Art – Page 23 – Stephen Hicks, Ph.D.

TRAC panel on Odd Nerdrum’s Kitsch and Roger Scruton’s Beauty

Leave a Comment / Art, Philosophy / Stephen Hicks

At the The Representational Art Conference in Ventura, California, I’ll be participating in a panel discussion on The Aesthetics of 21st Century Representational Art – (Odd Nerdrum’s Kitsch and Roger Scruton’s Beauty): Moderator: Peter Trippi, Editor, Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine. Panelists: Julio Reyes, Stephen Hicks, Alan Lawson, Jan-Ove Tuv. Earlier in the conference, I’ll also […]

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Zero-sum economics? J. K. Rowling edition

7 Comments / Economics, Literature / Stephen Hicks

Here is a clear example of zero-sum thinking, this time in literature. Author Lynn Shepherd laments J. K. Rowling’s publishing another book, on the grounds that the successful writer crowds out the less successful. In Shepherd’s words: “It wasn’t just that the hype was drearily excessive, or that (by all accounts) the novel was no

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Upcoming talk on philosophy and representational art

Shooting Shakespeare–novelist William Burroughs

3 Comments / Literature / Stephen Hicks

I have only two questions: 1. Would Shakespeare feel the need to shoot a portrait of Burroughs? 2. Would he find it amusing? Defacing others’ work is a recurring theme in modern and postmodern art: “Picasso took one of Matisse’s portraits of his daughter—and used it as a dartboard, encouraging his friends to do the

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Wellesley sculpture protests are not feminist

3 Comments / Education, Sculpture / Stephen Hicks

Tony Martelli’s The Sleepwalker has generated a large number of protests about its patriarchal nature. Journalists at Slate and The Wall Street Journal have more coverage. Students at Wellesley College have complained about how the statue triggers in them fears of sexual assault, white privilege, male privilege, oppression, and other very bad things. Feminism should

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Progress in postmodern art, Millie Brown edition

7 Comments / Art / Stephen Hicks

Some time ago, I wrote (despairingly) about human waste and the twentieth-century art world: “The world is ready for the bold new artistic move. That can come only from those not content with spotting the latest trivial variation on current themes. It can come only from those whose idea of boldness is not — waiting

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Dancing in communist China

Leave a Comment / Literature, Politics / Stephen Hicks

I’ve been enjoying Qiu Xiaolong‘s series of mystery novels set in Shanghai in the 1990s. One thing I like is Xiaolong’s ability to recreate a culture in transition, with characters of the generation of the Cultural Revolution interacting with characters of the liberalizing and modernizing generation. Early in the Death of a Red Heroine, the

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“500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art”

2 Comments / Art / Stephen Hicks

To start the year off: P. S. Johnson’s pleasurable tour through 500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art, accompanied by J. S. Bach.

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