Why do I go to the abstract art

Why do I go to the abstract art exhibition?

      Tomorrow Iwill go to see an abstract art exhibition.You may wonder why I have to go.Thereare two questions to be answered before I go. One is this is the first and onlysuch exhibition I must see. Why? The other is why I will go though I have no ideawhat it’s all about.

      Have youever heard of “the young intellectuals”(students ages 16 to 20) who went to thecountryside to be reeducated by poor and lower peasants in the 1960’s and 1970’s?Well, the famous artist Jun-yi Chen who gives this exhibition was one of them.Heand I went to the same place, Jichang Commune,Dushan County,Guizhouprovince.That is over 2000 kilometers southwest of Shanghai.Life wasunimaginably hard in the remote minority mountain villages. The contrastbetween the villages and Shanghai was hard to describe. There were about 17million young intellectuals in this country going through such fate. Of coursethey are all old people now. Is there anyone pursuing his dream and achieve somuch like Mr Chen? I’m afraid not. He is very very rare and precious, so like amiracle!He has done something most young intellectuals can never think about.That’s why I want to go to pay my respect and admiration which he deserves.

      Like me,most people don’t care for abustract art, because they don’t know that it isabout. Some even joke that a monkey or an elephant can do it and then sell it fora great fortune. Only crazy or abnormal people will buy the paintings,justbecause they are rich and stupid. But I look at it in a different way.

      Well, Ilove travelling. But I have learned in a hard way not to ask others aquestion-How do you like such and such a mountain? The reason is very simple:different people have different answers, which can be just the opposite to eachother. Some may say the mountain is so spectacular and most beautiful, whileothers may think it’s totally a waste of time and money to see it, just a pileof ugly and broken rocks.Who should you believe? The levels of appreciation mayvary widely. Unusual things, such as abstract art ,should be regarded inunusual ways. The key lies in how you feel and like it. Others’ opinions havenothing to do with yours. That’s why one considers a painting worthless andrubbish while another likes it so much and is pleased to pay millions for it.

      Someexperts with authority always pretend to show how well they know the art andtry to teach people how to understand and appreciate the abstract paintings. Infact such things don’t need be explained. If you like it,ok. If you don’t, noproblem either. It just depends on your feel and taste. It’s subjective, notobjective.So there is no standard answer. This is my understanding of abstractart.

By theway, who can be sure a monkey or an elephant can’t do better than man indrawing a painting?