Edward Kienholz's Installation As A Form Of Art

Introduction

After visiting “The Beanery”, an installation made by the American funk artist Edward Kienholz in 1965, at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (shown in appendix I), I found a sudden interest in Installation art. My eyes were open to the existence of this form of art and I began to notice its presence in all the museums I visited, and its relevance in the world of art. Which led me to investigate about its origins, and discover that installation was not always considered a valid art form. This led me to my research question, how and why has installation become a valid art form?

In order to answer this question I had to go further back, more precisely to 1917. This was the year that Marcel Duchamp made his famous piece titled “Fountain”(shown

Gombrich says “There really is no such thing as Art(…)” Along this essay art will be taken as a personal experience, resulting of a form of human expression consisting of two parts, the expression of the artist´s thoughts and feelings through the creation of the art piece, and the interpretation of the piece, done by the observer. The art piece reflects the way the artist sees the world, and the interpretation of the art piece reflects the way the viewer sees the world through the artist´s eyes. Therefore a valid art form is any art form. Art is validated by its own existence. It just needs to have an effect on the observer through the expression of the artist, even if the reaction is indifference. The observer does not even need to acknowledge the art piece as

However, it was not always so because the definition of art changed throughout history.

20th century changes

(explain what art was before dada, explain the concepts brought by Dadaism, how Dadaism influenced other artists, the movements that came after Dadaism and how they are a result of the same idea, explain Ferdinand de Sassure´s theory of language and its influence in the world of art, explain T.S. Kuhn´s theory of paradigm revolutions and how dada is based on the same principle, explain the death of god Nietzsche´s ideas and how this has a big influence in the perspective of the world that people have, as well as their needs)

The Oxford Dictionary of Art defines Dada as “A movement in European art (with manifestations also in New York), c.1915-c.1922, characterized by a spirit of anarchic revolt against traditional values.” This disregard for the traditional views of art flourished in the violent environment that characterized the first part of the 20th century. The horrors seen by the world in the First World War were uncanny, and led to the inevitable questioning of the paradigms that ruled society. Marcel Duchamp, a French American artist that is considered a “(…)leader of the Dada movement(…)” , who is said to have “(…) revolutionized art like almost no other(…)” , was a key character in the questioning of the definition of art. He thought that “(…) an object is defined first and foremost by its context(…)”