Yasmina Reza’s Art and a painting’s power to destroy friendships

By Sam L. Marcelo

Theater Review
Art
By Yasmina Reza
Presented by Repertory Philippines

IN YASMINA REZA’s Art, a 15-year friendship among three men falls apart when one of them shells out 200,000 francs for a white painting — about five feet by four, with a white background… completely white — and another decries it as “a piece of shit.”

Directed by Victor Lirio for the 88th season of Repertory Philippines, Art revolves around Serge (British-Filipino actor Martin Sarreal), a dermatologist and the smug owner of the divisive white painting; Marc (London-based actor Freddy Sawyer), an aeronautical engineer who cannot stomach that one of his closest friends quotes French poetry, recommends Seneca, and deploys words like “deconstruction” without a hint of irony; and Yvan (Gawad Buhay awardee Brian Sy), a neophyte in the stationery business who finds himself caught in the middle of the sometimes intellectual, sometimes physical argument while he’s on the precipice of a personal meltdown due to his impending nuptials.

Central to the comedy’s plot is Marc’s dilemma: “I love Serge and I can’t love the Serge who’s capable of buying that painting.” The white painting isn’t just a white painting, after all; it is a stand-in for values, ethics, and morals that are often split along class lines. In an hour-and-a-half, Art summarizes Pierre Bourdieu’s Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste in a much more entertaining and lighthearted manner.

Transported into the present year for reasons unknown (except maybe sartorial — as Marc, a traditionalist, is still beholden to his skinny jeans even if they went out of style in the 2010s, while Serge, who fancies himself a modern man, is dressed in the wider and more generous cut of pants du jour; yet curiously they kept giving the painting’s price in francs not euros), Art unfolds on a spare stage with minimal props, the most important of which is the white painting — about five feet by four, completely white, we are constantly reminded — that possesses all the requisite markers of a prestige object: it is a piece by a well-known painter, from the right period of his career (it’s an Antrios and not just any Antrios — but a seventies Antrios, says Serge); coveted by a blue-chip gallerist and collector (namechecked by Serge); and validated by a major cultural institution (there are three Antrioses in the Pompidou, says Serge). An aside: Real-life art handlers would have a heart attack seeing how this fictional artwork is moved around with utter disregard for the painted surface.

With multiple monologues and fast-paced banter, Art (translated from the original French by British playwright Christopher Hampton), gives each actor his turn in the spotlight.

Sarreal, with his posh British accent (perfected, perhaps, in Bridgerton, where he played Lord Barnell in Season 3), perpetually raised eyebrow, and perennial crooked grin (the kind that would merit being smacked off one’s face) exudes the pomposity of a man suffering from a Napoleon complex. As Sarreal’s antagonist, Sawyer is sarcastic, aggressive, and angry — his towering physique adding another layer to the conflict between Marc and Serge. And in the middle — ever the pacifist, ever the referee, ever the overlooked amoeba — is Sy, whose Yvan is a sweaty quivering ball of beta-male energy capable of rousing both sympathy and irritation.

Praised for its global and long-lasting appeal, Art debuted in 1994 and enjoyed successful runs in London and New York, garnering a slew of awards (multiple Olivier Awards, Tony Awards, and Drama Desk Awards). At the opening gala, Repertory Philippines President and Chief Executive Officer Mindy Perez-Rubio remarked that the company was fortunate to produce the play for local audiences as it is scheduled to open on Broadway this August with Neil Patrick Harris, alongside James Corden and Bobby Cannavale.

The staging of Reza’s Art and its accompanying commentary on the value of art is timely as cultural institutions in the West — America, specifically — are under attack. One hopes that the Marcs of the world, those who loudly condemn art as “shit,” experience a change of heart and see the poetry hiding in a white canvas, five feet by four, with a white background… completely white.

(Rep’s production of Art is on a limited run until June 29, with performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and matinee performances on Sundays at 3:30 p.m., at the Rep Eastwood Theater, Eastwood City Walk 2, Eastwood Ave., Bagumbayan, in Quezon City.)

Sam L. Marcelo is the head of publications at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) Manila and the managing editor at Exploding Galaxies Press, Inc. Prior to joining the world of books, Marcelo was a newspaper journalist who covered the arts-and-culture beat for BusinessWorld.

Interest piqued?

Here is a list of recommendations related to Yasmina Reza’s Art

• “Why these all-white paintings are in museums and mine aren’t,” posted Sept. 8, 2017 by Vox, YouTube, https://youtu.be/9aGRHOpMRUg

Antrios might be fictional but Robert Ryman — whose all-white painting Bridge (1980) was hammered at $20,605,000 at a 2015 Christie’s sale — is not. In this Vox video, a curator discusses the minimalist movement and how a square of white paint requires the viewer to “do a lot more work” before being rewarded. Art is also mentioned in a supercut of men raging and freaking out due to the “super pretentious meets uber pretentious nonsense” of modern art.

• Roman Mars, host, 99% Invisible, podcast, episode 347, “The Many Deaths of a Painting,” March 26, 2019, https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-many-deaths-of-a-painting/

Marc’s loathing for Serge’s Antrios isn’t unusual. This podcast episode talks about a work by abstract expressionist Barnett Newman and “a reaction the painting received that was so intense, so violent, it set off a chain of events that shook the art world to its core.”

• John Logan, Red, 2009

Art and Red would make the perfect double bill. Where Art has a white rectangle, Red has a dark rectangle. Where Art is a comedy told from the perspective of the people looking at a painting, Red — based on the life of AbEx painter Mark Rothko — is a drama told from the perspective of the artist who paints them. (Incidentally, Bart Guingona has starred in local productions of Art and Red.)

• Don Thompson, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2008)

How can a white painting be worth 200,000 francs? How can The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living by Damien Hirst be worth millions? Don Thompson explains the machinery of the art market and its eye-watering prices.

• Craig Damrauer, New Math Modern Art, https://www.wonderstore.assortedbitsofwisdom.com/shop/p/new-math-modern-art

MODERN ART = I COULD DO THAT + YEAH, BUT YOU DIDN’T.

(Yours for $140.)