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12 views2 pages

Rico_Module 2

Uploaded by

kfrico
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We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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RICO, Kent Rahndal F.

July 29, 2023


2022-35168
Prof. Ides Josepina Macapanpan
ARTS I-X4

Is It Art?

Richard Gomez’s acrylic painting “OOOOHH” sparked a controversy on the internet after netizens
saw Gomez’s artwork featuring a yellow squirting penis on a black canvas which cost almost P200,000.
Local artist named Harold Banario compared his P10,000 worth of art to Gomez's painting and claimed that
he hates the “ArtWorld”. This led me to question the artwork itself. Is it really an art? In fact, Gomez did
not have any background in fine arts but he managed to sell that 48” x 48” painting for that price. How
would you distinguish what is an art and what is not?

While no single definition of art exists, classical definitions of art can be seen through Plato’s
Republic wherein he says that art imitates the objects and events of ordinary life. Contrary to classicism,
contemporary art challenges questions such as “Is the work aesthetically pleasing?”. Instead, viewers are
motivated to question whether art is “challenging” or “interesting”. Arthur Danto, an American art critic,
claims that “you can’t say something’s art or not art anymore. That’s all finished. There used to be a time
when you could pick out something perceptually the way you can recognize, say, tulips or giraffes. But the
way things have evolved, art can look like anything, so you can't tell by looking. Criteria like the critic's
good eye no longer apply. Art these days has very little to do with esthetic responses; it has more to do with
intellectual responses. You have to project a hypothesis: Suppose it is a work of art? Then certain questions
come into play -- what's it about, what does it mean, why was it made, when was it made and with respect
to what social and artistic conversations does it make a contribution? If you get good answers to those
questions, it's art. Otherwise it turned out just to be a hole in the ground.”

It brought me back to Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain, a ready-made artwork of an upside-down mass-


produced urinal signed with “R. Mutt” by Duchamp himself. Similar to Gomez’s “OOOOHH” artwork, it
drew flak in 20th century. Yet Young & Priest offered a fresh perspective regarding the artwork. They stated
that “…objects can gain a new significance over and above their common use. They do not simply name
an object or show its function: they make a statement of some sort.” Gomez’s artwork, although criticized,
was defended by the artist himself saying that the artwork is “self-explanatory. Given a deeper thought, it
shows lust, self-pleasure and power.”

Thus, the next time you see an art that is quite different from the art made centuries before, perhaps
it is high time to consider not only the aesthetics of it but also think about life. In author Linda Weintraub’s
words, “If art doesn't sensitize us to something in the world, clarify our perceptions, make us aware of the
decisions we have made, it's entertainment.”
References

Limos, M. 2019. “Richard Gomez Explains Meaning Behind Viral Yellow Painting.” In Esquire.
https://www.esquiremag.ph/culture/books-and-art/richard-gomez-viral-painting-a00293-
20191015

The J. Paul Getty Museum. “About Contemporary Art”.


https://www.getty.edu/education/teachers/classroom_resources/curricula/contemporary_art/backg
round1.html#:~:text=Strictly%20speaking%2C%20the%20term%20%22contemporary,%2C%20t
echnologically%20advancing%2C%20and%20multifaceted.

Wallach, A. 1997. “ART; Is It Art? Is It Good? And Who Says So?” In New York Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/12/arts/art-is-it-art-is-it-good-and-who-says-so.html

Young & Priest. n.d. How can Duchamp’s ‘Fountain’ be both art and not art?’ In Eon Essays.
https://aeon.co/essays/how-can-duchamp-s-fountain-be-both-art-and-not-art

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