Art and Immorality

01/03 1pm-3pm Art and Immorality.
LEVEL 2

If we were to read Georges Bataille's transgressive Surrealist novel 'The Story of the Eye' we would quickly be reminded that, along with all the other, formal, aesthetic and social transgressions with which and by modern art carved its place in the world, morality was also, always, one of its targets.

From the outset, with the upset caused by Manet's painting of a naked (not 'nude') woman sharing a picnic with some clothed students in his Dejeuner Sur L'herbe of 1863, or even earlier, in Baudelaire's 1846 request that artists concern themselves with the seedier contents of Parisian life, reflected by the sensationalist newspapers of the time, current moral values were challenged and transformed by modern art.

But why should there be an intrinsic relationship between art and morality?

The modern world is typified by its rejection of superstitious and un-scientific beliefs, including a repression of old powers of the aristocracy, monarchy and the Church. We call this the emergence of 'secular' modernity.

However, morality itself is apparently not diminished even where and when we diminish the powers of religion. Modernity's competing ideologies, manifestos and avant-gardes are driven by a new modern morality, a search to give form to new liberties and possibilities made available by the modern world.

In this 'Speculecture' we can look at ways in which modern, postmodern and current artists (including ourselves) attend to moral concerns, even when we are not conscious of doing so. We can also consider the question of immorality and amorality as the artist might variously use their privileged position to raise issues of morality, critique current morality, transgress morality purely for the sake of transgressing, or, maintain art as a place separated from moral issues and concerned only with issues of art itself.

You can prepare for the lecture by finding out a bit abut Georges Bataille and by looking at artists you are familiar with (and your own work) and meditating on the extent to which and ways in which it might respond to these moral concerns.

I will add more detailed posts prior to the lecture, with some quotes if possible, that we might useful to use in essays etc.