"Art" by Yasmina Reza

First published: 1994 (English translation, 1996)

First produced: 1994, at the Schaubühne, Berlin

Type of plot: Psychological

Time of work: 1994

Locale: Paris, France

Principal Characters:

• Marc, an aeronautical engineer
• Serge, a dermatologist
• Yvan, a stationery salesman

The Play

The setting of this one-act play is the main room of a Paris apartment, which serves variously as the residence of Serge, Yvan, and Marc. The focus is on a painting, a plain canvas covered with white paint. As the play opens, Marc explains that Serge has just bought the painting for 200,000 francs (about $30,000). He thinks Serge is a fool, but Serge explains that the painter, Antrios, is well known and that Marc is ignorant about contemporary art. Moreover, Serge is hurt by Marc’s vile and pretentious laugh.

Upset by Serge’s reaction to his comments, Marc visits Yvan, who is astounded by the news of Serge’s purchase but says it is alright if it makes him happy. Marc complains that Serge now thinks of himself as a great connoisseur and questions the conciliatory Yvan’s view of the situation: “What sort of a philosophy is that, if it makes him happy?” Yvan points out that the painting is doing no harm to anyone, but Marc insists that it disturbs him because he does not like to see Serge “ripped off.” He adds that Serge has become so humorless that when he laughed at Serge’s painting, Serge did not laugh too.

When Yvan visits Serge, he admires the painting and calls the price reasonable. They laugh together, and Serge admits the purchase was “crazy.” However, Yvan is evasive, not admitting that he has spoken with Marc. Serge reveals that Marc was sardonic and cold in his evaluation of the painting. When Yvan tries to assure him that Marc is merely moody, Serge says that he does not blame Marc for not responding to his painting because he lacks training and has not gone through the necessary apprenticeship. What angers him is Marc’s insensitivity and condescension, “contempt with a really bitter edge.”

Later, Yvan tells Marc that everything is fine because Serge laughed. However, Marc demands details about their conversation and argues with Yvan about what made Serge laugh. He insists that Serge did not laugh “because his painting is ridiculous,” and that he and Yvan were laughing for different reasons: “you were laughing at the painting and he was laughing to ingratiate himself.” Marc becomes angry when Yvan says that he regards the painting as a work of art with “a system behind it.”

In monologues, Yvan reveals apprehension about his upcoming wedding, Serge is defensive about his painting, and Marc decides that he should behave more nicely to Serge. However, Serge ruins everything by telling Marc that Yvan liked the painting and by saying that Yvan agrees that Marc is humorless. Marc remains polite, but their conversation is poisonous. The three are supposed to have dinner together.

One hour late to the dinner, Yvan arrives with a frantic explanation for his tardiness: He argued with his mother and fiancé about the wedding invitations. Marc asks why he allows himself to be harassed by women and then snidely recommends that Yvan read Seneca, the classical Roman author, because Serge has just told him that it is a masterpiece. Serge becomes annoyed; first, he argues with Marc, then he tells Yvan that he should have an opinion of his own and insults him by asking him where his sense of humor is. Yvan understands this reference to his earlier betrayal and charges both of his friends with being “really sinister this evening.” Serge and Marc lash back, advising Yvan to cancel the wedding.

Marc maneuvers Yvan into saying that he is “moved” by the painting. Marc retorts that Yvan is dazzled by money and anything that he believes to be culture, and Yvan tells him to stop trying to control everything. All their pent-up hostilities explode. Fists fly and Yvan is accidentally struck. Finally, Serge hands a felt-tip pen to Marc, who draws a skiing man on the canvas.

Later, Marc and Serge clean the skier off the painting together. Yvan explains that they tried to patch up their relationship. They discussed a “trial period” in their friendship, but Yvan insists that “nothing great or beautiful in the world has ever been born of rational argument.” Serge confesses to the audience that he knew the painting could be cleaned. Marc says the painting “represents a man who moves across a space and disappears.”

Dramatic Devices

Reza’s stage directions consist of five sentences, including these: “A single set. As stripped-down and neutral as possible. Nothing changes, except for the painting on the wall.” Much of the play takes place at Serge’s, where the audience sees the Antrios canvas. The painting at Marc’s apartment is a traditional landscape of Carcassonne, France. Yvan also has a painting, which Serge dismisses as “a daub” before remembering it was done by Yvan’s father.

Minimalism is the term for art characterized by the use of primary forms or structures. One famous minimalist, Robert Ryman, who was the inspiration for “Antrios,” wrote, “White enables other things to become visible.” By using a minimalist setting, Reza ensures that all attention remains on the characters and the painting. A production designer needs to worry about only the lighting, and in many performances the lighting is simple and the set is white, like the painting. As a result, the play stands or falls by the wit and angst of its performance. Since it is a “talky” drama with nearly no props (on a couple of occasions the men eat nuts or olives), the setting is not “also a character,” as most dramatists envision it.

Critical Context

“Art” premiered in Berlin and opened in 1994 in Paris, where foreign rights were bought by actor Sean Connery. It won the Molière Award for Best Play, Best Production, and Best Author. The play proved its international appeal by collecting the 1996 Evening Standard Award, London’s Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy in 1997 and the 1998 Tony Award, as well as the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play during performances on Broadway, and the Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, and Drama League nominations for Best Play.

As critics have remarked, not since the social satires of Jean Anouilh in the 1950’s has a French playwright so triumphed in London’s West End and New York’s Broadway. Reza has been called “the superstar of European theater.” British dramatist Christopher Hampton, who translated “Art,” compares her minimalist writing with that of British playwright Harold Pinter.

Reza’s plays can also be compared with the painful dramas of Samuel Beckett. Her characters are full of folly and foibles, seeking recognition from others when they lack confidence; she has told interviewers, “I have no faith in humanity.” Her plays, though pervaded with a sense of loss, are more hopeful than Beckett’s, however, and more easily accessible to audiences because their wit is less existential and more mundane. Reza was surprised when “Art” was received everywhere as a comedy. She was also offended when she heard that a new expression had been invented to describe her work: “The big idea lite.” Her response was that her accessibility had been mistaken for banality:

I don’t want to compare myself with the greatest playwrights but Shakespeare, Molière, Racine, all the great ones were very, very accessible. And the fact that they became classics was because they were accessible. My writing is very complex . . . but complex and funny, complex and entertaining.

Sources for Further Study

Blume, Mary. “Yasmina Reza and the Anatomy of a Play.” International Herald Tribune, March 28, 1998.

Carroll, Noël. “Art and Friendship.” Philosophy and Literature 26, no. 1 (2002): 199-206.

Danto, Arthur C. “Art, from France to the U.S.” Nation 266, no. 23 (June 29, 1998): 28-31.

Schneider, Robert. “Yasmina Reza in a Major Key.” American Theatre 15, no. 9 (November, 1998): 12-15.

Stokes, John. “Art.”Times Literary Supplement, November 1, 1996, p. 19.