What is This Art of Yours? AMHTA METHON

      "What is this? What is this art of yours?" Have you ever seen it? An artist sitting in a chair, doing absolutely nothing for the audience but staring them straight in the eye. A canvas with no image, just a single flat coat of paint. A balloon dog, like a child’s toy, made of stainless steel and placed in the center of a gallery. Someone measuring every visitor's height and asking them to sign the wall. Or look—another one smashing expensive ancient vases. Or a woman painting polka dots on pumpkin-like objects while wearing eccentric clothes.

      The moment you see these things, you’ll ask the same question as the title of this essay: “Is this art? What is this? Is this even art at all?” It is a question that can, should, and must be asked.

      The moment we say "Contemporary Art," we are talking about the art of the world we live in right now—a world filled with conflicts, controversies, and endless questioning. To talk about Contemporary Art, one must first understand The Story of Art. Why? Because before reaching this contemporary stage, this "art fellow" evolved just like the survival of a human being.

     These observations opinions are strictly my own view. I don’t claim to be right.

     Throughout a person's life, the thing they do most is live inside their thoughts. From those thoughts come speech and practical actions. When we look at a painting or an artwork, we enter the realm of thought first.

     You’ve probably wondered, “What is the artist trying to say?” Most often, it is Modern and Contemporary art that will send you deep into that mental territory.

But even with Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, we wonder: “What is her smile hiding? What kind of woman was she?” Even the Venus de Milo from the 2nd Century BC makes the viewer wonder: “If she had arms, where would they be? What would her pose look like?” Like Rodin’s The Thinker, artists have always expanded the boundaries of our thoughts.

     However, the "thought-space" offered by Traditional Art (Old Master paintings and sculptures) is different from that of Modern and Contemporary Art.

Most Old Master art presents the "visual" first and then makes you think about what the artist wanted to say. In other words, it gives you the "answer" (what the object is) and then asks the question: "How does this make you feel?"

     So, what about Modern Art? For example, the Spanish artist Picasso stopped painting people realistically. He shattered proportions into triangles, squares, and shards of glass. What do we think then? We think: "In the past, they tried so hard to make it look real; does painting even need to be realistic anymore?" The thought begins to stir. Then the artist follows up with a barrage of questions: “How do you see this figure? Is the light and shadow the same as the nature you’re used to? Are you seeing the true reality?”

With these questions, artists built the Modern era. In my view, this was a challenge to Nature itself. While the Old Masters asked, "Is it beautiful?", Modern art said, "I don't want to be like the original."

    Now that we’ve reached the Contemporary era, artists are still making the audience walk through a field of thoughts. They are still asking questions. But it’s different now. What has changed? While Modern Art asked questions through Form and Composition, Contemporary artists use the bizarre acts described at the beginning of this essay to look you in the eye and ask directly: “What do you see? What do you believe?”

"Well... what do you see? Answer me."

Thank you.

AMHTA METHON (20 Apr 2026)