Common Misconceptions About Art

I have a lot of friends that are well cultured and go to the occasional art show and appreciate a few artists. But I consistently see well cultured people make the same mistake about art. You probably think it's pretentious to preach about this in a post, well people don't like being corrected and maybe someone will read this and save themselves the embarrassment. 

  Self-portrait

     So many times I've seen people call a portrait  someone drew of them  a 'self portrait.' It's only a self-portrait if it's a portrait of you drawn or painted by you.

You know, cause you paint it yourself!

Modern Art

  No one makes Modern Art anymore, they only make Contemporary Art. The modern art period ended around 1965, some say 1970. All art made today is Contemporary. I've read that art started to get really weird and avant guard after the 80's art boom. The economic boom of the 80's caused a amazing time in the art world where people invested a lot of money in art, but then the bubble burst at the end of the 80's and it caused the art dealers to disenchanted with the art at the time and that's when they started to take risks on the really weird art out there, so now you have Lady Gaga getting puked on with the 'Vomit Artist,' and it's 'art,' because it's 'weird.'