Can art be offensive?

[Nymphs]

Art by its very nature is interpretative, so can we really apply offensive as a label to it?

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

If it's personally offensive to you, yes.

 

[CynthiaCypher]

Yes. Sometimes it is suppose to be offensive.

 

[CynthiaCypher]

If it's personally offensive to you, yes.

Or when the artist intends to create something offensive.

 

[Sha'irullah]

I have always found Jackson Pollock's work offensive to common sense so I say it can be

 

[Nymphs]

I have always found Jackson Pollock's work offensive to common sense so I say it can be

What about his work do you find offensive?

 

[Sha'irullah]

What about his work do you find offensive?

It is offensive because it is mindless and has no talent and is called art. I am constantly reminded of how Americans are utterly worthless and cannot understand very simplistic things.

 

[Nymphs]

It is offensive because it is mindless and has no talent and is called art. I am constantly reminded of how Americans are utterly worthless and cannot understand very simplistic things.

Why don't you think it has any talent? I hope you don't mind me asking. Questions are my way to understand.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

It is offensive because it is mindless and has no talent and is called art. I am constantly reminded of how Americans are utterly worthless and cannot understand very simplistic things.

I find post-modern art offensive to my aesthetic tastes, too.

 

[CynthiaCypher]

It is offensive because it is mindless and has no talent and is called art. I am constantly reminded of how Americans are utterly worthless and cannot understand very simplistic things.

You just don't get the concept of organized chaos. Jackson Pollock showed us that there is beauty in the random and chaotic.

 

[Sha'irullah]

You just don't get the concept of organized chaos. Jackson Pollock showed us that there is beauty in the random and chaotic.

No Salvador Dali showed mankind that. Jackson butchered it

 

[CynthiaCypher]

No Salvador Dali showed mankind that. Jackson butchered it

Dali's work was not about chaos. Dali's work spoke of the illusive nature of reality. That is why dream is his central motif

 

[Poisonshady313]

Art by its very nature is interpretative, so can we really apply offensive as a label to it?

Absolutely.

Art may provoke a wide range of emotional responses. Offense is one among those.

 

[Riverwolf]

Some art should be offensive.

 

[Badran]

Art by its very nature is interpretative, so can we really apply offensive as a label to it?

I'd call it a description rather than a label.

Some art can be perceived as offensive despite there being no intent of such on the artist's behalf, some art can be perceived and intended as offensive, and some art can be intended as offensive but not perceived as such.

In any of those cases, whether the description was used by the artist or the viewer, i think the term is fine. It doesn't on it's own negate the interpretative nature of the issue.

 

[Willamena]

Art by its very nature is interpretative, so can we really apply offensive as a label to it?

Offense is an interpretation. (More precisely, an attitude towards an interpretation.)

 

[Revoltingest]

Sure it can be offensive.
What good is it if it can't be?