Chapmans' Work Analysis Example
Discussions surrounding the Chapmans' work focus on the artists' provocative attitudes relating to their art. Their “Great Deeds Against the Dead” embodies the anatomy of torture and suffering because of war. The “aesthetic and moral nature of bringing violence into the museum gallery are prominent motifs in Great Deeds Against the Dead”. [1] Through their art, the Chapman brothers represent the trauma and chaos of the war. The violence of war “ended with the Peninsular War, the subject of Goya's testimonials.” [1] The Chapman brothers are artists who are obsessed with Goya’s gore-filled series, “The Disasters of War”. The brothers acquired one of the remaining prints of the “ Disasters of War” and had the intention to redefine it. They have “gone very systematically through the entire 80 etchings, and changed all the visible victims’ heads.” [2] The Chapman brothers have changed Goya’s prints, putting their own take on it. This caused an uproar because many saw this as vandalism and defacing rare prints of Goya’s art. Their alterations to his artwork were permanent and many viewed this as artistic vandalism. The Chapman brothers take on this piece Jake and Dinos Chapman wanted to have that shock value, “we’ve always been accused of being scaremongers, and out to shock people, I don’t think art has ever had the ability to shock people. Shock is something that is applied to real things, like seeing a photograph of a child starving to death whilst a vulture waits to eat the corpse. That’s fucking shocking, but it’s not the photograph that’s shocking, it’s the fact that it’s a real thing that’s happening in the world and nothing is being done about it.” [3] In this quote, the Chapmans are talking about how people are upset with them for depicting gruesome situations when these situations happen in real life and no one bats an eye. Each scene they recreated contains miniature subjects which are “seen as a reference to modern-day warfare, and the human detachment caused by rolling news footage that can normalize war and human suffering.” [4] The miniature subjects represent how detached and desensitized we’ve become to things just because we see it all over. Using mannequins to get this message along “potentially devalues the subject's power but also reminds us that violence is an understood and ubiquitous part of society.” [4] It is shown in galleries despite its gruesomeness because of shock value and other historical values it holds. It has a historical value because it’s tied to the peninsular war as well as the famous etchings from Goya. This sculpture was a reminder to the people of the atrocities taking place in Bosnia, Rwanda and Haiti. For the Chapman brothers, this lifelike creation of the mannequins “was chosen specifically with the intention of detracting from the expressionist qualities of a Goya drawing and trying to find the most neurotic medium possible.” [5] I am not offended by this artwork, there is a quote that goes “art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” I think this is very fitting for this piece. I can say I was shocked when I saw it. I had millions of thoughts running through my head like “how can this possibly have a meaning behind it?”. I think it shows I am not easily bothered, seeing work like this brings out the curiosity in me. I think it goes to show how much times have changed since we have been here. Why are people being sensitive to art representing war when they hear about it everywhere else? I really dig what the Chapman brothers are doing and I think they created their own reputation for themselves in a very unique way and just because some people don’t agree with them doesn’t mean they should stop. Dinos Chapman had said “when people talk about our work, the thing they sometimes forget is that it’s 99% funny and 1% whatever else.” There is the meaning behind their work but people take it way too seriously in the wrong way.
Works Cited
Great deeds against the dead. (n.d.). Retrieved October 4, 2021, from
https://medhum.med.nyu.edu/view/12885 [1]
Jake & Dinos Chapman: The Rape of Creativity index. (n.d.). Guardian.Co.Uk Arts. Retrieved
October 4, 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/arts/pictures/0,,926340,00.html [2]
Macellari, A. (n.d.). Dinos Chapman:20 Years as Britart’s enfant terrible. Crack Magazine.
Retrieved October 4, 2021, from https://crackmagazine.net/article/long-reads/dinos-chapman-feature/ [3]
Jake and Dinos Chapman. (n.d.). The Art Story. Retrieved October 4, 2021, from
https://www.theartstory.org/artist/chapman-jake-and-dinos/ [4]
Jake and Dinos Chapman (B. 1962 & B.1966). (n.d.). Christie’s. Retrieved October 4, 2021,
from https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5916643 [5]
Withrefdeath. (n.d.). Chapman, Jake and Dinos – Great Deeds Against the Dead 1994 – with
reference to death. With Reference to Death. Retrieved October 4, 2021, from
https://withreferencetodeath.philippocock.net/blog/chapman-jake-and-dinos-great-deeds-against-the-dead-1994
Gibbons, F. (2003, March 31). Chapman brothers “rectify” Disasters of War. The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/mar/31/arts.turnerprize2003
Jones, J. (2003, March 31). Look what we did. The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2003/mar/31/artsfeatures.turnerprize2003
Turner, C. (n.d.). ‘I’d like to have stepped on Goya’s toes, shouted in his ears and punched him in
the face’: Jake and Dinos Chapman – Tate Etc. Tate. Retrieved October 4, 2021, from https://www.tate.org.uk/tate-etc/issue-8-autumn-2006/id-have-stepped-on-goyas-toes-shouted-his-ears-and-punched-him-face
