Marina Abramovic – Art Must be Beautiful, Artist Must be Beautiful
The first piece of ar
t I’d like to discuss is a fairly extraordinary one. One reason for this is the fact that it is a performance and not a handmade object that can be carried around or put on a wall. The title is pretty telling: Art must be Beautiful, Artist must be Beautiful, and it was made by Marina Abramovic, a performance artist of Serbian origin. I think it is the perfect work to start my blog with, since it touches upon the evergreen dilemma of the majority of artists and the audience as well: is aesthetic pleasure the main object of art? The Romantic poet, Keats gave a categorical answer for that question in his famous poem, Ode on a Grecian Urn: “Beauty is truth / truth beauty” - he wrote.
Still, in 1975, Abramovic sees it quite differently. In her video, she brushes her hair in a frustrated and desperate manner: she holds metal combs in both of her hands and brushes her hair until it becomes messy and rumpled. The expression "shock headed" suits her appearance perfectly. Apparently, she is not the least concerned by the possibility of harming herself with the combs. Throughout this ritual, she repeats the sentence “Art must be beautiful, artist must be beautiful” like a mantra. Her performance gives an insight into the ars poetica of the modern artist from a double perspective: it deals with the problems of a contemporary artist, "aggravated" by the fact that she is a female one.
We could say that it is a double-attack on conventions as well: she challenges the traditional beauty-notion that is forced upon and expected from both art and women in general. Her naked body becomes a work of art itself which refuses to be pretty and empty, either as a living being or a piece of art. Her work could not really be accused of lack of meaning since her message is very strong and clear. In her retrospective called The Artist is Present (2010), she claims that beauty has nothing to do with art, since art has to be disturbing and full of questions, and, above all: true. Most probably, she and Keats would have had a rather disturbing colloquy about the "beauty truth, truth beauty" matter.
Marcel Ducham
p: Fountain
t I’d like to discuss is a fairly extraordinary one. One reason for this is the fact that it is a performance and not a handmade object that can be carried around or put on a wall. The title is pretty telling: Art must be Beautiful, Artist must be Beautiful, and it was made by Marina Abramovic, a performance artist of Serbian origin. I think it is the perfect work to start my blog with, since it touches upon the evergreen dilemma of the majority of artists and the audience as well: is aesthetic pleasure the main object of art? The Romantic poet, Keats gave a categorical answer for that question in his famous poem, Ode on a Grecian Urn: “Beauty is truth / truth beauty” - he wrote.Still, in 1975, Abramovic sees it quite differently. In her video, she brushes her hair in a frustrated and desperate manner: she holds metal combs in both of her hands and brushes her hair until it becomes messy and rumpled. The expression "shock headed" suits her appearance perfectly. Apparently, she is not the least concerned by the possibility of harming herself with the combs. Throughout this ritual, she repeats the sentence “Art must be beautiful, artist must be beautiful” like a mantra. Her performance gives an insight into the ars poetica of the modern artist from a double perspective: it deals with the problems of a contemporary artist, "aggravated" by the fact that she is a female one.
We could say that it is a double-attack on conventions as well: she challenges the traditional beauty-notion that is forced upon and expected from both art and women in general. Her naked body becomes a work of art itself which refuses to be pretty and empty, either as a living being or a piece of art. Her work could not really be accused of lack of meaning since her message is very strong and clear. In her retrospective called The Artist is Present (2010), she claims that beauty has nothing to do with art, since art has to be disturbing and full of questions, and, above all: true. Most probably, she and Keats would have had a rather disturbing colloquy about the "beauty truth, truth beauty" matter.
Marcel Ducham
p: Fountain
The infamous Fountain, which is a plain white urinal, is one of the most cheeky and scandalous works of art of the 20th century. It being a piece of art is a controversial issue not only because of the dismissive attitude of the audience but also owing to the fact that Duchamp was one of the most significant members of Dada, which was an overt anti-art movement. Although the Fountain is undoubtedly a flillip, somehow it justified the existence of readymade artistic objects and established the concept of found art. As it was written in 1917 in the editorial of the second issue of The Blind Man, the fact that the artist chose this object as a work of art enabled it to gain a higher meaning and a ticket to the pantheon of acclaimed masterpieces. Thus, the artist acts as a reinventor in the case of readymade objects.
This ideology is an idiosyncratic characteristic of modern art: the conceptual value and the nawfangled nature of the piece is much more appreciated than the craftsmanship or the technical skills of the artist. This shift puts the audience in an undeniably more demanding position: they have to muster their creativity, associative skills, and imagination in order to be able to interpret such a work in an intellectual manner. The fact that the original Fountain disappeared a short time after its initial exhibition; also, that Duchamp made several replicas of it, proves the same thing. Thoughts, ideas, and the conceptual powerfulness of a piece of art no longer roots in its physical being or appearance. Thus, it does not have to be preserved and treated in a fashion as if it was the most perfect and unrepeatable realization of the artist's idea and talent.
Strangely enough, if one is willing to give a second thought or a second chance to the Fountain, its message could be quite interesting. Turned upside down, one of the most coarse practical objects, the urinal, becomes a curvy and delicately shaped article, which is associated with fountains with the help of the title. This might reveal how thin the line is between the low and ordinary and the sublime and aesthetically pleasing. Also, the fact that the creation of a work like the Fountain did not require an artistic vein (not in the traditional sense at least) may be inspirational for people with no particular hand skills but a vivid imagination, since it makes the creation of something intellectually exciting possible, and opens many doors for ways of using creativity.
Still, one thing should not be forgotten: sometimes the manic attempts at discovering a majestic and profound meaning in modern works of art are just simply in vain. Contemporary art has a sense of humor; thus, we, the audience are allowed to laugh together with the artist. Exhilarating, isn't it?
This ideology is an idiosyncratic characteristic of modern art: the conceptual value and the nawfangled nature of the piece is much more appreciated than the craftsmanship or the technical skills of the artist. This shift puts the audience in an undeniably more demanding position: they have to muster their creativity, associative skills, and imagination in order to be able to interpret such a work in an intellectual manner. The fact that the original Fountain disappeared a short time after its initial exhibition; also, that Duchamp made several replicas of it, proves the same thing. Thoughts, ideas, and the conceptual powerfulness of a piece of art no longer roots in its physical being or appearance. Thus, it does not have to be preserved and treated in a fashion as if it was the most perfect and unrepeatable realization of the artist's idea and talent.
Strangely enough, if one is willing to give a second thought or a second chance to the Fountain, its message could be quite interesting. Turned upside down, one of the most coarse practical objects, the urinal, becomes a curvy and delicately shaped article, which is associated with fountains with the help of the title. This might reveal how thin the line is between the low and ordinary and the sublime and aesthetically pleasing. Also, the fact that the creation of a work like the Fountain did not require an artistic vein (not in the traditional sense at least) may be inspirational for people with no particular hand skills but a vivid imagination, since it makes the creation of something intellectually exciting possible, and opens many doors for ways of using creativity.
Still, one thing should not be forgotten: sometimes the manic attempts at discovering a majestic and profound meaning in modern works of art are just simply in vain. Contemporary art has a sense of humor; thus, we, the audience are allowed to laugh together with the artist. Exhilarating, isn't it?
