The Radical Use of Chance in 20th Century Art

Download or read book The Radical Use of Chance in 20th Century Art written by Denis Lejeune and published by Rodopi. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To many, chance and art are antagonistic terms. But a number of 20th century artists have turned this notion on its head by attempting to create artworks based on randomness. Among those, three in particular articulated a well-argued and thorough theory of the radical use of chance in art: André Breton (writer), John Cage (composer) and François Morellet (visual artist). The implications of such a move away from established aesthetics are far-reaching, as much in conceptual as in practical terms, as this book hopes to make clear. Of paramount importance in this coincidentia oppositorum is the suggested possibility of a correlation between the artistic use of chance and a system of thought itself organised around chance. Indeed placing randomness at the centre of one’s art may have deeper philosophical consequences than just on the aesthetical level.