ART - What is it?
It is very difficult to
define what art is exactly. According
to one definition art is: ”Objects or ideas created by humans which
tell/show what we are thinking or feeling.
Art may or may not be beautiful.
Art may or may not look like something we know (recognize). Art includes painting, sculpture,
architecture, music, performance, dance, and acting (drama).” I can tell you this much: art is something
you can’t argue with. You can’t take
the f----er outside. Unless it’s an
outside art.
Perhaps one of the most
famous examples of ”misunderstood” art was Marcel Duchamp’s ”Fountain” which
was a men’s urinal turned upside down with words ”R. Mutt 1917” painted on
it. What did it mean? One could argue that defining and
identifying Art in contemporary Western society is a function of art’s
institutional structures such as the museums, galleries, auction houses, and
publications. These institutions are
said to create culture of art. In this
way, Marcel Duchamp can put a men’s urinal on a pedestal and this plumbing
fixture becomes "Art" since it acquires meaning and validation
through being in the museum – an institution of art.
Istvan Kantor, a Canadian
artist recently won a Governor General’s Award – one of the most prestigious
prizes in the country – for his latest creation of metal cabinets opening and
closing, that suggest fornication, along with semi-nude people dressed in
futuristic wear of aluminum foil and cable, writhing on the floor suggestively. This
is the best art that was produced in Canada in 2003, according to the
experts. And why not? Interestingly Kantor is also permanently
banned from Canadian art institutions for throwing blood (the project was
called ”blood-x”) on the walls of the national and international
galleries. These bloody
happenings
were to done in order to explore the form of guerilla performance – they were
done illegally and without authorization.
The concept was inspired by… the act of vandalism. Here’s a gem: Kantor’s best-known act – or as many would say ”masterpiece”
-- is a blood-x made between two
Picassos in New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1988.
Many people understand art
as something that is pleasing to the eye or ear – take any impressionist
painting – Monet, Van Gogh -- or a
musical wonder of Beethoven’s ”Pastoral”
or Chopins ”Variations” – but when art becomes hard or impossible to
understand right away we tend to question its merit.
Speaking of music. There’s a musical piece called ”As Slow
as Possible”, and it’s a musical piece which began in 2001 in a small
German town - and is composed to last a stupefying 639 years. It is composed by John Cage, author of
another musical artwork called ”4’33” and this is a piece that consists
of four minutes and thirty-three seconds in which the performer plays… nothing.
And going back to visual
art. A British artist, Tracey Emin who
was shortlisted for Turner Prize in 1999 showed her unmade bed as an artwork
(again, in the museum, therefore it was validated as artwork, no?). It was a regular bed, with white sheets,
obviously slept in, with cigarette butts, and empty condom packages, a
suitcase… strewn around, most of it, on a shabby navy mat. According to the official description ”My
Bed’, the work shown at the Turner Prize exhibition in 1999, graphically
illustrates themes of loss, sickness, fertility, copulation, conception and
death - almost the whole human life-cycle in the place where most of us spend
our most significant moments”
And who could argue with
that? It must be art
hide
Home
