More Art History!

Part 2 of the Laska Movement!

Unbenumingly - the revolutionary piece by Fransis Laska was, as mentioned previously, was nearly unframable, and totally un-hangable, however, it did lead to the innovations in art that people rarely see. Taking headlines from sensational broadsheets from Paris, Laska combined stories as diverse as the Spanish American War, the recent patent of the rubber heeled shoe, and the exploits of Mademoiselle Bridgett Margot, who performed on Paris stages, and literally made news that would make Lohan and Paris jelous. (In fairness to Mademoiselle Margot, the broadsheets did use hype to sell their product, but taken in context, the story of her, the Duke of Burgundy, the Courtesan Chantell de Morazon, his Valet, and two goats, was a sensation that didn't subside until the collapse of the Rolando building which housed a department store, killing 35.)

Nevertheless, the piece combined words and printed images nearly in the mode of "sampling" in music, and created the line of text which read "Mademoiselle Bridget Margot takes the advances of all the Philippines and two goats in her mouth, while wearing rubber soled shoes which will provide traction in all kinds of weather." If this wasn't enough, the fresco which was applied in the upper right quadrant to the lower center, was a reproduction of a fresco found in a Pompeii whorehouse which depicted a woman orally pleasing a Satyar. Laska then used egg tempura over the fresco to place all weather shoes on the nymph, and added masked goats tied by a leash to her wrist. All in all a titillating and erotic picture.

Unfortunately, the temper of Fransis Laska had by the time it was displayed in three galleries, had driven the salons of Paris to discard Laska as a raving madman. Which, undoubtedly he was. Whatever the public reaction to his works, he didn't seem to mind. In fact, it appears he relished the idea of being an outsider and began staging reenactments of his piece with poor and too-long out of work actors and actresses, where he apparently, in spoken word form, added more outlandish strings of text. This became a huge sensation in the poorer areas of Paris, where heroin use was on the rise. While he never made the kind of money he had hoped for, Laska developed a following of the most undesirable kind. Yet, it appeared that being a king of the underclasses for Laska, was still a form of honor, and he began indulging further into the stranger tastes of drug use, which seemed to inspire a number of his circle, to begin the descent with him.

His seminal performance seems to be when he took his goat/satyar theme, and arranged a strap-on dildo to be fitted upon a goat, which was made to mount a man dressed in horns and the garb of a Satyar. Whereupon, in front of an audience of some 400 interested spectators, Laska proceeded to paint the scene, occasionally directing the Satyar, and the goat handler in more unique poses, ending with the Satyar sucking the goat's oversized and prosthetic fallus. Since Laska was also aware of newer forms of artistic medium, this was also captured on a large camera, and is the first known pornographic photo of bestiality.

This performance made Laska an untouchable in the respectable Parisian art world, but made him a cult hero in the circles that never claimed to have taste. He took this status, and while destroying his life, created works which would influence the next 100 years.

Next up...How Fransis Laska developed his movement, simply with three astounding pieces!