Yasmina Reza’s Art as a Dialogue Between the Art Trends

Yasmina Reza’s play Art as the name signifies, revolves around an art product; a white painting which brings about so much dissention among the three main characters. This conflict gradually heats up because of the different opinions that these three characters hold about art. The definition and the purpose of art varies for each of them; therefore, the friendship of these character comes to the edge of destruction. However, what might arouse the curiosity of the audience is that why these people are to this extent obsessed with this painting and what significance it may have for them. The writer of this article proposes that the three characters of the play stand for the different art trends of the history and this play provides them with an appropriate field by which they can assert their power over another through dialogue. By eliciting supports from different parts of the play, it will be proven that the character of Marc stands for the traditional art trends while Serge represents the new art forms and Yven occupies a position in between. These artistic movements attempt to assert their power over one another through dialogue. The final outcome of this fight for power is that the new art trend, Serge, wins and Marc loses some of the power of his past and Yven proves to be a complete failure.

Keywords:

Art , Avant-garde , Classicism , dialogue , movement , power