What Makes Art “Good?” It Probably Isn’t What You Think
I was talking with a friend the other day about a painting by Yves Klein, Blue.
For those of you who aren’t familiar, the piece is a canvas painted entirely with one shade of blue. It’s a mesmerizing, carefully-crafted shade of blue.
But it’s still a giant blue rectangle.
I’ve seen it in person, and while I understand the criticism around it, I find the art theory to be very exciting. The piece shows the new innovations he developed about the materiality, vibrancy, and application of pigment at the time — while reflecting the forward-thinking mindsets of the minimalist Young British Artist group Klein was a part of. He distilled radical ideas and practices into a work of art, and to me, that’s more enthralling than the actual piece itself.
Now, some people might say, “Sure, but is it good art?”
The nuance about that question is, I don’t really believe there’s one correct answer when it comes to what makes art “good.”
There are no hard and fast rules here, but there are a few guidelines that may help you evaluate works of art. As an artist, there are certain things I look for, at a high level, that tend to resonate with me.
Here are three questions to ask yourself when you’re trying to determine the quality of a piece:
Is the artwork resolved?
When I say “resolved,” I mean it in both an aesthetic and ideological sense.
When a piece fits this description, it’s very clear why the artists made certain decisions. The angle of lines or the splatter of paint feels intentional, rather than just a random choice done on a whim, and there is a palpable confidence in the execution and presentation of the final draft you are experiencing.
When you step back and look at the work as a whole, you can tell someone has made informed, intentional choices, and they’ve put in the work to create a piece that’s resolved.
The environment in which an artwork is made and responds to certainly shapes its direction and resolution. Jason Bailey of Artnome notes that, “…context is everything. Out of context works like Klein’s Blue Square or Malevich’s Black Square actually are kind of silly. But in context they are amazing! Seeing just a black square without context is like seeing the punctuation mark without the sentence that preceded it.”
You’ll notice this sense of aesthetic and ideological resolution if you go to a museum, where the artists displayed are generally what we think of as “professional.” That’s because no one rolls out of bed one day and decides they’ll be a great artist by lunch. Rather, they’ve worked, often struggled, and put in the 10,000 plus hours to get to a place where their work has that mature, finished feeling to it, and addresses the context in which it was made.
All of this is very subjective, of course.
I’ve made artwork before that I thought was resolved, but then a professor or a friend looked at it and said, “Oh, you could push this angle much further.”
And when I took a second, critical look, I realized they were right. That’s also why speaking with others is important so you can access different perspectives while considering an artwork.
Next time you step into a gallery and start perusing the work, ask yourself or someone else which pieces appear most resolved and why.
Does it make you feel anything?
Another element of spotting high-quality art is whether or not you have a reaction to it.
The reaction could be positive or negative. You might love it, hate it, want to go swimming in it, or put it on a plate and eat it.
But if it evokes a reaction or creates a connection with you, then it’s effective as a work of art.
This isn’t to say it’s necessarily “bad” or “good” art or even art that you would want to live with day in and day out. But if it creates an effect — ideally the one the artist had in mind, and sometimes, that can be pretty amorphous — then it’s been successfully executed.
Take the example of Klein’s Blue I mentioned earlier. That absolutely had an effect on me and my friend. We ended up having a lengthy conversation about the piece, which was certainly part of the artist’s intent.
Can it serve your purpose?
For some, this is answered by a feeling.
Will this piece contribute to the right atmosphere when it’s hanging in your living room? Does it make you feel relaxed or calm? Do you just love the blue so much that you have to live with it?
For collectors, this is about trying to figure out if artworks and your connection to them are worth whatever you’re spending. That means you’ll likely need to go out and immerse yourself in a lot of art. Look at it online, see it in person, rent it, live with it.
Finding places to physically be with the art is essential.
For investors, it really depends what stage you’re at in life, what your budget is, and what you’re looking to get out of the investment. A lot of people aren’t really at the point where they can invest in works of art that are already well-known, but there are new options coming to the art world, like fractional ownership, that can make investing more egalitarian and accessible.
Again, there are no objective rules when it comes to art.
The subjective nature of art makes it difficult to pin down exact ways of quantifying quality and worth, though a large collector-base or gallery representation can at times be an indicator depending on what you are looking for.
Hopefully, these guidelines can at least give you a framework to think about the pieces you’ll see the next time you step into a gallery or museum or see a mural on the side of a building.
Thanks for reading!
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