Monday, April 21, 2008

Nihilist Art Movement?

What would a nihilist art movement look like? We see a few artists pushing to that edge, and a few more in the nihilist space, so what if a large group of artists started working in nihilistic fashion. Would this lead to the end of history/end of the world that Modernism/Post Modernism wanted? Art ushers in what is acceptable in society, so if nihilism becomes acceptable, where would that lead the world? And do we have to get to nihilist art to have a strong enough reactionary art movement?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am the world's first fully-functioning, homicidal artist.

Joker

Troy Camplin said...

To the extent that nihilism is the rejection of meaning and value, much pomo art is nihilistic. Does it go as far as it could? No. As Nietzsche pointed out, most people are still too Christian to follow nihilism to is logical conclusion.

Todd Camplin said...

Pomo writers, many, but it would be harder to pin down pomo visual artists. Some are going out of their way to be nihilistic, but others are doing other things. Maybe a long time from now, historians can flush out what is going on with these artists. I was looking at a few lists of pomo artists on line and only some could be nailed down as being nihilistic. I love the quote! I guess Nietzsche set the nihilism barrer.

Troy Camplin said...

Certainly not all pomos are nihilistic, though they are all challenging values, I think. And meaning as well. You can perhaps show that values and meaning are slippery without being outright nihilistic, but I think you are always threatening to be when you do such things. Not that we didn't need to go through the challenge, for certain. But part of the revaluation of values is the return to and affirmation of values and meaning.

Todd Camplin said...

So, am I a nihilistic artists?

Troy Camplin said...

Not necessarily. If you are merely removing the meaning of the text you are using, then you are. But if you are giving new meaning to the text, then you are not. I think I know what you are doing, but the question is, what do you think you're doing?