December 2017
Intermediate to advanced
208 pages
3h 39m
English
One of the potential strengths of a work of art is its power to shock, a feat that is usually accomplished by flouting a social convention or breaking a taboo. The artwork transgresses the cultural norms of the community or culture in which it is made and therefore faces ostracism. It may go on to garner support; in which case, it will have functioned to shift the culture’s conception of what is acceptable to its members. Otherwise, it will be consigned to oblivion. Shock art has the added potential of making the artist notorious and sometimes very famous.
A classic example is Manet’s Olympia, of 1863, a nude portrait of a well-known courtesan. Here, Manet was exposing the mores of the wealthy, removing the scrim that polite society ...