"Grotesque" is one of the words the meaning of which will vary, even significantly, with context. In the world of art, it may be fanciful and absurd and not necessarily ugly and repulsive in an exaggerated sense. It need not be disturbing, in other words; it may even be considered playful. But in other contexts the grotesque is abnormal, monstrous and ugly, malformed. Which I think is to say disturbing.
The word seems apt to our times and the state of our world when given its darker sense. Of course we have more than our share of absurdity now, but the absurd is always with us as is war and the poor. It's part of the nature of our beastliness. There is nothing remarkable about it. What we also see, though, is ugliness. This is an ugly time and place.
The grotesqueness of the 20th century is typified by its monstrous nature. It was a century of colossal monsters--Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot. Mass murder by ideologues characterizes that era. It's quite early yet, of course, but judging from what has taken place in the 21st century we won't have such monsters. Instead, this century will be full of nasty, spiteful, self-righteous, bigoted, ignorant, loud and vulgur figures. Ours is the Age of the Ugly.
Consider the picture appearing at the start of this post. It's one of the grotesque figures appearing in the margins of the remarkable Luttrell Pslater, a version of the Book of Psalms prepared in the 14th century at the behest of Sir Geoffrey Luttrell, lord of the manor in Irnham, England. This document is considered of great significance for its portrayal of life in medieval times in that area, on parchment. People are shown engaging in a variety of agricultural and rural pursuits. Sir Geoffrey appears in full armour. The delightfull pastime of bear-baiting is shown, chickens are fed, corn harvested; people dance, wrestle, play, work.
Amidst the psalms and the illustrations there appear abnormal, impossible creatures like whatever is shown above. Perhaps I speak only for myself, but these creatures, made up as they are of the limbs and faces of different animals and peoples, and sometimes other things, may well be absurd and even amusing in a certain sense, but overall have a nightmarish quality to them. They're creepy.
Illustrators and scribes of medieval times are known to have drawn odd and humorous figures on manuscripts of various kinds. One can imagine that they would want to add some frivolity to what must have been very difficult work. But I find it hard to characterize this particular drawing as comic. I wonder what was the artist thinking, and I doubt he was trying to be funny.
It was a very religious time, a supernatural time, and the work being prepared was religious in nature. Are such illustrations intended to contrast with the scenes of normal life depicted for the purpose of noting that the unnatural and demonic inhabited the same world and were among us, even though unseen? Do they in some way mock the people shown, especially the high and the mighty? Are they intended to reflect people as they in fact are and not as they appear--show normal people to be abnormal, twisted and repulsive if their true characteristics are known?
It's hard to say what kind of art will be created in this century. I suppose there will be those who actually paint in addition to those who generate computer images of various kinds (at least, I hope there will be such artists). How will the shoddy, craven, venal people, high and low, we see all about us be portrayed by our artists, if not engaged in gun fights and car chases and sex, all of which seem ubiquitous in our entertainments?
Artists of the grotesque in this era won't create incredible, fanciful creatures or combinations of them, or even monsters, I think. Instead I imagine them drawing misshapen, grubby, rat-like characters engaged in mean and petty acts, disgusting rather than disturbing, tiresome instead of fearful, farcical rather than absurd.
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