Alfred Munnings-Man vs Modern Art 

Wow, thanks for that great comment! That is some brilliant information, very interesting to note that he could not have been drinking at the retirement dinner. I may have played up the speech as it is such a colorful and dramatic element of the story but I don't want to mislead or paint an inaccurate picture of the man. Munnings is a very interesting figure who doesn't tend to get much of a look in these days, I myself was only made aware of him by a friend so I wanted to give him a bit more exposure. As a painter his work is top notch and his frequent Irascibility just makes him all the more human and interesting. I take it from your name you are a relative of Munnings? Thanks for you great comment, I'll see if I can pin this one so folks can see it and get more context for the speech

I know! Munnings is quite a modern painter for his time. It's funny how he railed against so much of it when he had embraced other aspects. I doubt he even realized his more modernist tendencies as being such, these things are only really clear to us in hindsight.

MrMjp58. The star makers of the art world are evil and stupid people. They are in need of some shrooms.

Thanks for sharing that, I find it interesting that he was sneered at when you were in college, for me he wasn't even mentioned! There's a lot to cover I suppose so you can't expect to get into everything. As for Modernism and its dry academical approach, I can totally see that, but it is that intersection of ideas from outside the arts that makes it so fascinating to me. Its a small time period with a massive amount of change happening all at once, and I reckon untangling the various causes behind it will tell us some interesting stuff about contemporary art and culture too.

Modern art is a great shit. Munnings, Charles Russell, Singer Sargent, great artists.

lololol

Munnings drinking recipes do sound pretty good alright, been meaning to try that one myself! Glad you liked the video, I know a lot of Munnings fans won't be too fond of Picasso and vice versa, which is a pity as both are excellent painters. I'll get around to Picasso one of these days as well, there's lots to cover there but I still want to make it balanced and accessible. There's lots to be learned from a little open research rather than outright lambasting.

Thanks!

It's a very late day indeed to be condemning "Modern Art", considering we are supposed to be in the period of "Contemporary Art" (Though I am curious what scholars in five hundred years will think of that distinction). Taste as you say plays an important role, and one should be very careful not to bludgeon with opinion of course, but the fact that huge amounts of visual art can be dismissed using a term denoting a particular movement which is a century old indicates to me there might be some misunderstandings at play. That infamous expression " I don't know art, but I know what I like" seems appropriate. One cannot fault a person for their own particular tastes, but perhaps with a little more understanding of a subject those tastes could expand. People are much more reticent to this when it comes to music, we think nothing of a person whose taste lies in more Avant Garde audio directions. The same attitude doesn't seem as forthcoming for the visual arts however. Perhaps we should remain quiet rather than evangelize the non representational, but I reckon that if given a bit more information we might be surprised by how peoples tastes react.

Picasso certainly did do a lot of laughing and banking in his career, which may go some way towards explaining his perennial popularity. I think I will have to do a video on him and try to go over why people don't get him, or at least why he's so popular. He's definitely the most common artist I hear mentioned when people say they don't get modern art. Problem is that he's such a complicated figure with so much written about him that it's hard to summarize. Leave it with me and I'll see if I can explain his work in some kind of half understandable sense

@@theartshole311 Don't bother. When I was a kid I read an article about him which said that he followed the wish of his dealer to make bad paintings. In fact he never learned to paint properly. He was a petty criminal and associated with thieves, from one Spanish thief he obtained two stone age sculptures. Then the Mona Lisa was stolen, and he knew the police would come for him, he then planned to drop the sculptures into the river Seine. He was indeed questioned by the police about the Mona Lisa (which was stolen by an Italian). Someone gave Picas a cheap box camera with broken lens. That is where his broken compositions came from, not from vision, as he had none. He was a mysogynist to boot. He was one of the very worst painters in history.

Peter Clark. Art has always been conceived and executed in spirit, with soul. The thoughts of the art makers are not philosophy, these are merely superficial strivings for the new for the new. We now see where their lying ends. Most of the so called modern artforms, landscape art, minimalism, installation art, conceptual art, etc, originated THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO, in the EUROPEAN NEOLITHIC. Only, the modern art theorists are not aware of this fact. The American James Turrell proved himself to be a copyist from the Neolithic when he designed a "light chamber" that was a direct copy from the Neolithic NEW GRANGE in Ireland, which he visited. But he was discovered by knowledgeable people and his project for a concrete bunker 100 abstract metres wide was dropped. So do not be deceived by the game the theorists of modern are playing, these liars allways exclude modern spiritual art. That is why many people consider the star makers are not very intelligent, are unaware of consciousness change, and are down right evil in defending their silly theories.

@@Foxglove963my comment is 2 years late 😂, but have you not seen Picasso’s early paintings from his late teenage years? He painted some fairly large canvases before age 18 that were much more traditional and realistic. They’re my favorite of what I’ve seen from him. A visit to the Picasso museum in Barcelona convinced me that he had skill by about age 16 to paint realistically and classically, but chose to break away from it. I agree in my dislike for his later work, and I do like some of what he made in between.

I hadn't heard that about his home and studio's, what a shame!

lol, I certainly sympathize with Munnings to a great degree, though I'm not as harsh on the modernist crowd as he was. Fantastically interesting painter and character though

Yes, I reckon I agree with you there. As much as I enjoy Munnings and his attitude I don't really agree with his dismissal of the Modernists. Likewise I don't think the modernists are right in their refusal to acknowledge anything before modernism itself. It's probably that like you say the way forward will be a bit of a balance between the two.

Thank you for the reply. By the way please continue making these videos. They are relaxing to listen to as much as it is informative.

Thank you! I'm glad you find them relaxing, I was hoping people would! I will definitely make more. I am very busy with work at the moment and will be for the rest of this month but once my current job is over I will be making more.

@@theartshole311 Weirdly enough he's a rather modern painter, in terms of colour and brushwork. Like not very traditional. Like what u need is fabulous draughtsmanship and exceptional draughtsmanship.

Yes, Difficult seems the right word for him alright. I do love his paintings, the quality of his work really stands out despite the negative perceptions of him. Had he not been such a vocal detractor of Modernism he would probably be much more highly regarded. I hear he's still very popular In terms of sales though.