The Good. The Bad. The "Ugly"

I had this great post all written out on my iPhone and I guess I didn't save it (go figure). I was nursing my teething son to sleep and was thinking about how pop culture tends to gravitate towards "pretty" art and turns away from "ugly" art. I am one of those people who love "pretty" art, but not "ugly" art. Or I used to be.

During the Toronto International Film Festival I had the opportunity to see a documentary called "For No Good Reason". Johnny Depp was in it and it was about an English Cartoonist, Ralph Steadman; that was about all I knew. I was excited to go, maybe spot a star I actually recognized, maybe see some people I hadn't seen in a long time....

Anyway, as we took our seats and the film started and I was struck by how "ugly" Ralph's cartoons are. If I had seen them in an art gallery I would probably have rushed past them and not given them any thought except "ugh". Being forced to sit through an entire documentary, however, forced me to look at these sometimes grotesque (personal opinion) pictures for a long time. The commentary was extremely helpful; listening to Ralph talk about what was going at the time, gave the images some depth and I began to see them differently. They told a story, many stories actually. Stories that "pretty" cartoons and images just couldn't tell with the same impact.

"Ugly" tends to be dark (but not always), a little chaotic (but not always), and depicts things we'd rather not think about. I don't believe that any art is truly "ugly". Some of it is not to my taste, but as long as it's thought provoking I believe it can just be art. I believe that very little in the world is truly "ugly" and that no art is really ugly, it just requires some thought and maybe some getting used to. I'll admit that by the end of the documentary I was genuinely starting to like some of Ralph Steadman's cartoons (not in the way I like pretty landscape art, but I could appreciate the images).

I am happy to report that I have grown in my appreciation of art and will continue to look harder at the art that is not immediately appealing to me to try to find the message/story it is telling me.