Contemporary Art And Entertainment Analysis

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Due to the fact that art works are social subjects and not merely aesthetic objects, they can only be meaningful when considered as part of a bigger system of principles, practices, economies and exchanges. This is why, in order to critically assess the relationship between contemporary art and popular forms of entertainment, it is necessary to analyse the context which came to undermine such distinction: capitalism and corporate imperialism.
Since the Second World War culture in a world scale has been increasingly dominated by the most consumption-oriented society in history. Capitalism stabilised in the developed nations, and in the capitalistic form of life existence is based in terms of production, distribution, exchange and consumption …show more content…

In this art we get the rush of the special effects along with the superplus value of the aesthetic.” (Foster, 2005 p.676)
This comes as no surprise, as the products of the entertainment industries have become perhaps the most powerful sources of individual commodity purchasing and of self-image acquisition in the contemporary world. Yet, this attempt to mirror the intensities of mass media leaves contemporary art in a very delicate limbo. As Gavin Turks compellingly argues: “I think art has a very difficult job at the moment because it has become aligned with the entertainment industry and, as entertainment, art is not particularly entertaining.” (Turk in Stallabrass, 2001 …show more content…

Marwan did a series of paintings and drawings focusing on emblematic figures of the Arab world in which the subjects are represented in enigmatic constructions. Badr Shakir Al-Sayyab was considered one of the greatest modern poets, but ended up being prosecuted for his political engagement, condemned to be exiled and died prematurely amidst total indifference. In the painting above Al-Sayyab head appears stuck in a structure that evokes that block of a guillotine, while being crushed by a mass of flesh/viscera. Even though not particularly entertaining, this reveals a complex process of subjectification, in which self-questioning subtly echoes the forms of political struggle. The body incarnates “humanity’s lived experience of calamity in the twentieth century”(Bachi in Cotter, 2014

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