The beginning of this chapter was definitely a little shocking. It talks about substances such as blood, urine and semen being used in art. It gives an example of an "artist" named Ron Athey who cut someone open on stage and hung the blood soaked paper towels above his audience. Freeland also talks about how blood has been used in rituals over the years.
The second part Taste and Beauty compares the two. Taste is something that is acquired through values and culture, while Kant considers beauty as a judgment. He believes beautiful objects do not serve an ordinary purpose.
Kant's legacy goes into detail about what Kant believes beauty is. There is also a paragraph talking about Andres Serrano's Piss Christ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piss_Christ). I googled it to see what it was made from but all I found was Esoteric medium and I'm not sure what that is. I know it is a photograph with a small crucifix but as for the yellow stuff, I have no idea. The following section defends this "piece of art". The most compelling argument about why this is art, to me, is when Lippard explains that Serrano does not feel body fluids are shameful, but natural.
Francisco Goya created disturbing but true artwork, some of the scenes he actually witnessed. He then went deaf and created even more horrific images called his Black Paintings.
If I had to describe this chapter in one word it would be horror.
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4 comments:
Thanks for this great summary. And thanks Allison for stepping up to cover for Mike. It was especially interesting for me to compare the work of Goya and Serrano, since one is a reputable artist and the other is considered very controversial. Personally, I am not sure I was touched by the Serrano piece as much as the Goya piece reach me.
Another interesting element of this chapter lies in the discussion about what is beautiful and how our values and our vision of sexuality influence our judgment about what is beautiful. What do you think are your criteria for defining beauty?
Anyone wants to post on Fight Like a Girl?
I read the first chapter as well. It was definately something different. Serrano's Piss Christ mad me a little mad because i thought it was really disresepectful, but as the chapter went on and it was justified I felt better. Even though most of the stuff in this chapter was a little strange, I really liked it because it was new and interesting.
After discussion class, I went to go read the first chapter because I wanted to know exactly what the pictures looked like and the controversial art. When I read it, I also found it to be disrespectful as Jackie said because it was like purposely saying something about God by the title. When I actually saw the picture, it did not look like urine but it looked like the image was floating serenly in a bubble. I was surprised by its calm beauty, but the title is still very shocking. Also, many of the other images were shocking too because of the gore and the use of blood and such. Beauty is an individual reflection, because I believe each person looks at art differently. I do find it hard to explain how everyone agrees that a rose is beautiful but argues with other arts. It has always been a mystery to me....
I agree with the comment about the Piss Christ. After the discussion I went back and read the chapter as well because it sounded so intriging.
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