Lecturing:

Transgressions in Christian Iconography of the 20th century: «Crucified Christ»from Manet to Serrano” by Jerica Ziherl (Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Rijeka – HR)

Transgressions frequently instigated two parallel processes in the visual arts during the late 19th and early 20th century. One process comprises a critique of dominant aesthetic, artistic, existential and political discursive institutions. The other is a projection of novelty as an actual or future disposability. One of the most transgressive subjects with the European artists was deviation from the Christian iconography, especially in depicting Christ. This essay is going to analyze a few works by transgressive artists and the typology of transgression connected to the subject of crucified Christ. From Courbet to Manet, Christ has been being depicted as an ordinary man, a mortal, his portraits becoming ordinary. This opened doors to a new aesthetics based on negating the doctrine, conventions and taboos, with its most prominent artists being Pablo Picasso, Francis Bacon and, by the end of the 20th century, Andrés Serrano.