Many artists have placed disgust at the center of their work as a critical and aesthetic strategy. The Chicano group Asco, active between 1972 and 1987, adopted its name to confront racial and social exclusion in the United States.
They did so through urban performances such as Spray Paint LACMA: they sprayed their name with aerosol in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in a symbolic protest against institutional art.
The contemporary art movement Shock Art also includes deliberately disturbing works. Among them are cans of excrement from the artist himself, Piero Manzoni, and The Holy Virgin Mary, by Chris Ofili, a representation of the Virgin Mary with dark skin that incorporates elephant dung and scraps of pornographic images.
The purpose of these pieces is not to entertain, but to shake the viewer through visceral rejection.
Disgust as an Aesthetic Resource
These manifestations coincide with theoretical reflections such as the thesis of Italian philosopher Filippo Contesi. According to him, the art that is “repugnant” can have aesthetic value because disgust awakens a cognitive understanding of human mortality or of inverted social norms.
Similarly, art historian Anja Foerschner has investigated how disgust is integrated into contemporary art as a strategic resource. Works that depict human bodies, fluids or violence can generate cultural reflection, not only sensory revulsion.
Thus, the unpleasant can acquire an aesthetic sense and link coherently with the artist’s message.
Thus, the unpleasant can acquire an aesthetic sense and link coherently with the artist’s message.
