Art

Friendship and Honesty

Think of your oldest, closest friends: the shared experiences and interests that your friendship is rooted in, and the unspoken understanding, support, and private jokes that nurture it. These friends are the background of your life, but the foreground, too: peaks of joy, troughs of sorrow, advice, companionship, affectionate joshing, heated debates...

Now take a step back and search for the little elephants in the room of your friendship. The trivial things that irritate, but which you ignore without the need to forgive. Not the casual things you can - and do - tease them about (they’re part of your bond), but the darker things that would undermine a weaker friendship. What would happen if those thoughts were show more exposed?

Are strong relationships based on honesty, or are white lies of omission necessary too?

The little boy who declared the emperor was naked had nothing to lose; with our most intimate friends, everything is at stake. As TS Eliot wrote, “Unreal friendship may turn to real. But real friendship, once ended, cannot be mended.”

That is the plot of Art. The context, and the bone of contention, is one character’s huge investment in a minimalist modern painting, and how that affects the longstanding, three-way friendship of Serge, Yvan and Marc.

It is a painting with a white background and a few white diagonal lines. I was reminded of this Miro, of three white panels, each with a single (black) wiggly line - none of which touch the edge. It took two or three years of sketches for him to get it just right:

One character is the arguably pretentious buyer, one is brazenly honest (calling the picture “shit”), and the other is the peacemaker who runs the risk of seeming two-faced. As Mark (with a K) asks in his excellent review (HERE), which character are you? Me? I’m Yvan.

Comedy… or Tragedy?

The original London production won a Laurence Olivier award for comedy, but in her acceptance speech, Reza joked that she thought she’d written a tragedy.

It is both.

So What is Art?

I’ve discused that question in my review of Why Your Five Year Old Could Not Have Done That, HERE. For me, it’s about intention (to provoke a reaction) and relationship (the audience who react).

Seeking Meaning and Purpose

“Under the white clouds, snow is falling. You can’t see the white clouds, or the snow. Or the cold, or the white glow of the earth.”

I’m reminded of almost the opposite: an old Rowan Atkinson sketch in which Sir Marcus Browning, M.P, refers to “the blind man, in the dark room, looking for a black cat… that isn't there.” That sketch also includes the memorable near-tongue-twister, “Purpose is what we’re striving for. We must have purpose. We mustn’t be purposeless. We mustn’t exhibit purposenessless. We must be purposelessnessless.”

Seeking purpose can open us to ridicule, but it’s better than the tragedy of having nothing to aspire to.

Image sources
Three children walking off together:
http://comps.canstockphoto.com/can-stock-photo_csp0596979.jpg
Four wise monkeys (hear, see, speak, and do no evil):
https://redhawk500.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/4-wise-monkeys-speak-see-hear-fea....
Jean Miro’s Painting of a white background for the cell of a recluse:
http://www.creationspot.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/miro2.jpg show less

A brilliant and succinct play, both outrageously funny and remarkably moving. The central symbol of the white painting is used to make a statement about the fragility of human relationships, and though the characters' interaction was in some respects exaggerated I could connect with them more than I could with characters in most novels, especially with Yvan. The dialogue is very fast-paced and witty, and Yvan's monologue at the beginning of the climactic meeting between the three characters one of the best dramatic monologues I've ever read/heard. I highly recommend this (especially to anyone who's ever had the unpleasant experience of being caught in the middle of a pointless fight), and I would love to see this performed on stage.

An engaging work, in which a man buys a totally white painting. His friends mock his choice, and then they begin to attack each other about every conceivable aspect of their respective personalities. Pop culture psychobabble flies as each man tries to convince his friends that they are the ones in the wrong. Issues underlying their friendship eventually lead to blows. The author has captured the nature of human identity and the need for approval. We identify ourselves by our possessions and our friends seems to be the underlying message of the play; the author explores how people require other people to approve of their decisions, even when they are convinced their decision is right. Well constructed, easy to read, and definitely a play show more of its time. show less

I think I'll just have to accept that Yasmina Reza isn't for me. Like The God of Carnage, I found "Art" to be an ultimately unsatisfying play. There was a lot of sound and fury that came to a rushed conclusion that resolved little of the chaos that makes up the play. Many of the ideas and conflicts presented feel half-baked and pointless, although it's easy to imagine them being entertaining when performed with a talented cast, as this play was on Broadway (which I think accounts for its Best Play Tony win, if I fancy being presumptuous, and I do.) The farce feels rather tired and the character interactions like Albee-lite. As always, it's unfair to judge a play solely on its text, and even more so when the text is in translated form, show more but as it stands, "Art" left me hollow. show less

Amusing play that on the surface is about whether a painting which is completely white can be considered art but underneath is about the friendship between 3 men. This play is best when viewed (as I was lucky enough to do several years ago); some of the humor may not come through in the print edition.

Not the best play I have ever read, but certainly better than most. I am a big fan of Yasmina Reza's fiction and her memoir, but not so much this first play I have read by her. I will continue on and read more. I do like her dialogue but "Art" seemed a little forced to me at times.

Reminded me of an episode of Seinfeld.