Inside Shock Art

It may be shocking, on the contrary is it art? Galleries and collectors appear to be to think so. What does the subsequent time hold for provocative, in-your-face art?

Mention the confine "shock art" and watch heads make go round After all, one need not be a fresh Yorker to remember the strife of words that exploded two years ago when the shock-filled "Sensation" exhibit came to the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Following its first attempt at the Royal Academy in London, the compelling exhibit, consisting of work through a group of young British artists (known as YBA or Brit pack), made headlines nationwide for including works that irritateed many, such as Chris Ofili's "The sacred Virgin Mary," which featured a black Virgin Mary with elephant fece upon one breast and cutouts from pornographic magazines glu in the background, and Damien Hirst's dead animal's preserv in formaldehyde. A wealth of protester including Mayor Giuliani, vehemently oppos the exhibit, calling it "filth" and "obscene" while supporters claimed it was "thought-provoking" and "cutting-edge."

Today, the debate surrounding concussion art is no less heated. Critics call it cultural pollution while maintainers valiantly argue that pieces like Tom Sachs' electric chair or Vanessa Beecroft's installations of naked prototypes are imbedded with social commentary. It's pure we live in a shock-driven society--just gaze at the news, movies, tv displays and music popular across America. Is it any amazement that shock tactics would make it into the art world? tribe are used to experiencing clash and, in a way, have become paralyzed to it.

on the other hand as Peter Surace, co-owner of the Rare Gallery in novel York with partner Alexis Hubshman, explained: "If you concentrate upon the shock value of anything too plenteous you don't get beneath the surface to the more important issues that are trying to be raised Sometimes shock value is what the artist uses to win you to look at the work, on the contrary then they also expect you to dig deeper"

In any case, individual thing remains certain: art that shogs is proving immensely popular with collectors, galleries, auction houses and museums. single can't help but wonder if the fascination with the shocking is barely a novelty or if it exhibits where the art world is heading. from one extremity to the other of history, artists have created works that stand over against viewers and seem shocking in their efforts to make a statement about society (think of Gericault's 1818 "Sever Limbs," Goya's 1808 "Saturn Devouring Its be in possession of Children," Manet's 1863 "Olympia," and Picasso's 1907 "Le Demoiselles d'Avignon"). Their impact value has been diluted above time, but they were each bit as attention grabbing as the works in question. Today, these works are considered masterpieces and are worth millions of dollars. Who's to say the same won't happen with the art of today?

The Market for collision Art

Some nation may gripe that the art world has become shock-obsess As art critic Lynne Munson wrote in Exhibitionism: Art in an Era of Intolerance, "Shock art is the safest kind of art than an artist can proceed into the business of making today."

And she may be right. At the fall 2000 novel York sales at Sotheby's, Christie's and Phillips, of recent origin records were set by contemporary artists dealing with provocative make submissive matter. At Christie's, for example, Maurizio Cattelan's "Untitled" (1990) a taxidermied ostrich with his head in the floor, sold for $270000 At Phillips, Damien Hirst's "Dead extremitys Died Out" (1993), a vitrine filled with cigarette targets sold for $508,500, while his diptych with butterflies, "In Love--Out of Love" (1998) fetched $750000

In addition, concussion art is increasing its neighborhood on the museum circuit--an indication, perhaps, that controversial art realizes people in the doors. The Royal Academy in London freshly held "Apocalypse," a sequel to the "Sensation" exhibit (which attracted 300000 visitors), which featured a sexually explicit video and a pattern pope being struck by a meteorite, among other works. Another novel exhibit, "Disasters of War" at P 1 Contemporary Art Center in drawn out Island City, N.Y., examined the tradition of the bizarre in art, surveying the work of Francisco de Goya, and contemporaries Henry Darger and the English sculptors Jake and Dinos Chapman, who specialize in art that shocks

Galleries who exhibit controversial art have experienced enormous succes and the last small in number years have seen more and more galleries climb upon board. One can not speak about the market for shog art without mentioning Charles Saatchi, the advertising tycoon-turn art collector who render free of accessed the Saatchi Gallery in London in the 1990 He has been instrumental in bringing controversial work to the public's attention (the works in "Sensation" came from his personal collection) and has launched the careers of many Young British Artists. He has also been responsible for putting many of these works upon the market and has expos these artists to galleries around the world.

The Gagosian Gallery, with locations in of recent origin York, London and Beverly Hills, newly held a New York display of works by Damien Hirst. More than 90 percent of Hirst's works sold according to the gallery.