Good Art, Bad Art

Sculpture taken at Chihuly Glass Museum. Gladly this is something I do consider great art!

By Trevor Pacelli
Museums have always been among the main activities my mom and I enjoy doing together; between that and visiting zoos, she and I seem to bond best over culture, nature, and the arts. While we’ve found a preference for historical museums, the art museums we’ve seen are best when their exhibitions are pleasing to the eyes and were clearly made by an expert who spent a long time on the piece to trigger a specific emotion. Yet often, the art museums we’ve seen exhibit modern “art” that is just something like a white canvas with a single black dot in the center, or paint randomly splattered over a childish doodle, which to some people, isn’t really art. Like the curators in charge of what gets exhibited at art museums, the Academy of Motion Pictures award what they think is “art,” but I believe are simply products following a checklist of components films need to gain attention from Oscar voters. It’s why movies like Shakespeare in Love, Crash, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Green Book, and most recently Emilia Pérez have become so hated. They’re not movies the average person wants to watch with friends or family, nor are they providing worthwhile entertainment that can be talked about positively. The are signs that the Academy, and many elite groups of other artistic mediums, including museums, are growing frustratingly out-of-touch with their own industries and audiences.

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Though the final straw that really set off my personal love-hate relationship with the Academy was at the 2022 ceremony, when the presenters of the Best Animated Feature Oscar called animation something kids “watch over and over and over and over…” The average movie lover, including myself, was rightfully angered by this joke because it’s a sign of how the Academy continually dismisses animation as not true cinema, and thus, not art. A movie doesn’t have to be live-action, R-rated, or focus explicitly on modern social issues to be considered superior to something PG-rated and made just for fun. Zootopia for instance is a fun movie about animals living together in a city yet has deeper adult substance in it related to themes of racial prejudice. If a movie or TV show has a strong message for adults as well as children, and clearly was made with love, care, and expertise of the filmmaking medium. It’s meant for all ages.

Critical thinking and common sense are needed to know what can pass as art that deserves a spot on your DVD shelf, as even I had to admit that some badly made yet nostalgic movies I once loved ultimately harmed the way I treat others. For instance, I spent much time in my youngest years watching Disney VHS tapes, including Peter Pan, which as we know has become infamous for its portrayal of Native Americans. From about age three, I thought American Indians were a bunch of fairy tale creatures from long ago who could capture you and burn you on a stake. I continued to think this throughout my childhood, and in fourth grade, there was an indigenous girl in my class who brought a lot of her family’s culture into class for show-and-tell. I once said right to her face, “Oh, so you used to be an Indian!” because I still thought Indians were magical creatures from centuries ago like witches and trolls. Even though I was only ten at the time, no parent wants their kid to become a jerk based on behaviors they were taught by their movie collection.

My personal standards also apply to any movie with a significant portrayal of a minority group. A Beautiful Mind attempts to tell the real story of how a man overcame a mental illness. However, the fictionalized events pose a danger in spreading misinformation about what paranoid schizophrenia is really like. Jumanji also tries using its bully characters to discourage bullying amidst its target audience, but since there’s more detail on the bullying activity than on how to stop it, the movie accidentally becomes a tutorial on how to be an effective bully. James Bond in all his movies sends the message that White men should aim to be womanizers with cool gadgets, lots of money, and a sleek tuxedo. So, thinking through all these movies, especially ones where key characters go through no real development, can open your eyes to the damage they’re doing.

My suggestion is: don’t rely on movies, TV, or anything trying to discuss another culture to learn about the world around you. Go right to the source. Talk to those very people. Listen to their interviews. Visit historical museums. See how learning can be exciting!
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I know it gets overwhelming and confusing to know which works of art are great and which aren’t. Based on my experience, here are some tips to help you discern good pieces of art from bad ones:

1. Regarding a drawing/painting, do the proportions of the drawn subjects look believable? Do the colors, shapes, and lights draw your eye to the art piece’s focal point smoothly?
2. What role does each ethnicity depicted in a movie/TV show serve? Is anyone of a certain race seen serving another of a different race? Is this position of power seen as acceptable?
3. Do the same for the genders depicted.
4. Does the main character of the story change? Do other characters change?
5. Does a character who bullies, steals, lies, commits assault, disobeys parents, cheats on a significant other, or hates someone else ever face repercussions?
6. Who is the target audience? If its primary audience is children, is there a lesson for the adults as well?
7. And most importantly, do you enjoy the art piece? There’s no point having a painting in your living room or a movie on your DVD shelf if it doesn’t make you feel happy. Art should reflect the real you while contributing to your relationships with friends and family!

To help navigate an artfully confused Hollywood, read an older blog post of mine for tips to help you know whether a movie or TV show is truly art.

Trevor Pacelli is a young adult on the autism spectrum as well as the author of What Movies Can Teach Us About Disabilities, What Movies Can Teach Us About Bullying, Summer of the Fruit Virus and the illustrator of The Kindergarten Adventures of Amazing Grace: What in the World is Autism?, and the author/illustrator of Amazing Grace Goes to the Zoo.