Do I need to know more about art in order to appreciate these pieces?

I think it would be helpful to have a better understanding of what kind of style of art the artist was using. I can only hope the exhibits gave some background information. While I am not an artist myself, I’ve had to study it a few times in my life. You don’t need a complete understanding in things to appreciate them; but, it can help understand such maddens in your own words “A scrap piece of plywood, poorly cut with a few screw holes. . .” A lot of art is thinking about how or why something was done. Why are there holes in it? Why are the cuts in the wood so uneven and random? Why was that piece of wood used in the first place?

Sometimes art is even left with instructions in how it’s supposed to be set up. Or the artiest died and there is no writing. For all we know that hole was cut in a way to expose the backdrop when viewed at the correct time of day. The hole is then just an insight into the artiest eyes and we do not get the full understanding behind it since it was not persevered correctly in the first place.

What about these pieces make them worthy of a place in a gallery?

When looking at the kind of art that was present it’s not always about the monetary value. It’s the value the person who is paying for it feels it adds in their own life. While I have no clue what kind of classifications this style of art would be consider its clear the gallery focus on a certain time. The art curator and perhaps even the patrons of the gallery simply enjoy this kind of art as it leaves them thinking differently. They can spend time questing every single cut the artiest mov,e and try and ponder a deeper meaning behind it.

Some of these pieces appear to require no ability or talent. Am I wrong about this?

Yes and no. For all we know a thousand pieces of wood had to be cut for the artiest to finally feel they have cut it in such a way that was profound. Sometimes the random holes, uneven cuts, and oddly placed paint stains are the real talent in it. It’s easy for some people to just copy and draw perfect lines and do everything “perfect.” It sometimes requires more talent to do it wrong, since that is not how they were trained to do something at all.

Do people say that this is good art because of peer pressure?

I’ve seen it a few times in such a way someone wanted to appear intellectual in a matter they had no understanding of. They would talk highly of a “sculpture” that in fact was just a stain from a dog getting into the place and taking a giant steamer on the floor!

I always find it more interesting after hundreds of thousands of people have visited and commented on a piece of art to have one person come in and think “why is this upside down.” Things like, “Artiest focus more about the lighting on his painting then the painting itself,” and other things that were missed when putting it up; changing the perspective of the art in the first place.

My biggest issue with art is everything always has to have a meaning behind it. Often times there was not one till the question was ask then the artiest wanting to seem deeper than they are. So, they comes up with an answer to it. Art a lot of the time appears to be people over simplifying it, or over complicating what is really going in. That is also the fun part about art! A few times the art we see before us was in fact never what the artiest was seeing because hey they had an addiction to one thing or another. What we see is simply not how something looked when they made it!

What do I see?

First sculpture:
Appears to be setup in such a way that the horizon line between the floor and the wall was intentional. The rough cut of a circle represents the journey of life of something. The first and last hole drilled into the piece represents the start and death of something, If you try and take a center point of the circle and draw it upward towards the missing part of wood you notice it just before the wood starts on the right hand side and a big gap on the other. This could have meaning of void in the artist’s life from whatever the circle is really about. Something was created and thus the part of wood starts to form, and then where missing wood is the end by of something and the void creating by the loss. The square shape could mean a window into the soul of whatever the object represents. The other holes in the culture could be other deaths or losses of a slimier something that had less of an impact on the artist. Finally, the stains that are around the painting could be the artiest muddy/staining feeling towards the objects life in the way it flows in and out and around the wood.

Other Sculptures
I am rather disappointed to find out you added in those glasses to give it a size reference point in the second one. To me those glasses being added to that would have created far more meaning. But I will leave you up to trying analysis it and the remaining ones! I find that’s the true beauty of art. A lot of art the artist is long dead well after people decided to “feel” something for it and drive the price up. So its often not what the artist seen or why they did something but how “others” think it was.

For all I know you just randomly put things up in your house and took pictures of them claiming to be at an art gallery! I would be rather funny 