Mao Zedong, in keeping with Marxism, argued this about the nature and purpose of art: “In the world today all culture, all literature and art belong to definite classes and are geared to definite political lines. There is in fact no such thing as art for art’s sake, art that stands above classes, art that […]
Art and morality, Mao and Warhol Read More »
It is common knowledge to every schoolboy and even to every Bachelor of Arts, That all sin is divided into two parts. One kind of sin is called a sin of commission, and that is very important, And it is what you are doing when you are doing something you ortant, And the other kind
“Portrait of the Artist as a Prematurely Old Man,” Ogden Nash Read More »
From an account of the famous meeting of the two giants in 1812: Beethoven’s manners were described as rough, like “an unlicked bear,” while “Goethe’s social attitudes were shaped in a more formal age. For Beethoven, 21 years his junior, the only true aristocrats were artists. In the mythology, his disillusionment was clinched by Goethe’s
Goethe versus Beethoven on deference to aristocrats Read More »
[In 1967 (50 years ago this year), a commissioned sculpture by Pablo Picasso was unveiled in Chicago. Critic Alan G. Artner has a journalistic account of the unveiling and the piece’s subsequent legal-political saga. But the following excerpt from the great Mike Royko’s account of the crowd’s reaction captures the day’s significance best.] ON THE
Picasso comes to Chicago Read More »
I wrote this piece 15 years ago — my explanation of how two lines of development of modern art culminated in postmodernism. (Translations via here into German, Spanish, Korean, and Portuguese). Now I feel the need to write a follow-up: Why Art is Still Ugly. Related: * Taking Modern Artists at Their Word. September 2014.
Why Is Art *Still* Ugly? Read More »
I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert … near them, on the sand, Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lips, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped
“Ozymandias,” Percy Bysshe Shelley Read More »
[A discussion post.] President Trump’s now-serious proposal to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities has elicited the first round of responses ranging from Philistine! to It’s about time! Both agencies were created in 1965 by President Lyndon Johnson, who said at the time: “it is necessary and
Trump’s Call to Eliminate Government Art Funding Read More »
At the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm, Marina Abramović hired a man to lie on a bed and scream for 2.5 hours (or until his voice gives out, according to the show’s pamphlet). Nearby, at the Finglefarber Asylum for the Touchingly Insane, one may also hear a bedded man screaming — but the two
Art that screams for attention — progress in postmodern art Read More »