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    Ultimate ugly: Jake and Dinos Chapman's disasters of war and the theology of ugliness

    Bown, Nicola (2016) Ultimate ugly: Jake and Dinos Chapman's disasters of war and the theology of ugliness. Theology 119 (6), pp. 424-434. ISSN 0040-571X.

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    Abstract

    Ugliness is an elusive concept and has been little discussed in theological aesthetics. This article argues that contemporary culture often regards ugliness and being more authentic than beauty, and prizes ugliness in contemporary art. Through a discussion of works by the contemporary British artists Jake and Dinos Chapman that rework Goya’s Disasters of War, this article suggests that ugliness is connected to nihilism, and that it should be seen as not the opposite of, but the negation of beauty. The works by the Chapman brothers embody the aesthetic and affective qualities of ugliness and thus a consideration of these works can help to formulate a theology of ugliness.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): beauty, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Disasters of War, nihilism, ugliness
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication
    Research Centres and Institutes: Nineteenth-Century Studies, Centre for
    Depositing User: Nicola Bown
    Date Deposited: 17 Nov 2016 12:38
    Last Modified: 09 Aug 2023 12:37
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/14706

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