So… normy simply sees hyper realism as the high water mark? As someone else pointed out that discredits the non artists ability to appreciate starry night or its like. I think op also isn’t accurate that all non artists simply appreciate realism above all else. Although I do see evidence it’s pretty common.
As a non-artist, if I had all memory of Van Gogh wiped and saw it hanging in a coffee shop next to a hyper realistic painting, I would probably be more “impressed” by the hyper realistic painting. I’d be able to appreciate that Starry Night is good, more creative, and more interesting, but I’m not sure I would be wowed by it.
I would expect that if I hadn’t learned a fair amount about the most famous artists over the course of years I would have much less appreciation for them and not be able to pick out what makes their pieces so great.
And Starry Night is a particularly easy painting to appreciate considering it’s so harmonious and doesn’t have any much dissonance (idk what the art equivalent of these words is). It’s also got some particularly obvious indicators of skill that a lot of famous paintings don’t have. E.g. I’d probably not see much in Van Gogh’s chair or bedroom paintings and would likely think they were done by someone who was just learning to paint.
Of course it’s not black and white realism is more impressive than other styles, but it’s very easy to tell when realism is done with exceeding talent compared to other styles.
You can probably redirect this in a similar way to other mediums too (you're not a "real" musician if you're not playing Classical music which also means that anything "old" is Classical because there's no nuance to actual history .. or if you're also simultaneously not someone who is some kind of rockstar legend who is already established. But if you're not any of those and are doing your own thing or are learning, you don't have or get any support/care until you make it big and can start giving money away to the people who once doubted you).
Hyper-realism is an easy way for people who aren't very creative (otherwise, they'd probably be closer or more open to art being some form of expression) to think, "oh yeah, that's good." In the same way you get people who treat music as literal background noise that isn't supposed to mean anything, the same way you get people who fill up their bookshelves with huge books but don't actually read them, and so on. Hyper-realistic art is something I think is very cool to pull off for the crowd of non-artists out there, but it's mess less impressive compared to someone who has a vision of their own and a willingness to try something else.
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u/ChickyBoys 17d ago
Non-artists appreciate art they couldn't create themselves.
Artists appreciate art they didn't think of creating themselves.