ALBERTO TESSORE
WORK OF ART, YES OR NOT? ART AS A WAY OF
LIFE
(Guida Editore, Italy, 2006; 190 pages + Illustrations).
Available only in Italian.
PRESENTATION PAGE
There is no doubt that nowadays there is an enormous distance between
the contemporary artistic production and the public, as one can see in many
museums or visiting large Exhibitions like the Biennale in Venice. The book
explains why there is an incomprehension of contemporary art mixed with a
twisting snobbery. How many times, during such visits one can hear somebody
whispering: "I could do it as well" and "What's that
stuff?", "How can one say that it's a work of art?".
This book -intended for a wide-reading public-
offers a means to understand today's art mechanisms, which leave most public
bewildered, to examine the difference between who's an artist and who's not. It
tries to stimulate the public to think over the very concept of work of art
and what is the artist's role and position in contemporary society.
It explains why the best
recipe to get today success is to have mass
media talking about you, by creating works that give rise to scandal. Art
has always been connected to power. In previous centuries art market was in the
hands of princes and Cardinals; today, in a society which is based on marketing
and consumerism, the power centres are less visible, but not less decisive. A
small group of critics and curators have the power to lay down rules of what is
art and what is not, establishing in such way respective monetary values:
Market, collectors, sponsors and art exhibitions.
A chapter on
non-European arts (African, Hindus, etc.), helps us to appreciate better the
arts of such cultures, but also to understand certain aspects of our culture,
especially contemporary art.
The book also explains
many artistic currents like conceptualism, abstract expressionism, outsider
art, pop art, op art, minimalism, arte povera, new forms of realism,
cataloguing the world, land art, etc. The definitions of art are innumerable,
but art remains something indefinable as a direct human life expression. Art
and life do coincide? Is anyone of us a potential artist? Therefore it’s more
appropriate to talk today about artistic instant as a vibratory apex,
instead of “work of art”.
DETAILED INDEX
Introduction
1. TODAY'S SITUATION
1-1 The more scandalous,
the better
1-2 Confusion
in the definition of what is art
1-3 Art and
power - Market and critics
1-4 Great
exhibitions and museums, festivals and symposiums
Museums of contemporary
art are today's Cathedrals, able to promote cultural tourism; new museums, real
masterpieces of architecture, spring up everywhere. Different opinions on
museums' role and new trends in their management.
2. NEW CURRENTS,
TECHNIQUES AND ART FORMS
2-1 Epochal crisis
In the beginning of the century avant-gardes have been the mirror of a
huge social-political crisis, which has swept away Europe; in the second
post-war period the artistic centre moves from Paris to New York; the American
way of life establishes itself
everywhere, influencing also the arts. The second avant-gardes spread
out to the whole planet, bearers of phenomena such as the general loss of
frontiers, globalisation, politicization, omnivorous consumerism, expressed
also in the overflowing eroticism. Thanks to new materials and new expressive
forms, like happenings, performances, installations and video-art the borders
of what was the traditional field of art (painting and sculpture primarily)
expanded and became much larger.
2-2 Main artistic
currents
- conceptualism
- abstract
expressionism- outsider art
- pop art
- op art
- minimalism
- arte povera
- new forms of realism
- cataloguing the world
- land art
- performance
- body art
- video art
- artists photographers
2-3 Final considerations
3. SACRED AND PROFANE
ART - ROLE OF ART IN OTHER CULTURES
The role of art has
always been different from today’s one: in most cases it has been based on
spiritual, magical, divine or celebrative grounds, in contrast with today's
personalism and mercantilism
3-1 Sacred art
The sacredness and the
contact with the divine has been the main root of art in most cultures.
3-2 Profane art
3-2-1 celebrative3-2-2 decorative
3-2-3 propagandistic
3-3 A look at some
“other” cultures
3-3-1 African world3-3-2 Hindu world
3-3-3 Islamic world
3-3-4 Christian art and western classicism
3-4 Final considerations
4. WHAT IS ART TODAY?
WHAT FOR IS IT DONE?
4-1 Life is grey and art
may help in lighting it up
4-2 “Artistic
instant” as a wealth of vibrations
4-3 What we
find beautiful and what ugly
4-4 Are we all artists?
Professional and amateurs artists
4-5 The role of school
CONCLUSION
Art may become a general
activity. Thank to which everyone can enrich its own life; museums will then
not only be places where one can expose works of art, but also centres of
creative activities open to general public.Number of illustrations: 124
Sources of
illustrations: Rivoli Castle, Biennale of Venice, Centre Pompidou, Gallery of
London, Gugenheim of Bilbao, etc.
