Page 6 - "he 2020 Guggenheim issue of World of Art Contemporary Art Magazine

- Aesthetics must be accepted in its many appreciations, the assessment of the absurd elevated to a work of art.
definitions and interpretations. And this is art because it has been the artists themselves
And the man, shaking his head, answered: who have evolved these new forms of the human spirit. If
- But if aesthetics is a part of the philosophy that has to be we look at the evolution of the art of the last century, the
logical, what logical sense can all this have? Logic is part of twentieth century, we will see how everything has evolved
the philosophy that studies the laws of reasoning among continuously. Each artist has made new contributions, they
others, and there is absolutely nothing logical here. had new ideas to achieve what we are seeing here. And,
- Think that today’s art, what we call contemporary moreover, this is art because the artist says it is. Art is what
art, is based on values and concepts that cannot be the artist says “This is art” and, my dear, that’s all.
contemplated under the same parameters that are used I, despite making a lot of effort to continue the
to value art from other centuries. conversation, was already losing myself. I also thought
The lady answered. that I could be one of those sages just to try to
- Art, today, is not a philosophy, it is not a science, nor is understand the whole conversation. The thing is, I didn’t
it a religion. create anything new, I just wanted to understand what
- It’s nothing. those two people were talking about. At one point, I
Mr. interrupted. thought that with so many reflections, the two of them
- Shut up and let me talk. could be tired, but the energy and the faith they put in
The good woman replied. their conversation was very great and they felt brave.
- Contemporary art. They stopped for a few seconds and I took the
She continued. opportunity to look at the lady’s legs. Even though I had
- It is an activity of the human being that did not exist before. her on my right side next to me, looking from the corner
- The world is not static and, on the contrary, it is of my eyes, I could see that she put her skirt rising above
constantly evolving and revolutionizing, and the artist her knee. Powerful thighs, I thought. Little by little, the
cannot stay away from this world. That is why the creator lady seemed to be exalted. Her faith was so great that
must be a revolutionary. when she spoke, her cheeks turned red.
The gentleman, who was on the other side of the lady in - It seems that you don’t know anything at all.
reference to me, spoke loudly and so I could understand She resumed.
him without having to make any auditory effort. Of - Mental structures, freedom of spirit, imagination, among
course, I didn’t look at them, pretended to be absent, or many other values, are elements that allow us to create
they could stop their conversation. new forms of human actions and contemporary art is one
- What you and few others like you call contemporary art of them. You have to think that liberating yourself from the
is a fuck up. I’ll tell you. forms you call art is a manifestation of that freedom. And
It was the gentleman who spoke now. the artist has been and is a breakthrough in his time.
The lady who was not very pretty, but had put blue Proponents of contemporary art movements need to
around her eyes, answered. change the way they see and appreciate art. Others, with
- What you say is not art, it requires effort from the a high degree of skepticism, state that eternal principles
creator. The simple idea of breaking and destroying are the only ones that should structure art. Under these
everything is enough to show that it requires a certain discrepancies, it must be accepted that there is an
personal mental state, which allows access to new forms inalienable right of the individual to uphold his principles,
of human actions through great effort. whatever their nature may be.
And the lady, very cheerful, continued. Despite this relativity, it must be stated that today the
- You know that everything is relative, that there is nothing criteria for appreciation of so-called contemporary art
absolute. Even the very existence of human beings is relative. cannot be based on pure, merely aesthetic principles.
In addition, there is nothing static and the fact of thinking The fact that we cannot value it with the same criteria
itself is constantly evolving. You say that contemporary art that we were used previously, we need to have,
is not art, that all this is absurd. Why don’t you accept that constantly, to use the contemporary adjective to specify
even the absurd can be accepted as art and thus also reach what we are talking about. Some, even contemporary art
artistic values? Even the aesthetics I talked about before proponents, say it should take another name.
are relative. Art, today, destroys established principles and Today, there is a strong predisposition to conceptualize, to
does so voluntarily, consciously. The logic of the illogical and theorize any principle that can at the same time be translated

6 WORLD of ART