What’s So Funny About Modern Art?

Modern art takes itself much too seriously. Even the Pop artists often took the fun out of whatever they touched—a reverse Midas touch rendering even comedy gold into dross. Andy Warhol immortalized Elvis and Marilyn not at their peak of pure joy, but at their most tragic low. In Renegade Humor, which runs at the San Jose Museum of Art through July 8, 2012, the search for a sense of humor in modern art finally succeeds. Gathering together art since 1960 from the SJMA’s collection as well as pieces designed especially for the exhibition, Renegade Humor goes maverick and bucks the trend. Renegade Humor plays for laughs, but also proves that you can laugh and think at the same time. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "What’s So Funny About Modern Art?"

[Image: Peter VandenBerge. Couple Watching Saturday Night Movie, 1969. Ceramic. 13 x 12 x 11 inches. San Jose Museum of Art. Museum purchase with funds from the Collection Committee.]

[Many thanks to the San Jose Museum of Art for the image above and other press materials related to Renegade Humor, which runs through July 8, 2012.]

Who Will Be the Next Great Caricature (and Caricaturist)?

Now that the silly season of American politics revs up for another presidential election, it’s a fair question to ask who will be the next great caricature? Nixon cast his jowly 5 o’clock shadow, Carter bared his giant teeth, and Reagan’s pompadour soared, but what will be the next indelible image of exaggeration to serve as shorthand for those aspiring to power? One way of looking forward is to look back, specifically at the exhibition Infinite Jest: Caricature and Satire from Leonardo to Levine, which runs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through March 4, 2012. Reaching back all the way to the Renaissance, Infinite Jest suggests that poking fun to make a serious point has gone on for a long time for many different reasons. As the exhibition shows, even great artists you’d never suspect of caricature tried their hand at such gibes, making you wonder which great artist today will be the great caricaturist of tomorrow. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Who Will Be the Next Great Caricature (and Caricaturist)?"

[Image: Enrique Chagoya (American, born in Mexico, 1953) after George Cruickshank (British, 1792-1878). The Head Ache, 2010. Etching with digitally printed color on gampi paper chine collé, sheet: 15 x 21 in. (38.1 x 53.3 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Stewart S. MacDermott Fund, 2010 (2010.285)]

[Many thanks to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for providing me with the image above from and to Yale University Press for providing me with the catalog to Infinite Jest: Caricature and Satire from Leonardo to Levine, which runs through March 4, 2012.]