Via Ars Europa: “In 1826, the sculptor John Graham Lough returned to London and took up residence in Burleigh Street, above a greengrocer’s shop was he started his Milo of Croton, inspired by Michelangelo’s masterpieces. Lough became obsessed with his work, living on only bread and water. Soon the piece became too big for the […]
Artistic creation and destruction, Lough edition Read More »
On why much art must be destroyed, while some can be allowed to survive: Our purpose is “to ensure that literature and art fit well into the whole revolutionary machine as a component part, that they operate as powerful weapons for uniting and educating the people and for attacking and destroying the enemy, and that
The political purpose of art — Mao version Read More »
I’ve used a dozen or more Logic books over the years in my courses, and this one is the best. Now out in its fifth edition, with philosopher David Kelley joining up with new co-author, logician Debby Hutchins. Invest in the power of your mind. When I talk with my students about reasoning, I analogize
*The Art of Reasoning* — new edition Read More »
Anti-Semites, postmodernists, and alt-rightists as peas in a pod.
Online trolls’ rhetoric, Sartre’s anticipation Read More »
One reason why the wokist/p.c.-conformists are dangerous. Mill in 1859: The amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigour, and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time. Source: Chapter 3 of On Liberty
John Stuart Mill on eccentrics Read More »
According to his biographer: Karajan seems to have spent the greater part of his like seeking the one thing he believed would make him completely happy: absolute mastery over his own destiny. Richard Osborne, Herbert von Karajan: A Life in Music, Northeastern University Press, 1998, p. 33 Related: How other great artists became great:Igor Stravinsky
How great artists become great: Karajan version Read More »
[This was posted anonymously on the web some years ago. I don’t know who the author is (Update: now I do), but I’m not inviting him to my kid’s next birthday party.] I am better than your kids. By Anonymous If you work in an office with lots of people, chances are that you work
Harsh-but-honest critic of your kid’s art work Read More »
I’ll be speaking (by Zoom) at the Media Entrepreneurial Marathon today (November 21, 2020) at 9:30 Central Time. The conference is sponsored by a large group of Latin American idea and entrepreneurship organizations committed to creative and business freedom. Related: How great artists become great: Liszt. Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky. Beethoven. Creative geniuses as selfish: Maria
Artists Need Free Minds and Free Markets [Colombia talk] Read More »
Why should the front of a painting be privileged over its back? Virtually all art is shown one side only — the arbitrarily chosen “front” side. Meanwhile, the “back” is consigned to obscurity and neglect. Yet there’s nothing inherently superior about the blank surface chosen to have paints bestowed upon it. It neither earned nor
Painting privilege — against “side-ism” in art Read More »
I was long-form interviewed by Ryan Faulkner-Hogg of Atlas Geographica on this range of topics:: Introduction: 00:00 Aesthetics: 03:04 Do You Practice Art? 08:33 Modern “analytic” art, Modern “pessimist/expressionist” art, & Postmodern “deconstructive” art 10:24 Duchamp’s urinal 32:25 Objectivism v. Subjectivism: 39:30 BLM (benevolent v. Trojan Horse versions) & Marxism: 52:57 Hicks’s Formative Years: 1:00:00
Ryan Faulkner-Hogg (Sweden) podcast on Nietzsche, Art, BLM, and more Read More »