A provocative art, but an end in itself that applies more to the market than to its capacity for innovation
Jason Farago, critic and signature of the New York Times, in an article where the title is already a statement (Ours is the Least Artistically Innovative Century in 500 Years) explores the causes of an event given for granted from the very beginning: the death of innovation in art and, in general, in contemporary culture. Summarizing roughly, in the last thirty years a mixture of economic stagnation and a depletion of the expressive possibilities typical of the twentieth century have produced a derivative art. Not deprived of cultural value, please. In some cases art of the first order. But not new. The artistic value of an artwork should no longer be sought in the innovativeness, that is, in its ability to break with tradition and open new paths, as in recomposing in an original way the already seen and the already mentioned.
ACCORDING TO JASON FARAGO, OURS IS THE LEAST ARTISTICALLY INNOVATIVE CENTURY IN 500 YEARS
The speech is interesting, should be deepened, and certainly can not be exhausted in the narrow space of an article. All in all, we can agree, even if with several reservations (for example, other languages, such as video games, have been much more innovative than art in the strict sense).
The label, or rather the brand, YBAs (Young British Artists) is after all a pretty striking demonstration of what was said above. While the name of the great avant-garde and non-avant-garde movements (symbolism, futurism, surrealism, situationism, etc.) has always coincided with a radical stance on what art is, here the name means absolutely nothing. A bit like the boy and girl bands of the nineties (Take That, Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, etc.), in which handsome people with a good voice were put together to make songs for teenagers in full hormonal crisis, YBAs artists did not have a real communion of intent, but they were... young people?... and British? Even on the Tate website we can read verbatim: “there is no typical YBA style. The period is marked by a total openness to the materials and processes by which art can be made, and to the forms it can take”. The more attentive reader will have noticed that this means absolutely nothing.
COOL CHICK BABY IS THE EMBLEM OF A WORK HALFWAY BETWEEN DESIGN, FASHION AND ART
Tate Britain exhibition “Sarah Lucas. Happy Gas” is an opportunity to reflect on the drift (not to be understood in a negative way) taken by art in the last thirty years. The Young British Artists, Damien Hirst in the first place, are one of the most striking examples of an art that stands out more for its ability to self-promotion and auctions than for originality.
One of the most iconic and significant works of the exhibition dedicated to Sarah Lucas, Cool Chick Baby, halfway between design, fashion and artwork, with obvious references to the treatment of the shapes of Picasso and the female body of Bellmer, stands out as inextricable and provocative jumble of recognizable styles and consolidated practices, provocative because so already seen.
A PRODUCTION THAT IS A MIXTURE OF RECOGNIZABLE STYLES AND CONSOLIDATED PRACTICES, PROVOCATIVE BECAUSE SO ALREADY SEEN
