With the avant-garde artists of the early twentieth century, the History of Art went through something of a revolution when it came to provocation. In 1917, Marcel Duchamp transformed a urinal by simply signing it (Fountain, 1917). In 1916, Piero Manzoni put his own personal keepsake into a metal tin, and applied the label ‘Artist’s Shit’. In 2009, Maurizio Cattelan created L.O.V.E., a monumental sculpture representing an enormous middle finger, installed in front of the Stock Exchange in Milan. Initially, rebel-artists just wanted to shake the traditional norms of art making. Today, provocation in art is used for political, social and religious purposes. How? With strong and decisive images, and sometimes with macabre spectacles of embalmed animals or debunking religious images. It’s a case of provocation against good sense, morals and rules; this is a weapon that contemporary artists use to rouse our conscience and transform art into a critical instrument and an invitation to reflect.
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With the avant-garde artists of the early twentieth century, the History of Art went through something of a revolution when it came to provocation. In 1917, Marcel Duchamp transformed a urinal by simply signing it (Fountain, 1917). In 1916, Piero Manzoni put his own personal keepsake into a metal tin, and applied the label ‘Artist’s Shit’. In 2009, Maurizio Cattelan created L.O.V.E., a... continue...
