Art Of The AbsurdDecember 2, 2024“The course of nature is the art of God.” [Edward Young, Night Thoughts] What one might consider art that is worthy of consideration, and perhaps applauded, is, as the saying goes, “in the eye of the beholder.” It may take years of practice, learning, and observation to develop a skill that transcends the ordinary and reaches heights of artistic achievement. The conscious use of skill and a creative imagination can be considered integral to the artist’s creation. This is especially true when associated with the humanities: philosophy, art, and language. Throughout history and over millennia, the artist and his or her craft has inspired and added to the beauty, romance, and mystery of life. When people reflect on art, many will probably think of the Renaissance masters, such as Leonardo DaVinci, Michelangelo, and Rembrandt, and 18th Impressionists like Vincent Van Gogh, and visual artists like Henri Matisse, and later 20th century Pablo Picasso and the Cubist movement. And when they think of these artists, it is probably the Sistine Chapel, Last Supper, the Pieta, Sunflowers and Les Demoiselle, art achievements on canvas, in marble, stone, and ceramics, considered masterpieces by most standards. But time has a way of bringing about the inevitable, and things change. Over the past 60 years, and the onset of the sexual revolution, art took a turn for the worse. There are some exceptions like Thomas Kinkade, Terry Redlin, Jim Buckels, Antonio Borsato, Jim Shore, and others, their works on canvas, porcelain, and wood are heralded by collectors and art critics alike. These artists' interpretations and visions encompassed the humanities: people, places, landscapes, flowers, the ocean, sunrises, and sunsets, etc. On talk radio there is a category of some hosts that have been dubbed “shock jocks,” They can be vulgar, insulting, and divisive. This moniker can be placed on some of today’s ‘artists.’ Some might consider them modernist, but their vision involves more the use of objects and in some cases repulsive venues. Let’s recall 1987 Andres Serrano and his “Piss Christ,” which depicted a plastic crucifix submerged in a tank filled with urine, which won a visual art award. In 1996, Chris Ofili’s exhibition entitled “Sensation,” which combined mixed media on canvas with elephant dung and sexually explicit pornographic photos covering the image of the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, hung in a London gallery. This past October ‘artist’ Alexandre Lavet's two beer cans on top of a glass elevator appeared in a Dutch museum. In the Tate Museum in England, German ‘artist’ Gustav Metzger’s iteration of art consisted of a bag of rubbish. In both these last two cases, the janitorial service mistakenly threw out the beer cans and garbage. Sadly, there is no sense in complaining. I believe this upheaval in the world of art may be here to say. The talent and creative genius of the exceptions I mentioned previously have escaped those who would offer, for the world to see, their visions and interpretation today. Blame the intense changes in the culture and a secular society; the loss of virtue, public standards of decency, and belief in absolute truths, traditional values, and institutions. This has manifested into several generations of shallow, mediocre, and substandard talent among some artists. They’re devoid of imagination to see beyond the ordinary and into the human experience. What I’ve just described is probably distasteful to most, and it reflects poorly on the state of postmodern art. It would be preferable to stop here, but sadly there is more. We now go from the sacrilegious and garbage, to the farcical. And what makes this all so absurd is its acceptance by the elite class. On Wednesday, November 20 at Sotheby’s auction house in New York City, a ‘work of art’ was placed on the auction block. The assembled, composed of art aficionados, critics, and buyers who kept the bidding moving along with intensity. Finally, when it ended and the sale closed, a Chinese entrepreneur won with a $6.2 million bid. So, what you might ask is the problem here? It seems this was just one of many auctions that have taken place over time, so let us give plaudits to the artist’s achievement, and the buyer’s good fortune. I have to think that perhaps you’re curious by now, and wonder what was the artwork involved. Hold on to your seats, here it comes. Imagine, no color, no people, landscapes, flowers, trees, sunrise, sunsets, the ocean, no not this time, just a blank wall with a banana duct-taped to it. Yes, you read that right - a blank wall with a banana duct-taped to it. Just one question, the life of a banana acceptable for most human consumption can be measured in days. So what happens when the banana ripens to a mushy brown clump? Do you remove the duct tape and replace the banana? Oh yes, part of the sale was a “certificate of authenticity” that grants the buyer “the permission and authority” to reproduce the work. And the buyer can do that, find a wall, and for about $5.95, the cost of a banana and a roll of duct tape, create his own work of art. This is the kind of insanity that takes art from the sublime to the ridiculous and debased. I am not going to judge what a person does with his or her money. However, this is a kind of wastefulness, when there are countless good causes that this knucklehead could have given to, and possibly have made lives better.
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Visit Bob Pascarella's website at www.ShortStoriesInVerse.com
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