The Art of Refusal: Notes on the Poetics of No

Abstract

This essay proposes an approximation to the different ways in which the visual arts have dealt with versions of the word NO since Marcel Duchamp created his NON in 1959. This form of explicit negation has been explored in different formats and with myriad meanings by artists such as Boris Lurie, Santiago Sierra, Bahia Shehab and Maurizio Cattelan. I examine how their works emphasize political dimensions of refusal, questioning realities and notions that are prevalent in art as well as in other spheres. Their contributions also create new links that develop in severaldirections--associating people, ideas, art and history.