Exhibitionism: art in an era of intolerance by Lynne Munson documents in detail the decline of the art establishment, or what should be called Academic Art to fully equate it with the then dead hand of the Nineteenth Century’s art elites; if you doubt this, read the book. Professor Camille Paglia concurs in a recent WSJ article entitled “How Capitalism Can Save Art.” She concludes her piece by saying:
Thus we live in a strange and contradictory culture, where the most talented college students are ideologically indoctrinated with contempt for the economic system that made their freedom, comforts and privileges possible. In the realm of arts and letters, religion is dismissed as reactionary and unhip. The spiritual language even of major abstract artists like Piet Mondrian, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko is ignored or suppressed.
Thus young artists have been betrayed and stunted by their elders before their careers have even begun. Is it any wonder that our fine arts have become a wasteland?
But are there finally green shoots of hope that a new generation is finally going to psychologically kill its parents, the post-modernist rationalist perspective, and bravely go forward into a new more romantic era? I was in a store the other day selling only Russian cold war film cameras because their youthful market was tired of digital. All the new vampire (a Romantic Era construct), fairytale, superhero stories are romantic at heart, an escape from the “real” and “objective” viewpoint of their parents. As I have argued previously, it is unnecessary to give up reason to reacquire this more emotional art. Listen to any of Bach’s music, perhaps the Goldberg Variations and you’ll appreciate what I mean; iron rationality used to create some of the most emotionally moving music ever written. The visual arts need to take a page from the Baroque Era and launch a new movement that fuses post-modernist self-aware rationalism with a love of life. Images of natural classic beauty; rational structure supporting the joyous appreciation of the experience of life.
The main thing that gives me pause is that I fear our culture has failed to provide our young artists with the perspective they need to accomplish this task because it is severed them from the natural, the fundamental, and their true selves. We live in a hot-house of our own creation, isolated from each other and ultimately distracted from the great truths of life and death. It is not so odd that the scientific quest to discover who we are has led to this state of affairs; science is a wonderful tool for exploring the “how” of the natural world, but a terrible one for pondering the “why.” The visual arts can help, but apparently the artists must heal themselves.
No. 42: A New Era Begins?
Exhibitionism: art in an era of intolerance by Lynne Munson documents in detail the decline of the art establishment, or what should be called Academic Art to fully equate it with the then dead hand of the Nineteenth Century’s art elites; if you doubt this, read the book. Professor Camille Paglia concurs in a recent WSJ article entitled “How Capitalism Can Save Art.” She concludes her piece by saying:
Thus we live in a strange and contradictory culture, where the most talented college students are ideologically indoctrinated with contempt for the economic system that made their freedom, comforts and privileges possible. In the realm of arts and letters, religion is dismissed as reactionary and unhip. The spiritual language even of major abstract artists like Piet Mondrian, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko is ignored or suppressed.
Thus young artists have been betrayed and stunted by their elders before their careers have even begun. Is it any wonder that our fine arts have become a wasteland?
But are there finally green shoots of hope that a new generation is finally going to psychologically kill its parents, the post-modernist rationalist perspective, and bravely go forward into a new more romantic era? I was in a store the other day selling only Russian cold war film cameras because their youthful market was tired of digital. All the new vampire (a Romantic Era construct), fairytale, superhero stories are romantic at heart, an escape from the “real” and “objective” viewpoint of their parents. As I have argued previously, it is unnecessary to give up reason to reacquire this more emotional art. Listen to any of Bach’s music, perhaps the Goldberg Variations and you’ll appreciate what I mean; iron rationality used to create some of the most emotionally moving music ever written. The visual arts need to take a page from the Baroque Era and launch a new movement that fuses post-modernist self-aware rationalism with a love of life. Images of natural classic beauty; rational structure supporting the joyous appreciation of the experience of life.
The main thing that gives me pause is that I fear our culture has failed to provide our young artists with the perspective they need to accomplish this task because it is severed them from the natural, the fundamental, and their true selves. We live in a hot-house of our own creation, isolated from each other and ultimately distracted from the great truths of life and death. It is not so odd that the scientific quest to discover who we are has led to this state of affairs; science is a wonderful tool for exploring the “how” of the natural world, but a terrible one for pondering the “why.” The visual arts can help, but apparently the artists must heal themselves.