I consider myself to be quite open-minded and always eager to acquire knowledge. While I can grasp most aspects of the real world, I find it challenging to fully appreciate and comprehend modern art. The earliest forms of art in the world appear to be relatively straightforward. For instance, about 45,500 years ago, a human hand painted pigs using ochre, making them the oldest known examples of figurative art. By some standards, they are considered the oldest artwork in the world, predating other forms of art by several thousand years.
Art is an active process; it is something we engage in. It serves as a means of expressing our thoughts, emotions, intuitions, and desires. However, it goes beyond that—it is a deeply personal endeavor that allows us to share our unique experiences of the world, which often reflect aspects of our personalities. Art communicates intimate concepts that cannot be adequately conveyed through words alone. This is precisely why I appreciate the combination of words and images.
I used to believe that I had a solid understanding of art until I came across the work of Oleg Matveyev from Russia. He created an “abstract” painting using software like Paint, completing it in just five minutes. As a joke he put it on the internet and presented it as a painting by an underground French artist and added some sad biographical details to make the painting more mysterious. The comments did not keep him waiting: many people liked the painting and were ready to pay much more than the “artist” suggested. Why were so many people ready to pay real money for unreal art? The answer to this question could be that one of the most expensive modern art pieces has a pretty similar “concept” (Jackson Pollock, N5 sold in May 2006 for $140 million, This experience challenged my preconceptions and further fueled my curiosity about the nature of art.