A century ago, when the French artist Marcel Duchamp submitted a urinal as a work of art for an exhibition, it startled. It wasn’t the work itself – although any object seen in unfamiliar surroundings might startle – but the philosophy behind it that was important. The artist was defining his calling. Art, he was saying, is what I decide it is.
Hence Damien Hirst’s sharks and zebras preserved in formaldehyde (which recently leaked some of the vapour at the Tate Modern in London, but that’s another story), Tracey Emin’s unmade beds, Andy Warhol’s multiple images and so on.
Which is why the work of T.J. Khayatan must be seen in context. Frustrated by the many ridiculous pieces that pass of for ‘art’ at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, he removed his spectacles and placed them next to a wall. It was a bold move. A statement. Above all, although that wasn’t his intention, he had created a work of art. The object itself, the act of placing it on the floor, the reaction to it, as he filmed visitors photograph it, take selfies with it and read deep meaning into it are all separately and taken together, art.
What is Art? The critic will give you a theory full of post-modern glossarial embellishments, while the artist takes his cue from Duchamp. Art can be a prank too. Or vice versa. Duchamp himself once painted a moustache on a cheap copy of the Mona Lisa. And many of Salvador Dali’s works are pranks created to amuse and entertain.
The highbrow, wrote the critic A P Herbert, is a person who sees a sausage and thinks of Picasso. I am sure many believe Picasso is a kind of sausage, but would like to appear highbrow – and if it involves admiring glasses left on the floor, then that is a small price.
How often have we visited galleries and wondered if that garbage bag left in the corner neatly tied at the mouth is high art or bad housekeeping? I remember when one of the short-listed works of art for the prestigious Turner Prize in Britain was a collection of paper crumpled into balls. We have been filling our waste paper basket with art all these years without even knowing it.
Which is why many of us wear a hunted look when we walk into galleries. Should we walk past the hanging wire, or is that someone’s masterpiece? Should we be honest and proclaim that the emperor is wearing no clothes or nod our head sagely at what looks like a squiggle on the wall made by a badly behaved child?
When artists make spectacles of themselves, occasionally it is refreshing to see spectacles making something or the other of artists.
The prankster in San Francisco has out-Marcelled Duchamp. He has given us a viewer’s definition of what is not art. From the urinal to the spectacles, it has been a great synthesis: art is both what is and what is not.
Suresh Menon is Contributing Editor, The Hindu