What makes art better and more fascinating? The answer is clear: humor.
Humor in art has a significant history, challenging traditional notions that art must always be serious. Throughout the 20th century, humor became a tool for artistic expression, beginning with movements like Dadaism, which emerged as a playful and irreverent response to the absurdity of WWI. Dadaists, like Marcel Duchamp, used humor to critique conventions and question what qualifies as art, often employing ordinary objects to make viewers reconsider their perceptions. These daily objects called ‘ready mades’ such as an urinoir became ART. His art and movement were seen as shocking for the artistic elite.
Following Dadaism, Surrealism used humor differently, drawing on dream logic and Freudian psychoanalysis to combine bizarre elements, producing absurd works that pushed against social norms. Spanish artist Salvator Dali played with notions of reality and dreams. He used elements from our subconsciousness in his work.
Today, contemporary art has taken humor in a darker direction. Artists like Maurizio Cattelan and Banksy use biting satire and dark humor to critique societal issues like consumerism, authority, and political hypocrisy. In restrictive societies, humor serves as a subtle way to critique regimes, as seen in works by Chinese artist Yue Minjun.
Humor is sometimes rejected by authorities because it can attack the leading political system. Think of Hitler’s view on Art and what he called ‘ Entartete Kunst’ meaning the art he and his Nazi regime rejected. Artists under the Nazis were either serving the system or rejecting it. Some artists left Germany and Europe to work in the States or in other free nations. Mondrian is the most famous artist who lived and worked in New York during War Time. New ideas often stem from a humoristic approach to art. Humor is a way to express yourself and is very individual. Every artist has a different voice within the Art scene and has a character to show through humor. This makes art fun to watch and buy.
Today, humor in art serves various roles. Playful humor can subvert artistic conventions, while darker humor aims at social structures. Humor in art offers an escape from reality and is a means to confront difficult truths, bridging the gap between reality and the possible. Humor as an escape from the cruelty of war and hunger. What makes humor in art so popular? Humor brings optimism in life and makes us instantly happy. Enjoy the story of humor in art. Find the fun in art!
If Art makes you smile, you found fun in Art! You can discover the crossover between art and humor by looking at both under a magnifying glass. Currents or trends in Art History teach us that humor gradually became more and more important throughout the centuries. Humor emerged in the 20th Century as a response against the violence of the World War I. The Dadaist movement used daily objects known as ‘ready mades’ to mock reality. Finding humor in our life is the motto or dada of the Dadaist movement. Marcel Duchamp was the most famous artist who originally shocked the establishment. His art was not seen as Art in the beginning, but later on he was recognized as a true modern master.
Earlier on in Art History Flemish master Hieronymus Bosch used dark elements in Humor in the 16 th Century. The figures in his paintings were local clowns and disturbed people. The Late Middle Ages were known as the Age struck by the Plague and War. The darker our world gets, the more artists recur to humor.
A true master is always on the search of new themes and humor may be the new topic. The novelty of humor is the weapon of artists to make a name in the art scene.
Weiwei, Kusama, Banksy, Catellan, Borremans: no need to give their full name to understand their importance in contemporary Art. What do they have in common? It is playing with the boundaries of ART.
Bringing special objects to life is a method or a means to communicate with the audience. They crave for our attention by standing out. Originality and individuality are features of these top artists. No one did it before like they did. They are inventors in the true sense. Invention and no immulation is their motto.
They share a sense of humor which they channel through different art forms that make them immortal. Their fame is a reminder of the importance of humor in Contemporary Art. Never before, humor has played a bigger role in Art History than today. How will Art evolve? No one can tell us, right?