Umění, kterému nikdo nerozumí: Historky z podsvětí výtvarné kultury – Vitvar Jan H. (2021)

The heroes of this book are cleaners, police officers, and prostitutes. Presidents, dictators, and revolutionaries. And of course, artists. Here, artifacts are gathered that someone burned, cut up, drowned, or ate. Paintings created by a donkey, a digger, or a motorcycle. Art critic Jan H. Vitvar invites readers on an entertaining and adventurous journey through the history of visual culture, showing that our understanding of art often leads through fatal misunderstandings. A sponsor of London's Tate Britain couldn't stand looking at the messy bed at the Turner Prize finalists' exhibition and decided to make it tidy. In reality, it was a conceptual work by Tracey Emin. When the artist re-made her bed with discarded panties and a used condom, she won the competition. Roman Týc, a member of the Czech group Ztohoven, also went to prison for a month because he insisted that the little figures in unusual positions on traffic lights were art. History knows countless cases where our accustomed perception sharply collided with artistic expression. However, the curious situations that typically arise in such cases have enormous testimonial value. They offer a crack in the curtain of meaning through which we can look anew not only at art but also at ourselves.