Artists sh*t - what are your views?

Question

I marvelled at a piece at the Tate Modern entitled 'Artists Sh!t* by Piero Manzoni. Apparently he pooped in ninety cans, sealed them up, numbered them and sold them as art. I thought this was ironic as people were literally buying sh!t. Har har har, but thought it would be more interesting if there was actually nothing in the can.

Yesterday I read that the artist admitted this week, that indeed there is just plaster inside. He claimed he was exposing the "gullibility of the art-buying public" and that the idea had come out of frustration with the art establishment who he described as "bourgeoisie b******'s".

I think this is absolutely hilarious, but that it actually makes the art more interesting because of the irony of it all.

The Tate paid £22.5K for the can.

Amazing - what are your thoughts? Is the work pure genius, or just a load of s**t? ;-)

Answer 1

its bloody genius when u think of it !

Answer 2

I don't know which is more asinine -- the artist doing this, or the person/organization actually paying for it.

I have long found the modern art world utterly pretentious. Hacks do things like roll one color of paint onto a canvas like they're painting a wall, or draw a single vertical pencil line on a canvas, or photograph cans of soup. Then observers, desperate to be thought intelligent or perceptive, ooh and ah and utter ridiculous commentaries -- and open up their checkbooks.

It's always laughable when some "artist" vomits some pile of mediocrity, then goes to great lengths to explain what it means or represents. Good art should be content to just let the observer draw their own conclusion, but these appallingly ridiculous grant-winners are evidently afraid of being unmasked as charlatans, so they "illuminate" their creation.

I've actually thought about emptying a can of Coca-Cola, crush the can down, mount it on a block of wood, and calling it something like "The Collapse of the American Dream." The simultaneously amusing/frightening thing is that someone would probably buy it!

Answer 3

Funny really, as "Real People" for the want of a better word, would never have bought something so obviously ridiculous. The gullibility as such only applies to the section of people that regard themselves "worthy" of being art critics.

As for such ever being art, to me this kind of thing is not art at all, just a stunt. But then The Tate Modern tends to do this kind of thing possibly just to advertise. However, advertising themselves as being daft enough to buy this kind of thing just makes me want to avoid the place and most certainly the people, so to me it doesn't work as a good advert ploy.

Just as a matter of interest, would this artist have been able to fool these people without being "known to the art world" beforehand ? I doubt it, so maybe he is, as a byproduct of the stunt, showing that he is part of this "bourgeoisie" he so despises ?

Answer 4

Piero Manzoni has just joined the so-called rap/hiphop genre in the non-art world along with Cristo, and that Magelthorpe guy who marketed urine. The work is a load, the buyers are suckers and there's no irony involved, just a con so don't feel exalted if you bought it,

Answer 5

1

Answer 6

If the artwork represent something worth of discussing or a very clever and important idea or problem, I think it is good. However the artist's intention is also important.

Answer 7

ALL modern art is a waste of space! Absoloute joke what people call art nowdays.
Art school and classes do not help.
Good luck to him for exposing a bunch of idiots. Trouble is who actually pays for it? Does any of our tax money fund it?

Answer 8

I'm glad it wasn't real. Shows also how stupid people are even willing to buy actual s*** just because it comes from a so called artist.

Answer 9

People believe what they want to believe, life the Emperors New Clothes. But good for a laugh, shame we don´t laugh more often.

Answer 10

LOL. pure genius or if not then a sucka-fu chicken-head guy!



Indeed interesting cans: http://home.sprynet.com/~mindweb/page14.htm

website:
http://www.pieromanzoni.org/EN/index_en.htm

Answer 11

I think what he has done is very clever and thought provoking - but I would disagree that the can becomes valuable as a result. (He probably laughed all the way to the bank, as they say)