When Art Is Not Based On Beauty, Truth, And Craftsmanship

Laurie Dahlberg starts her lecture, “Pirates, Pilferers, and Pranksters: A Brief History Of Photographic Appropriation,” with a photo of Duchamp’s “Fountain.” And then she dives into the juiciest questions about making art.

In her talk at Mount Tremper Arts (in conjunction with the photography exhibition, SIGNS) she speaks about Duchamp’s shift from an old definition of aesthetic value (beauty, truth, and craftsmanship) to a new definition focusing on recognition and choice. She posits that this shift did nothing less than justify the practice of photography as an art form.

In talking about appropriation within photography, Dahlberg addresses the nature of photography. While a photograph of a landscape does not steal intellectual property, it does make use of something that already exists. The artistry is one of recognition and choice (of subject, placement, focus, size.)

Richard Prince takes this a step further when he photographs the Marlboro man on a cigarette package and makes it look like a landscape. What is real?

Untitled (Cowboy) by Richard Prince

This finds its pinnacle, perhaps, in the work of Sherrie Levine. She photographs photographs. (Once, when we were walking through the Met, Matt noticed that a Walker Evans’ print looked strange. It turned out that it was a Sherrie Levine photograph of a Walker Evans.)

After Walker Evans 2 by Sherrie Levine

Dahlberg delves into Dada and postmodern. She looks at art that rejects the status quo during war time ”because we could all be dead tomorrow.” And art that smashes particular expectations of beauty. She talks about “truth” in art and creating a “rupture in our consumer-happy-time.”

Dahlberg’s plunge into the depths of photography takes me to the core of my field of contemporary dance. The questions she raises and the issues that her artists grapple with are also some of my own.

I am interested in found or readymade movement, the movement that exists in our daily lives. I want dance to move beyond beauty and craft; I don’t want damsels and perfect technique. I want dance to frame my world in a new way. And I want my perception ruptured.

UPDATE    Some recent, related articles:

Claudia La Rocco on appropriation in dance

On Richard Prince