ART AND DEBATE

4/    COMMENTAIRE

           The documents under study are three articles about contemporary art. The first one, entitled « Artrageous », is taken from the magazine « it’s nice that » and relates the emergence of Britart movement through an excerpt from the book Artrage . The two others are from the newspaper « The Guardian ». One is entitled « Don’t believe the hype about contemporary hype », the other « Britain’s best-lovers artwork is a Banksy. That’s proof of  our stupidity ». The three documents deal with the theme of the value of art.

Since the 20th century, Contemporary art has been confronted with the question of its value. I shall therefore focus how contemporary art is evaluated in our society.

I will first show how the emergence of new art movements changed the art world and promoted new forms of art. Then, I will underline contemporary art is overhyped and sparks debate. Lastly, I will show that real art is complex and conveys emotion.

             First the emergence of new art movements in 1980’s revolutionized and regenerated the art in Britain, spreadind contemporary forms of art.

In the first document, through the story of Britart, the author shows the art is no longer exclusively restricted to an elite exhibiting their art works in museums and famous galleries. Since the « legendary » exhibition Freeze in summer 1988, the artists have  showed freely their art creations in many different locations. Frezze Gallery took place in a « direlict warehouse in Docklands. In Artrage, the author wants to show their rageous in art : these new artists were determined to demonstrate their innovative works and new forms of expression. They spreaded their art works throughout the world : These artists « transform the national psyche and put British contemporary art on the international map ». The Young Britih artists achieved indeed a considerable media coverage : The launch of the magazine Frieze which featured emerging young British artists, their works and the current exhibitions was launched in 1991. The collector Charles Saatchi, which became their  main sponsor, put on with them many exhibitions including the famous Sensation exhibition in the royal Academy of Arts in London. BritArt was fully embraced as an art movement and demonstrated that  it was ready to conquer the world.

Sreet art, an another contemporary art movement, is taking off in the end of 20th century, in Britain with Banksy’s work. In the third document, the journalist describes it as a visual art created in public locations for public visibility. He shows that this art is accessible, can be consumed by everyone and becomes very popular.

As statement in the second article, today the number of artists is increasing considerably : at least two hundred artists can be mentionned, whereas in 19th century, few artists were well-known.

This revolution leads to the democratisation of the art. As of now, new art forms are widely spreading in the world art and can be consumed by everyone. However, this democratization  questions on the value of art.

            Then, today, the art is overhyped and contemporary art works spark debate.

According to the second text, the author proves with irony that today « a huge number of artists are messing around » and should not be considered as real artists. There is a media hype about contemporary art. Many artists are considered by media as « important, unmissible, revolutionnary ». Their art works , regarded as goods, make a lot of noise, but most of them « must be rubbish ».

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