Proseminar The Destruction of Art – The Art of Destruction. Iconoclasm in the 20th and 21st centuries(IEK, Wintersemester 2009/2010, Dozent: Dr. Michael Falser)

Breaking the Rules: Iconoclasm in Modern Art(Filippos Analitis)

Picture: Marcel Duchamp, Fountain (1917) Picture: Lucio Fontana, Concetto Spaziale (1967)

Without a doubt two of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century. Without a doubt two very controversial works of art: One might think that Duchamp‘s Readymades rest the artist overwhel-mingly passive. On the other hand, the very same person might think that Fontana‘s perforations on the canvas transform the artist into an overwhelmingly active agent, taking him one step further, penetrating aggressively the canvas.

In both cases, however, we are confronted with great moments in the evolution of art. With his Readymades, Duchamp‘s intention was to break down the assumed boundaries of the aesthetic realm. With his perforations, Fontana‘s intention was to break with the sanctity of the surface and travel the viewer‘s imagination into space and time. We are thus witnessing a conceptual icono-clasm not a physical one, an iconoclasm that questions the limits of art and of the means of artistic expression, an iconoclasm that breaks rules and traditions, a defining moment in 20-th-century art.