ART

The Death of Art

A contorted “manikin piss,” with the stream directed orally, symbolizes man’s capacity for self-nourishment. It was set up at the Salzburg Festival as art, but its practicality belies that categorization. And the act depicted is not an innovation; Gunter Brus, the actionist, has been doing precisely that for decades.

A platinum skull studded with diamonds – the materials alone valued at 12 million – is another matter. Although the object is modestly estimated at a hundred million, it has been termed extravagant junk by some. They are wrong!

It will be worth every penny of its final price, whatever that may be.

Since cans of Campbell’s tomato soup and comic strips have been declared art, art has been moribund, and now it has been in its last throes.

The diamond-studded skull is its last gasp and symbolizes the death of it.

-Herbert Kuhner