Three Reading

The first three readings - Keith Croshaw

The first reading, “The Found and Manifesto of Futurism” seems to be more of an instigation to start a riot. The main idea expressed in the piece is that art isn’t something that should be viewed from years ago, it should be freshly created. F.T. Marinetti also states that art is a thing of violence, that shouldn’t be tamed, a beast as it were. For the most part I agree with Marinetti that art should be created and not just viewed as if to endow the viewer with the same pleasure as the creator felt upon completion. I disagree with the author’s violent disposition towards art of the past, while he does have a point that it can be somewhat lifeless at times it is still a great means of inspiration to new artists.

http://cotati.sjsu.edu/spoetry/folder6/ng63.html

In the second reading is an interview with Alan Kaprow, a performance artist who did the bulk of his work in the 50’s and 60’s. He basically invented the “happenings,” which are modern day installations and performance pieces. Mr. Kaprow now believes that today’s installations and performances are more or less lacking the energy that it originally had. In the rest of the interview he describes numerous grand happenings that he and several other artists such as John Cage, and George Rauschenberg. I agree with Alan’s point that like most things happenings have changed throughout the years, but I disagree with his statement that the performances and installations lack the energy and emotion of yesterdays, since I have seen some of the most energy I’ve ever seen in performance pieces.

http://www.brooklynrail.org/2006/05/art/allan-kaprow-19272006

The third reading was “Performance art: (some) theory and (selected) practice at the end of this century,” by Martha Wilson. The majority of the piece was a summary of the futurist movement that Marinetti undoubtedly started. She continues to discuss how performance art was a device of the Italians as they let eight thousand copies of an classic writing rain down upon the citizens from the clock tower above Piazza San Marco. Martha states that performance art is the complete opposite of theatre which I agree with because the piece doesn’t barrow from history or literature which I agree is a great way to distinguish the two. Unfortunately I can’t really find anything that I disagree with in this piece even after reading over it a second time.

http://www.artextbooks.com/images/a17122.html