
Yeah, always found that interesting, how a talent can play out in two ways:
I feel like a lot of people miss the meaning of this one.
A gunshot wound that creates a splatter of red liquid is very, very different in meaning from a splatter of ketchup. The comic is criticizing the type of person who criticizes art only based on the superficial similarity rather than the actual context and meaning represented by the artist’s choices.
Not every artistic choice has intrinsic meaning, and plenty of artists and art critics go too far in focusing on the “how” than the “what” in art, but I still think the “how” matters a lot.
If you remove the art from the context, would it still mean the same to you?
Kinda depends on the artwork, right?
When you know that a Eric Clapton wrote “Tears in Heaven” for his dead 4-year-old son, it does hit different.
Picasso’s Guernica also carries a lot of meaning from its context, in its anti-war message. The symbolism in the painting itself can be debated, but the context of time and place (and the author’s chosen title) clearly conveys a message that war is horrible and that the specific bombing campaign on Guernica was cruel.
Filmmakers love long one-shot scenes not just because of the content itself, but also because of the technical feats required to actually make it.
The context can add quite a bit of meaning to art. It doesn’t always, and often isn’t intended to, but for a lot of artwork stripping away the context actually strips away some of the artistic value.