It’s funny cuz drunk people pee in the real fountain on campus

I think when it comes to art, I am a bit of a cynic.  I just don’t get some of it…or at least how it “counts” as art…

Mike and I were discussing this after class today and he mentioned something that caught my attention – the Dada movement. Essentially, this movement was a protest against the horrors of World War I.  People came together to reject the ideals of those causing the war and the reasons, such as nationalism, behind the battles.  In doing this, they rejected all other aspects of the culture, including its art.  They demonstrated this publicly and created their own non-art.

The most noteworthy person in this movement was Marcel Duchamp who is most known for basically grabbing a urinal and proclaiming it as art.  He called this the “Fountain.”  He also added a mustache to a copy of the Mona Lisa with some choice words as well.  The piece that I like best is his Tu m’. This one could actually be considered art and is intriguing to look at despite its name implying ‘You bore me.’

Although my views are not as extreme as the Dadaist because you won’t find me proclaiming that a bicycle wheel on a stool is art, I enjoy the message that they have proclaimed.  I think we need to be critical of what we accept as art. I honestly don’t see what makes this…

so special. Sorry to bust on Malevich, but I’m not really seeing how this is worthy of a place in an art museum.  Give me a compass and I can draw an off-centered black circle too.  I agree that you can find art or aesthetically pleasing things in aspects of life other than art museums, afterall, one of my earlier posts used images of beer through microscopes as art.  The term is loose, but I am not afraid to draw the line and call out certain ‘artists’ or at least question their ‘works of art.’

Resources:

About Dadaism

WiseGeek

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