« Art »¹ est une pièce de théâtre écrite en 1994 par Yasmina Reza.

Résumé

Marc est invité par son ami Serge à venir voir sa nouvelle acquisition, une toile d'environ 1m60 sur 1m20 peinte en blanc, avec de fins liserés blancs transversaux, que Serge vient d'acheter 200 000 francs. Atterré par cet achat, ne comprenant pas que son ami ait pu dépenser une somme pareille pour un tableau blanc, Marc donne d'abord son point de vue sans retenue, ne se souciant pas de l'avis de Serge. Puis il va trouver Yvan, leur ami commun, pour lui faire part de son incompréhension à propos de ce geste. Yvan, lui, ne pense rien de ce tableau. L’approche de son mariage le rend nerveux. Il ne veut surtout pas contrarier ses deux amis. Serge et Marc commencent à se disputer et entraînent Yvan dans leur confrontation.

Les trois amis vont alors s’entre-déchirer autour de ce tableau blanc en invoquant tous les arguments qui tournent autour de l’art moderne et de l'art contemporain. L'affrontement ira bien au-delà de la seule question de l'art... Celui-ci ne laissera personne indemne. Serge ira jusqu'à dire ce qu’il pense vraiment de la femme de Marc, et Marc jusqu'à dire à Yvan d’annuler son mariage considérant qu'il fait une erreur. À force, Marc et Serge iront jusqu'à se battre. Finalement, pour sauver leur amitié, les trois amis vont sacrifier le tableau en dessinant dessus, puis vont le restaurer ensemble.

Les personnages

Marc

Rationnel et sceptique face à l'art contemporain, Marc a une belle situation, exerce le métier d'ingénieur dans l'aéronautique et incarne la classe moyenne confortable sûre d'elle. Face à Serge, il affirme d'abord son point de vue sans retenue ne se souciant pas de l'avis de son ami, certain d'être approuvé, mais la réaction de son ami le perturbe.

Serge

Dermatologue, Serge gagne bien sa vie, et se paye le luxe de hanter les galeries, intéressé par l'art. Pressé, un peu snob, il est aussi certain de son goût que Marc de son dégoût.

Yvan

Yvan est représentant dans une papeterie. Tourmenté, incertain, Yvan est le médiateur, toujours prêt à éviter un conflit. Rendu nerveux par son mariage approchant, il tente de ménager la chèvre et le chou, et tient le rôle délicat du fer entre le marteau et l'enclume.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Philosophy and

Notes and Fragments

YASMINA REZA'S PLAY Art is about one man, Serge, who buys a painting, and the reactions of his friends, Marc and Yvan, to his purchase. Marc's response is quite volcanic; for him, Serge's purchase of the painting threatens to wreck their friendship. Yvan tries to mediate the disaffection between Serge and Marc, often at the cost of redirecting their hostilities at himself.

As the play opens, Marc addresses the audience directly. He says:

My friend Serge has bought a painting. It's a canvas about five foot by four: white. The background is white and if you screw up your eyes, you can make out some fine white diagonal lines.

Serge is one of my oldest friends.

He's done very well for himself, he's a dermatologist and he's keen on art.

On Monday, I went to see the painting; Serge had actually got hold of it on the Saturday, but he's been lusting after it for several months. This white painting with white lines.This prelude explicitly connects the two major themes of the play—art and friendship (Serge is one of Marc's oldest friends), and the relation thereof. After this brief exposition, then, there is a flashback to the scene where Marc first sees Serge's painting, a painting by Antrios, a famous artist. At first Marc reacts warily, tentatively, but, in almost no time at all, he denounces the painting as shit, despite its whiteness. Marc tries to pass off his vituperation as humor and invites Serge to laugh along with him. But Serge finds nothing funny about the situation, which deteriorates throughout the play as everyone's nerves fray and angers mount.

The action of the play raises an immediate question. Why is Marc's reaction to the painting by Antrios so intense, so violent? Why would a painting endanger a friendship? Why do Marc and Serge seem to be willing to split apart after fifteen years over a matter of taste? Can't they just agree to disagree and leave it at that?

But Marc, at least, cannot. He says, "It's a complete mystery to me, Serge buying this painting. It's unsettled me, it's filled me with some undefinable unease." And that undefinable unease is enough to motivate Marc to attack Serge and Yvan savagely to the point where the friendship among them seems no longer possible. But what is the nature of this undefinable unease and what does its existence tell us about the relation of art to friendship?

Marc and Serge obviously see the painting very differently. Marc keeps referring to the Antrios as white, prompting Serge to correct him—pointing out that it has diagonals as well as bits of various other colors in it. Perhaps this is author Yasmina Reza's way of signaling that Serge, so to speak, sees something in the painting—sees that there's something to it—whereas for Marc, it's a blank, it's empty, it's nothing, it's worthless. Marc continues to be amazed that Serge has paid two hundred thousand francs for the painting. But it's not the money, as such, that bothers Marc; it is what the money symbolizes: that Serge sees something worthy in that which Marc finds worthless. And this threatens their friendship. Why?

One of the earliest conceptions of friendship in Western thought is Aristotle's notion of what he calls the friendship of character or character friendship. This is not the only type of friendship there is—there are also friendships based on such things as expediency—but, for Aristotle, character friendship is the highest sort. This is the type of friendship that obtains between equals—people of equal virtue and excellence.

Now you might think that people who are virtuous and excellent already should have little need of friends. They already have it all. But Aristotle suggests that without friends—friends who are our equals—we have no way of objectively assessing our own qualities—no objective measure of assessing whether or not we are virtuous or excellent. Genuine self-knowledge requires an outside...