Modern Art – Am I Just Too Thick?

Call me cynical, but whenever I’ve seen anything labelled as ‘Modern Art’ I am always left with that mildly embarrassing inner question – am I just too thick to get it?

Last summer I visited the Tate Modern gallery with my husband and we both left with a bit of an empty feeling in our souls. The building is a pretty colossal one with more than enough space/rooms inside to accommodate some pretty spectacular pieces of art. Ok so it was nice to not have to pay an admissions fee to get in to the place, but the shame of it really was that neither of us were particularly impressed by anything we saw. But then again, maybe it’s not the museum’s fault? Maybe it’s us with the problem?

Not everything in the Tate was ‘modern’ – a lot of pieces were extremely impressive paintings or sculptures made many moons ago. We can appreciate this sort of thing as, well, it does require some serious skill to create anything half decent. It’s just the new pieces we struggle to get our heads around and feel embarrassed about ‘not getting’. Why should a fifth of a very large room be reserved solely for three pieces of oddly shaped metal? What on Earth do they mean? I’m all for symbolism but come on!

Maybe there is something I’m missing. Maybe there’s a part of my brain which just isn’t switched on to an aspect of creativity that humanity possesses. Maybe it’s true that I really am devoid of a soul ... or maybe it’s just a load of over-hyped cack.