Filozofska istraživanja, Vol. 42 No. 4, 2022.
Review article
https://doi.org/10.21464/fi42407
The Concept of Aesthetics of Ugliness Exemplified by the Art of Radical Informel Abstraction
Barbara Gaj Ristić
orcid.org/0000-0002-5147-3399
; Sveučilište u Splitu, Umjetnička akademija, HR–21000 Split
Abstract
In the art of radical Informel, we encounter works with emphasised non-pictoriality, non-semantics and non-referentiality, as well as a tendency towards entropy, layering and the disintegration of form through destructive processes such as deformation, perforation, incision, scratching, the accumulation of structures and masses, fragmentation, stripping and burning. In this paper, theoretical models of interpretation for the art of radical Informel are pointed out through the concepts of the aesthetics of ugliness, i.e. brutal aesthetics, such as (1) deformation, (2) disfiguration, (3) formlessness and (4) entropy – using the example of the informal works of Croatian authors Ivo Gattin, Eugen Feller and Marijan Jevšovar, which result from their attitude towards art and painting. The artists have deliberately created paintings that are not “beautiful” by opposing the classical values of art and beauty through oppositional and negative approaches, nihilism, destruction, deformation and the abolition of the surface of the painting as forms of anti-aesthetics.
Keywords
aesthetic of ugliness; art of radical informel; modern art; deformation; formlessness; brutal aesthetic; anti-art
Hrčak ID:
303616
URI
Publication date:
28.12.2022.
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