Art Must Be Beautiful / Artist Must Be Beautiful is one of Abramovie’s typical early performances. With a brush in one hand and a comb in the other, she works on her face and hair, while repeating the sentence ‘art must be beautiful, artist must be beautiful’. Ironically, this is in no sense an act of self-adornment, but that of aggressive self-mutilation. The passive aggression and self-inflicting violence expressed by the artist is one example of how, in the early years of performance art, female artists used their own bodies to challenge the institution of art and the notion of beauty.
Public attention towards Abramovic’s performance works has been focused on her body and the abuse of her body. However this work is not about physical pain, but rather about the mental state that can be reached by the way of pain. The purpose of her self-inflicted pain is to free the body and soul from the restrictions imposed by Western culture and from the fear of physical pain and death. From her perspective, performance art can be used to challenge and transgress physical and mental boundaries.
