insite
: : kevan nitzberg
humor
in art or "a line is a dot that went for a walk" - paul klee
Continued
from part 1
"From the Other Side of the Glass…"
, Duchamp
After the advent of WWI,
a more sardonic sense of humor is found among the Dadaists. Their disgust with
the destruction that (Western) humanity visited upon itself, left many with the
feeling that the whole concept of art should be not be looked at with any more
seriousness than humanity apparently cared to view civilization.
Marcel
Duchamp’s work, "To be looked at (from the Other Side of the Glass) with
One Eye, Close to, for Almost an Hour" [7], is an example of an apparently
nonsensical, random collection of objects and images. This strategy is also found
in the surreal landscape of artists such as Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte, Max
Ernst and Paul Klee.
"Viaducts Break Ranks",
Paul Klee [8]
As with all things, art
often creates parodies of itself, which can also humor and delight us. Performance
art sometimes slips into parody, as with the Blue Man Group, who have found TV
a receptive stage for their comic antics. They combine elements of visual art,
percussive sound and movement in their work [9], blending all three into new configurations
that are as amusing as they are engaging.
Intentional
parodies are seen in the computer renditions of the "Mona Lisa" by Ahmet
Kurt on his web site, "The Essential Guide to the History of Painting"
[10]. His images even parody a parody: a parody of Duchamp’s rendition of the
Mona Lisa (with moustache and goatee) and titled, "L.H.O.O.Q" [11].
L.H.O.O.Q when spoken in French makes a sentence equivalent to 'she has a hot
arse'.
Ahmet Kurt, website image.
Artists
of our time such as Marisol Escobar, Red Grooms and Margaret Adachi, have played
with humor in their 3 dimensional work, from gaudy, geometric party goers to stuffed,
colorful, fabric-covered poultry forms suspended in air and reminiscent of some
of Claes Oldenburg’s earlier fast food soft sculptures [12].
At
this point, it is important to step back and try to reconcile the subject of this
article with the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon
on Sept. 11th. Those events have forever altered our perception as
to what heights senseless death and destruction can be taken, as one horrific
image after another is shown to us on TV, hastening to outdo all of those that
have come before. In that vein, now more than ever, once the grieving process
is less all-consuming, and time has been allowed to pass, we again will need to
find those things that can make us smile. We will want to take pleasure in the
ironies and idiosyncrasies, and even the occasional pitfalls that help us to define
our humanity. It is good to know that visual art along with all of the other arts
disciplines, will be there for us when we are ready.
[1]
http://www.getty.edu/art/collections/bio/a405-1.html
http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pbio?220620
[2]
http://sunsite.dk/cgfa/hogarth/p-hogarth1.htm
[3]
http://sunsite.dk/cgfa/steen/p-steen7.htm
[4]
http://sunsite.dk/cgfa/watteau/watteau8.jpg
[5]
http://sunsite.dk/cgfa/escher/index.html
http://www.nga.gov/cgi-
bin/psearch?Request=F&Transaction=891343108&Page=2
[6]
http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=53953+0+none
[7]
http://www.beatmuseum.org/duchamp/hour.html
[8]
http://www.allposters.com./
[9]
http://www.blueman.com/about_bmg/index.shtml
[10]
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Bistro/1347/english.html
[11]
http://www.allposters.com./
[12]
http://www.sla.purdue.edu/academic/vpa/ad/waaw/AsianAmerican/Artists/AD
ACHbio.HTM
Kevan
Nitzberg is an art educationalist and Minnesota Educator of the Year, 2000. To
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