The author posted a question in Arts Culture
Joel-Peter Whitkin. What do you think of him? What do you see, the Ugly or the Beautiful? What is the message of his work? and got a better answer
Response from
The first photo is Icarus, in my opinion, only with his wings ripped out of his shoulder blades with meat. The second one is definitely Leda with a swan, but Leda has become a hermaphrodite. You know, there was this sculptor and artist, Hans Bellmer. I immediately remembered him when I saw Whitkin's work - Bellmer's dolls have exactly the same shocking provocation, abnormality. Except that even if Bellmer is not normal, he is still first of all an artist: behind his sadistic nature, I can guess surrealistic motives of destruction, destruction. With Witkin, I see only a desire to flaunt, and in the most vulgar way, by displaying mutilation and primitive sexual characteristics. The question of whether or not this is art is, of course, for everyone to decide for themselves. In any case, I should be curious to hear a point of view that differs from mine, and besides, I remember lines that might well justify this kind of work: "The world normal, rationed, Numbered by order, keeps up its march, But I stand for madness.
The first photo is Icarus, I think, only with his wings ripped out of his shoulder blades with meat. The second one is definitely Leda with a swan, but Leda has become a hermaphrodite. You know, there was a sculptor and artist, Hans Bellmer. I immediately remembered him when I saw Whitkin's work - Bellmer's dolls have exactly the same shocking provocation, abnormality. Except that even if Bellmer is not normal, he is still first of all an artist: behind his sadistic nature, I can guess surrealistic motives of destruction, destruction. With Witkin, I see only a desire to flaunt, and in the most vulgar way, by displaying mutilation and primitive sexual characteristics. The question of whether this is art, of course, is for everyone to decide for themselves. In any case, I would be curious to hear a point of view that differs from mine, and I remember lines that might justify this kind of work: The world normal, normalized, numbered in order, keeps up its march, but I stand for madness.
Undoubtedly, Whitkin is a great, established photographic artist, with great hand-crafted technique. There's no one next to him, no one to compare him to. H. Bellmer with his boring, monotonous dolls? Of course, Whitkin's art is very ambiguous, flamboyant, heavy-handed, but it is his search for aesthetics in the ugly.