WHITNEY

A trip to the Whitney Museum today sparked an interesting conversation about art: does it always have to teach you something? And if it does not, does that make the art less valuable, less useful to society.

The piece in question was black paint on a white canvas - large, perhaps 10 x 15 feet. It was not necessarily a picture of anything. In a room with Pollock-esque splatter paints, it was summed up by my museum comrade as just that: paint on a canvas. No meaning, no story... or if there was a story intended by the artist, it was not conveyed in a way that taught the viewer anything. And therefore it was not valid as "good" art.

I disagreed. And the delicious debate began.

As a general rule, I don't prefer abstract art. For me, what I see usually is just paint splattered on canvas or blocks of color for no particular reason - but nevertheless, there are certain paintings that make me think of something or feel something the moment I look at them. This piece did that for me. I projected my own story onto that white canvas with big, hearty, black brush strokes. There was a city; there were bridges; people were falling (or jumping?); there was dispair; there was stillness among that action.

When I look at a portrait, or a scene, or a still life - there is an obvious thought and point being conveyed to me by that artist. But there something to be said for art that makes you engage in a personal way. That allows you to project your own imagination and create your own story. Are you not then, in a way, a co-creator of the art along with that painter? And isn't it wonderful that I could see in that art something completely different than what you see - and still both our experiences of that painting would be valid and true and neither right nor wrong.

Although my incredibly intelligent museum partner did not necessarily agree with me, I do believe I may have expanded his view a bit - as he did mine. And isn't that what art should do?

*NOTE: this piece is by Franz Kline, entitled "Painting Number 2" - and although it is not the piece I saw in the Whitney today, it is similar and it is the same artist - and it does make me imagine a story.