens under construction, as seen from the "bow" of the top of the hotel:

 

attachment.php?attachmentid=6834&stc=1&d=1320574846

post-9943-13535085701527_thumb.jpg

post-9943-13535085701668_thumb.jpg

post-9943-13535085730353_thumb.jpg

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Technical ability and art are not always one and the same. I could pretty easily reproduce my favorite piece of art in the world, by Peter Wileman:

 

peter-wileman-violet-horizon.jpg

 

But that doesn't mean it's not art. :001_smile: I adore this piece. Something by Titian, though, while pretty, doesn't really make me feel anything the way this does.

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