Contraversial Art

Surprisingly, only one of those works of art was new to me (the one with Saddam Hussein.) The only one that I actually find offensive is the shark in the formaldehyde. As a vegetarian/animal rights activist I do not like to see animal displayed in that way. I do not know whether or not the shark was killed in order to create this piece or if he somehow got ahold of an already dead shark. However, I do not think this really matters. I do not like the fact that a dead animal is put on display instead of giving it the respect and the chance to rest in peace that it deserves. It's fairly morbid and I do not support some of the values/meanings that it could potentially represent.

Besides that, I either liked all of the other works of art or at least found them interesting. My favorite was by far Erasing de Kooning. I thinks that it provokes thoughts that few other works of art have done. It gets you to think about something that was there in addition to what is there. I think this can lead to many questions. While most people think of art as creating something, can destroying something be a work of art as well? Is the original still a work of art, even though it no longer exists? Is it really worth it to stare at a blank piece of paper? Why do we give said sheet of paper so much value? Clearly, it is due to what used to be there, but why does what used to be there matter? What matters more, what existed or what exists? What artist would want to sacrifice someone else's art? I think that no matter what the answers to these questions are the work of art is no doubt creative and something few have matched.