+ 0 - 0 | § ¶For and Against Anti-Art
The following URLs link to various articles about anti-art. Some dispute the opinion that I offer in my previous posting.Making art out of anti-art by Travis Hugh Culley
(a very well written article)
Anti-Art Is Not Art by Michelle Marder Kamhi
The "stuckist" argument against anti-art
(The "stuckists" are an interesting phenomenom of their own - a bit too proud of being stupid)
Dictionary definition from ArtLex
Create your own anti-art
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶A Bit About Anti-Art
What is anti-art anyway? Can anti-art even exist? Isn't anti-art still art?These are all good questions. Anti-art is obviously still art. It exists within the cultural context of the art world and it cannot exist without art. Before one is tempted to be smugly dismissive of the anti-art movement though, one needs to consider that just as anti-art exists within the world of art - art cannot exist within the broader context of culture without its own opposite - which is anti-art. So, anti-art must exist, even it it is a part of the art world. This is akin to the idea that post-modernism requires modernism to exist or there would be nothing for it to be "post".
OK, so in a nutshell, anti-art is still art but anti-art does exist. So what is anti-art anyway? I like to think of anti-art not so much as being "against" art, but as being more of an "antidote" to the dominant culture of art. Anti-art is art at the margins. It is art that exists independently of the dominant commerce driven art world. It exists even independently of the dominant so-called anti-art of the academic world (even if many artists involved with anti-art are a part of that world). Anti-art is art that exists and is created purely at the desire of the artist, for the edification of the creator. It does not depend on approval from anybody else. It doesn't even require the approval of other anti-artists. This does not mean that communities of like-minded creators cannot exist. Artists or anti-artists, or anti-art artists are still human - are still social beings. Why should they be excluded from broader communities?
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Allan Kaprow
From a biography of Allan Kaprow at World Wide Arts Resources:Allan Kaprow is mostly known as the inventor of “happenings,” a concept of performance art. He studied under a variety of teachers including musician John Cage, who gave him the idea of chance in aesthetic organization. Initially a painter, Kaprow abandoned the medium for assemblage and environmental art in the 1950’s. In a 1958 article in Art News, he introduced his idea of happenings, stating that craftsmanship and permanence should be forgotten and perishable materials should be used in art.
Kaprow Links:
http://wwar.com/masters/k/kaprow-allan.html
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/04/07/allan_kaprow_1927200.html
http://www.the-artists.org/ArtistView.cfm?id=F767B358-0F32-4CA3-970E3FD5D29F85E4
http://www.ubu.com/historical/kaprow/kaprow.html