When the Artist Parties, Is It Still a Celebration?­

Celebrations: an ensemble of festivities organized occasionally; this word, which evokes good times had together, is an umbrella term for an infinity of festive “occasions”: all are events which also underpin the idea of a collective festivity, the ceremony, jubilee, banquet, feast, gala, garden party, the society ball, reception, carnival, beanfeast, and fun fair.

In the classical age it was customary for the artist to oversee ­celebrations or accompany public festivities, a tradition which modernity has taken over in its own right. Whether this regards the Venice carnival, the fêtes galantes of the eighteenth century, the ephemeral festivities at the court of Versailles, those of Toulouse-Lautrec at the Moulin-Rouge, the masked balls and café-concerts organized by the Montparnasse ­artists or, last but not least, the Factory parties in New York City and psychedelic ­parties, all these are instances in which the artists join in the celebration, aesthetically revitalizing it, if not transcending it; contrary to the romantic standard of the melancholy or vain festivity, everything indicates that the artist is not necessarily the enemy of festivities.