INTERVIEW WITH REBIS

What is art, who is an artist?

In the present time and context Contemporary Art is what the artist wants to express; the artist is the person who expresses himself through art. Before we used to say art was the expression of Beauty.

I’d like to understand that better....

I can historicise the concept by talking about a Before and an After. Let me explain in more detail: Art had an identity crisis, on the one hand with the advent of Kantian philosophy, which denied the possibility of metaphysical values and thus even of Beauty, and on the other with the arrival of technology (photography and movies). The Age of Enlightenment destroyed the Before.

And with less doctrine what are you saying......

...that the advent of photography made the use of art as a means of representing reality and nature psychologically pointless, but also that the impossibility of absolute truth made the search for Beauty inaccessible. In theory, the artist – now – uses art to show himself to the world and no longer to show himself the world.

Just a minute. Let’s try to keep to the historical and concrete facts....

Historically the !rst aspects to be a#ected were technique and light. Look at the Impressionists and the Fauves. The changes all poured in like an avalanche coming down a mountain. And the Olympus where the Values reside is very high up.

But are you saying that art has become detached from Beauty, and is no longer art?

OH NO! I’ve never said nor meant that. Art is still Art even without Beauty. I just want to acknowledge something that happened.

And then...

What happened then is there for all to see: an avalanche, growing bigger and gathering speed, setting the pace for new research: Suprematism, Futurism, Dadaism and even Cubism. But the problem isn’t about proposing new ideas: Pop Art or Trans-avant-garde, Arte Povera or Land Art. Art is like the donkey Cattelan hung from the ceiling which, if you think about it, was really the artist hanging himself.

I’m afraid you’ve lost me again....

The artist doesn’t solve his problem by searching for the answers: colour, technique, light, style, eventually abandoning his works in favour of a performance.....The astonishment inherentin art isn’t enoug