# Can Non-Representational Art Be Funny? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 3, 2006, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-non-representational-art-be-funny/338213 "2006-01-03T14:15:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-non-representational-art-be-funny/338213/121 "2006-01-09T20:43:44Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#): > > You’d be able to conclusively identify it as a landscape painting without the title, you feel? As I recall I didn’t read the titles immediately when I first saw them. I thought they looked like Romantic landscapes first, then read the titles and had my suspicions confirmed. > [@CandidGamera](#): > > How can you simultaneously not see much point in WORKING to find something funny, but also recommend trying to really LOOK. Sounds like you’re CONTRADICTING yourself. What I’m saying this that you’re probably not going to find ANY abstract art funny if you don’t have some context to work from. Acquiring that knowledge would mean WORKING to know more about art in general – composition, history, techniques, etc. – including more about abstract art. You would be working to build a knowledge base that would allow you to get the joke. It’s like learning French in order to be able to laugh at a French comedian. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-non-representational-art-be-funny/338213/122 "2006-01-09T20:56:40Z")
> [@Pochacco](#): > > As I recall I didn’t read the titles immediately when I first saw them. I thought they looked like Romantic landscapes first, then read the titles and had my suspicions confirmed. I rather fancied that one to resemble Wonder Bread packaging, myself. > [@](#): > > What I’m saying this that you’re probably not going to find ANY abstract art funny if you don’t have some context to work from. Acquiring that knowledge would mean WORKING to know more about art in general – composition, history, techniques, etc. – including more about abstract art. You would be working to build a knowledge base that would allow you to get the joke. > > It’s like learning French in order to be able to laugh at a French comedian. I do have a context to work from - very broad context of the human experience, on which so much comedy is based. Thinking about it, this is a kind of inbred, self-referential sort of humor… it’s sort of like puns, with written or spoken language. It is because I lack that specific context of art knowledge though, that I ask the folks of the board. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-non-representational-art-be-funny/338213/123 "2006-01-10T22:20:52Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#): > > I rather fancied that one to resemble Wonder Bread packaging, myself. > > I do have a context to work from - very broad context of the human experience, on which so much comedy is based. > > Thinking about it, this is a kind of inbred, self-referential sort of humor… it’s sort of like puns, with written or spoken language. > > It is because I lack that specific context of art knowledge though, that I ask the folks of the board. Well, again, this is like asking, “Can an English speaker ‘get’ a joke that’s told in Portuguese?” and insisting that somehow the abstract sounds of the vowels and consonants must convey some kind of humor, divorced of all linguistic context. Since that seems to be where you’re going, I’d say the answer to the OP–working within your idiosyncratic definitions of “non-representational,” “art,” and “funny,”–is “No.” If you’re going to respond to any example offered by continually narrowing the definition of those terms to specifically exclude the example, then again, “No.” Alternatively, using the more widely accepted definitions of the terms “non-representational,” “art,” and “funny,” and not adding the additional and bewildering condition of excluding any and all relevant context, the answer, as evidenced by the many examples in this thread, is an emphatic “Yes.” If “art snob” can be defined as “anyone who’s put enough effort into understanding the history and context of art to be able to ‘get’ the humor in some abstract art,” then anyone who speaks Portuguese can be called a “Portuguese snob.” Acquisition of a particular area of knowledge–engineering; Portuguese; art–does not automatically make one a “snob” in contrast to others who have not acquired the same particular area of knowledge. It is as pointless–and as Rorschachian–to call someone who ‘gets’ abstract art a “snob” as it is to call someone who ‘gets’ engineering a “snob,” simply because they understand how a bridge stays up and I don’t. To call someone a snob for using terms like “negative space” is as silly as calling someone a snob for using terms like “torque.” ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-non-representational-art-be-funny/338213/124 "2006-01-11T14:51:49Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > Well, again, this is like asking, “Can an English speaker ‘get’ a joke that’s told in Portuguese?” and insisting that somehow the abstract sounds of the vowels and consonants must convey some kind of humor, divorced of all linguistic context. Ah! Since you have the non-representational art-to-English dictionary close at hand, perhaps you can tell me what blue swash-green circle-red triangle means. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-non-representational-art-be-funny/338213/125 "2006-01-11T19:29:57Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#): > > Ah! Since you have the non-representational art-to-English dictionary close at hand, perhaps you can tell me what blue swash-green circle-red triangle means. “Blue swash-green circle-red triangle” is a string of words. It’s not a painting. I think you need to spend a little more time contemplating [This is Not a Pipe](http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/local/pipe.jpg). 😉 ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-non-representational-art-be-funny/338213/126 "2006-01-11T20:34:27Z")
> [@Pochacco](#): > > “Blue swash-green circle-red triangle” is a string of words. It’s not a painting. More specifically, its a sarcastic retort! ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-non-representational-art-be-funny/338213/127 "2006-01-11T21:16:28Z")
No, that would be a talking piece of glassware. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-non-representational-art-be-funny/338213/128 "2006-01-12T00:51:52Z")
> [@E-Sabbath](#): > > No, that would be a talking piece of glassware. So you’re saying someone’s mouth is ajar? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2022, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-non-representational-art-be-funny/338213/129 "2022-10-31T19:03:16Z")
Bumped. Well, I thought _this_ was funny… > **[Piet Mondrian painting was hanging upside down for 77 years, museum curator says](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/piet-mondrian-painting-new-york-city-1-hanging-upside-down-for-77-years-museum-curator-says/)** > > The error could have been made because "the painting doesn't have a signature," according to the curator. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-non-representational-art-be-funny/338213.md?page=6)