Disturbing and Provocative Art

theossuary:

The guillotine is most famous for its role during the Reign of Terror in the 1790s, but did you know that it was used by the French government to execute criminals until 1981?
Other governments have used it, too, including (for a time) the Third Reich.
Jean-Baptiste Tropmann, a notorious French murderer, was executed by guillotine in 1870. You can read about his crimes here.
Image: Exécution de Jean-Baptiste Tropmann. Source: Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée. Via Réunion des musées nationaux et du Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées.

The guillotine is most famous for its role during the Reign of Terror in the 1790s, but did you know that it was used by the French government to execute criminals until 1981?

Other governments have used it, too, including (for a time) the Third Reich.

Jean-Baptiste Tropmann, a notorious French murderer, was executed by guillotine in 1870. You can read about his crimes here.

Image: Exécution de Jean-Baptiste Tropmann. Source: Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée. Via Réunion des musées nationaux et du Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées.

sugarmeows:

From Une Semaine de Bonté (1934) – Max Ernst (German, 1891–1976)

victoriasrustyknickers:

‘The Smiling Spider’

Illustration by French Painter Odilon Redon (1840–1916) - 1891

via Wikipedia

“Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.”-Banksy

"I'm from Greece, male, born in 1963, and I am interested in any kind of disturbing and provocative art (grotesque, horror, gore, violence, macabre, sm-bondage, nude, erotics, etc), in history and in fine art photography with no ethical limits about the themes.

As a MIT department declares: "Graphics that depict dark aspects of history—such as violence, intolerance, racism, aggressive nationalism, war and atrocity, abuse of others and of the environment in general—have not been censored. We must confront such harsh images directly—and struggle to critically understand them—if we hope to ever make a better world." (ocw.mit.edu)

Similar is my view, that art or tragic events of the past keep a safe distance from the Real (with the forms of representation or with the time passing by). Consequently, the observers and audience use various subjective perspectives of interpretation, so they can reach in safety and "work out" by themselves something that disturbs them either as a personal trauma, or as of social morality issues.

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