Vol 86 Issue 4
The Definitive Source for Osgoode News
October 15, 2013
Nuit Blanche unlocks modern art
MARIE PARK
Layout Editor
As night fell upon the streets of Toronto on
October 5, 2013, hundreds of thousands congregated to experience Nuit Blanche. Though
many were artists in their own right, many were
also members the general public with a topical understanding and awareness of modern
art. Many such individuals may know of Pablo
Picasso and Henri Matisse, but may shake their
head when asked about another character of
the modern era who is too often less credited.
been considered an honest piece of art. But
as the years progressed, this piece, as well as
his subsequent other “readymade” sculptures,
became acknowledged for teaching artists an
invaluable lesson about their own identities
and their work as artists.
For those with a working knowledge of art
history, Marcel Duchamp is a revered name,
but for those who know and understand art on
a more-or-less superficial level, Duchamp is an
elusive character, and the significance of his
works is too often misunderstood and understated. As aspiring artists and art appreciators,
one must know how this one artist influenced
a lasting and profound change of the role of
art to the artist, and in turn, to the audience
as well.
A most crucial lesson hidden in these seemingly everyday, mundane objects was this: art is
more than an object of technical creation; it is a
vehicle that can capture the infinite potential of
human expression through forms that can be
felt through the physical senses. It is a method
of transforming abstractions, or thoughts, into
tangibles so that other individuals can experience them, in their own perceptions, through
the interaction of a physical manifestation of
those thoughts. What this means is that an artwork is not merely a visual ornament; it is an
attempt of the artist to transmit the conscious
thoughts and experiences that exist in their
minds through media that can be seen, felt,
heard, touched, or otherwise sensed.
Duchamp is perchance most known for his
piece entitled Bicycle Wheel – literally, a bicycle wheel mounted and inverted onto a stool.
It caused some outrage in the artistic community of his time, as such a simple object in such
a simple presentation could not possibly have
An artist is one who can identify the abstract,
an idea, and present it in a form that can be
subjectively interpreted by an audience. In contemporary and modern art, this experience of
transmittance and reception of the idea is the
artwork itself. Without understanding this,
contemporary art can appear nonsensical and
sometimes mindless.
Duchamp understood this in an age where
the artistic community just began to abandon
notions of art simply as decoration. Artists
began to revolt against the ideals of traditional
art, where excellence in art arose from the artist’s ability to replicate historical forms of perfection. Art began to leave the realm of purely
decorative to become art for art’s sake. Duch» continued on page 10
In this issue...
Mental Health Awareness Week
page 8
Legal and Lit update
pages 3 and 4
Jurisfoodence
pages 11 and 15
International Legal Partnerships
pages 18 and 19