Modern Art vs Kid Art

Can You Tell the Difference?

Can you tell the difference between modern art vs kid art? Here’s another BuzzFeed video I found on YouTube the other day. This one amuses me for a number of reasons. But I’m curious as to what you think and how well you’d do when looking at the same artworks. In this video, pairs of people were given a work of art and had to decide whether it was the work of a modern artist or the work of a child.

Modern Art or Kid Art, BuzzFeed

Throughout my life, when I was aware enough of what people were talking about, I’d heard that some works of art looked vary amateur, like a child had created it. Or, that the work was so childlike, that they themselves could do it. To date, I’ve never seen any of them actually try it. And, as disinterested in modern and contemporary art as I usually am, I still get my feathers just a bit ruffled when someone dismisses a fellow artist this way.

Let me put it this way…I love music. I probably have more genres on my iTunes than almost everyone I know. However, there are some types of music that I am not fond of. But just because I don’t like that kind of music, doesn’t mean I discount it as music, nor do I claim to be able to do the same thing. I simply don’t prefer it.

Marcel Duchamp Fountain, 1917, photograph by Alfred Stieglitz at 291 art gallery following the 1917 Society of Independent Artists exhibit, with entry tag visible. The backdrop is The Warriors by Marsden Hartley.

In the case of modern and contemporary art, you may have already heard me say that I generally just don’t get it. It’s as simple as that. I don’t understand. The Black Square by Kazimir Malevich or Duchamp’s The Fountain, for example, both of which I mentioned in Art History: Modern Art and some in Abstract Art. I don’t get it. That’s all. But regardless of how I feel about it, these works are worth millions. I obviously don’t know all there is to know. So, who am I to judge?

By the way…the video above…I basically got only half of them right. And I was an art major. So take a look and let us know how you did by commenting below.

Further Reading:

Art History: Modern Art

Abstract Art