Performance artists are the Rodney Dangerfields of the art world. They tend to get no respect from the general public, or even from a large measure of art connoisseurs.That's probably because for the most part, their "art" consists of doing stupid shit in public that doesn't suggest anything in the way of talent.
L'Origine du monde by Gustave Courbet
Some of that happened last week at Paris' Musee d'Orsay, when Deborah de Robertis decided to plant herself in front of the Gustave Courbet painting, The Origin of the World, and show off her vagina. It went on for a few minutes as apparently bemused museum guards eventually managed to usher de Robertis out of the gallery.
Described by some as de Robertis 'recreating' Coubert's work, it wasn't really that. The Origin of the World depicts the nude torso of a model, whose head is unseen, but assumed to be Joanna Hiffernan, reclining on a bed. De Robertis sat upright in front of the painting, wearing a short, gold sequined party girl dress hiked up just above her hips, while holding her labia majora apart so that museum goers could get a better view of the interior of her vagina.
From the video, it seems like a ridiculous episode made more so by the continual applause of pretentious art gallery patrons as if Ms de Robertis was demonstrating some particular artistic achievement.
Not that I'm against attractive women showing off their vaginas. In fact, I'm all for it under most circumstances, and I would have probably been as happy as the next guy at the grand exposure that day. And in her favor, as well as for the obvious, de Robertis did manage to demonstrate a odd societal irony in that a realistic painting of a nude woman is considered art and something that should be admired in public, however when a real woman actually does that, she could get arrested.
But another irony, or maybe it's just a question, is that if by showing off her vagina in public, Ms De Robertis is being an artist, doesn't that also make every stripper an artist, and transform the saddos who spend all their time in strip clubs into art connoisseurs?
Une artiste expose son sexe sous «L'origine du... by quoi2news
