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Ruth Marie Caparas

Fine Art, Fine Controversy


“The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity,” Alberto Giacometti said.

An art is like a poem that talks to you yet, without you hearing any words coming out from it but with your own interpretation on what it is saying to you through your heart.

Controversial Art, also been mentioned as "offensive art", throughout history it has devised numerous ways to affront, anger and dismay society. There are various artworks upon from the 16th century period as far as this present time that are believed to be examples of controversial arts/paintings as a result of the feedback that they educe into the society. Nonetheless, provocative pieces of art also highly possess an interest in the society, among the certain works be subject to discussion and being deliberated through the years.

What is controversial art? It is a type of art that is not widely recognized in the society in which it was developed or discovered in prior eras. This indicates that a contentious work of art from a period of time might be acknowledged later.

The general goal of controversial art is to elicit as many reactions from the public as it can be. Several artists, for instance have come to great efforts to achieve this in their work and are widely regarded as having contributed to the art dispute about what is suitable under traditional art principles.

When people think that as some artworks are offensive and it has been censored in the past it only served to increase the works' popularity.

An example of these kind of artworks is the controversial mixed media in 2005 by Filipino multimedia artist Danny C. Sillada entitled “Menstrual Period in Political History." It is an irony on the constant political juncture and corruption in the Philippines government.

"This controversial mixed-media piece (an attempt was made to destroyed it at the height of the "Hello Garci" political scandal) reflects the artist's critical stance toward the power struggles that "are sinking our country," according to The Village Voice. The Manila Times stated that "The colors of the Philippine flag-- blue, red and yellow-- fill his canvases. He alludes a woman’s menstrual period to the country’s cyclic political turmoil, and he sprinkles it with satirical images to boot," said The Manila Times.

Because controversial artworks were frequently derided and, in some cases, outlawed, major discussions about artists' freedom of expression and creativeness were sparked. The developing artworks have left on to motivate numerous people over the centuries, thanks to controversial art having such a large impact on society.


Having said that, there are other types of art where people express their opinions on the issues that surrounds us such as graffiti, which is a type of art genre that some people mistakenly see it as vandalism while others consider it as a form of art, and some says that graffiti refers as a form of visual communication.

"Graffiti is 100% art."

Graffiti and street art are culturally significant because of their unique nature as well as their capacity to gild and enhance public spaces, it so plainly reflects an artistic subculture with a message, through its extremely visible style of speaking out on political, social, and economic issues.

At some point in our lives, we've all seen a mural. On your regular commute, you may come across murals. Murals have been used to beautify cities for ages, and they are an important form of public art. And with the election coming, many are voicing out their right on who deserve their support and who the people should support through painting murals on the public walls of their areas.

We must not be scared to express our opinion especially when it came from facts that should be shared to other individuals whether the way of partaking is through your art or anyway possible you can, we must do it. Therefore, as we become more enlightened on what is happening around us, we ought to know better and have a figurehead that we deserve for the people and for our country.

In essence, controversial art helps us to examine oneself and assess the validity of our own convictions, as these outputs are a view of artists' and society's thinking. We are not outsiders anymore to the inception of controversial paintings and artworks in the 21st century.


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