Contemporary art: Is it actually any good?

What is contemporary art? And is it actually any good? As the Turner Prize 2014 exhibition kicks off at the Tate Modern, we weigh into the debate about what is worth it…

Artist, RA, CBE and Turner Prize-winner Grayson Perry once described contemporary art as ‘rubbish’. ‘Although we live in an era where anything can be art, not everything is art,’ he claimed in a lecture for Radio 4 last year (you can listen to it here). It seems an odd statement from someone who is probably, by definition, a ‘contemporary artist’, but we are inclined to agree.

It’s a tough question: what exactly constitutes ‘art’? These days it seems that anyone can make anything, give it a back story, and call it ‘art’. It was the theory behind a hoax this September wherein fictional artist Lana Newstrom sold ‘invisible art’ (Read about it here).

Artnet.com forgave people for falling for the hoax, saying that ‘to be fair, in this day and age, it’s hard to tell what news is real and what is satire’ – but can’t the same be said of art itself? Surely it’s gone too far, when you walk into a gallery and you’re not sure if the light switch is really a light switch or if it’s an installation?

But at the same time, art has to move forward. It can’t remain in the realm of the great masters forever. When the impressionists began painting, it wasn’t considered art; when the modernists started creating, it wasn’t art  – etc etc … So how do we define what is and isn’t worthwhile?

We are in the boat with Perry – you can call it art, but that doesn’t mean it is art. Art should provoke a response, not just shock and awe – or confuse. Art, whatever it is, should be about emotion. It is about engaging people, encouraging them to think about something in a different way and getting a response from them. It fails when people think ‘meh, whatever’. Or don’t think at all. We might not understand a lot of art – we might not like it – but if it is making us think, making us consider the world differently, then for us, it is art.

However, we’re not so fancy as to think that art has to be serious all of the time. It was announced earlier this year that David Shrigley will fill the fourth plinth with a giant thumbs up in 2016.  National Gallery director Nicholas Penny described is as ‘a big joke’. But we like it. Shrigley said to the Guardian that the sculpture will ‘dissuade social unrest, help the economy and decrease rates of absenteeism in state schools…It’s a paradox. On the one hand it is kind of ridiculous to suggest that this giant sculpture will bring an upturn in the economy. At the same time, maybe it isn’t. I mean it lightheartedly, satirically, sarcastically maybe – but I kind of believe it as well.’

It makes us smile - it makes us think. Art doesn’t have to be serious to be effective. But it should provoke a response. Of course, there is also talent. A lot of classical paintings have stood the test of time because of the sheer talent expressed within them. Perry’s own contemporary art shows a master potter at work. But it is more than that - it shows thought, creativity, innovation. They are not just pretty pots, but, as the Saatchi Gallery describes them ‘incongruous: classic Greecian-like urns bearing friezes of car-wrecks, cell-phones, supermodels, as well as more dark and literary scenes often incorporating auto-biographical references.’

That is also the power behind a lot of Old Masters. We don’t stand in front of a painting of a pastoral scene for half an hour just because it is pretty, but because it stirs something within us, whether we know what that is or not. That’s why Tracy Emin’s ‘My Bed’ just sold for £2.2m. Whatever the art is and however it is made, if we are talking about it and thinking about it then surely it is just that – art.

Which side do you sit on – Old Masters with Nicholas Penny, or contemporary all the way with Charles Saatchi? Is contemporary art even art at all? Does it have to have a serious message to make it thought-provoking? Is £2.2m a ridiculous amount for some dirty old sheets? Let us know your comments.