Art?

(Completely unrelated: Look! Look! I posted over there!)

From an advertisement on the back of the entertainment section of a local newspaper:

FREE Exhibition

Frank Stella:
Irregular Polygons
Opens... etc.

Frank Stella has been a consistent innovator at the forefront of abstract art. Though based on simple geometries, his Irregular Polygons series of 1965-66 comprises one of the most complex statements of his long career. Each of eleven monumental compositions combines varying numbers of shapes and colors, resulting in daringly asymmetric canvases that play with illusion.

I hate to say this (not really), but sticking a bunch of shapes together isn't really a complex statement. Look at this, and tell me that it's something more complex than a triangle sticking out of a not-exactly-a-square. What, it symbolizes suffering or some silliness like that? (And what's wrong with using, say, actual forms found in life for symbolism? I don't like people reading into every teeny tiny detail too much either, though, so... eh.)

I don't have a problem with modern art on general principle (in fact, I rather love futurism) but talking about abstract art as anything other than aesthetically pleasing shapes is just a bunch of pretentious bull. (I know I'm hardly the first person to voice that opinion, but whatever. It's not like I'm trying to make a statement, unlike some people.)

-Signing off.