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Art and What It Says About Us
Apr. 29th, 2011 05:23 amI saw Art at Signature Theatre last weekend. For those unfamiliar with it, Yamina Reza's play (translated from the French by Christopher Hampton) has to do with three friends whose relationships get shaken up when one of them, Serge, buys an all-white painting. Marc hates it and it makes him wonder why he and Serge are friends. Yvan tries to be conciliatory - and gets attacked for that.
It's all funny enough but the whole thing didn't quite work for me. I wanted more about their pre-painting friendship in order to make sense of what the underlying issues were. There are hints of that (especially with respect to Yvan) but it isn't really explored.
The three performers were all quite good. Michael Russotto as Yvan was especially memorable in his hysterical monologue about a conflict over wedding invitations.
On a more serious note, I have often wondered about how we develop our tastes and what they say about us. I can't say I've ever noticed any particular correlation between personality and artistic tastes, other than my conviction that anybody over 25 who still thinks the Impressionists are the pinnacle of art is a bit unimaginative. (It is one thing to have a poster of Monet's "Water Lilies" on the wall of a college dorm room. By the time you're an adult, you should have branched out. I wouldn't drop our friendship over this, however.) This applies to other art forms, too. I even have friends who like country music.
It's all funny enough but the whole thing didn't quite work for me. I wanted more about their pre-painting friendship in order to make sense of what the underlying issues were. There are hints of that (especially with respect to Yvan) but it isn't really explored.
The three performers were all quite good. Michael Russotto as Yvan was especially memorable in his hysterical monologue about a conflict over wedding invitations.
On a more serious note, I have often wondered about how we develop our tastes and what they say about us. I can't say I've ever noticed any particular correlation between personality and artistic tastes, other than my conviction that anybody over 25 who still thinks the Impressionists are the pinnacle of art is a bit unimaginative. (It is one thing to have a poster of Monet's "Water Lilies" on the wall of a college dorm room. By the time you're an adult, you should have branched out. I wouldn't drop our friendship over this, however.) This applies to other art forms, too. I even have friends who like country music.
