Art Interaction

The clichés about modern art are numerous and well-known. But exactly what is it that gives rise to these prejudices, and are there differences between the way we view and interact with classic versus modern art?

I've recently pondered the difference between watching (sidetrack: watching is such a poor word, since you don't watch great art. Watching implies a passive, one-way act, and with great art, that's so not the case. You interact with great art, even if it's non-transient, stationary art. The world still moves around it, providing new context) old artworks (paintings mostly) and new, modern art pieces. In old art interaction, you get so many layers, there's the craftmanship of the piece, the skill and time invested, the actual motif and the sub-motifs within this, the composition, the colour choices, gradients and transitions, but also the context in which the piece was created, how the world was then, compared to the present world, how different persons from different times will (have) view(ed) it differently, and how our greater understanding of many things and lesser understanding of some affect our viewing/interaction. 

Compare this to modern art, which, at least in the majority of the cases, has little to no craftsmanship involved, does not really have layers of time differential understanding, often barely have any recognisable motifs at all, and also mostly fail to convey the artist's thoughts and intentions successfully, at least with any coherence, immediacy and transparency. I mean, with most of the old paintings, the artist strives to convey all necessary information through the piece, so that you can grasp the scene and the inherent narrative herein without even resorting to reading the painting title (although there might be a puzzle aspect to it too, can I figure out what is referred to here without reading the title plaque? Gameizing the world we live in), whereas most modern art pieces fail to convey the central message, even after you've read an entire page about the piece in the brochure you paid rather too much money for. It all feels so contrived. And I can never quite lose the inner voice going "ah those pansies, I'll just throw some paint on here, and BING, that's another hundred-thou in the bank account, Hah!"... Like modern art is one huge scam, with a handful of people all in on the same internal joke, laughing at the idiot masses while going down to the bank... 

Mind you, there are modern art pieces which move me, and I do think that modern art may in fact have the potential to move me more than its predecessorial pieces, but the whole 'you're being scammed' feeling just ruins it for me, prevents me from really letting my guard down and dive in unpretentiously, openly and inprejudiced.