I wrote this piece in 2003 — my explanation of how two lines of development of modern art culminated in postmodernism. The 29 images from Munch, Picasso, Dali, Warhol, Saville, and others used to illustrate the trendlines now have updated links. The article has also been translated into German, Spanish, Korean, and Portuguese. Related: * […]
“Why Art Became Ugly” — image links updated Read More »
A soul-searching article by exasperated art critic Jerry Saltz. How does the art world live with itself? Great question, and Saltz’s piece is well worth reading. (Thanks to Michael Newberry for the link.) But: The problem is not “Too much money!” in the art world. The problem is bad ideas working with bad character. Money
The art world: Money is *not* the problem Read More »
My article, “Does Kant Have a Place in Classical Liberalism?” (English) was translated by the indefatigable Matheus Pacini into Portuguese: “KANT TEM LUGAR NO LIBERALISMO CLÁSSICO?” From the description: “Stephen R. C. Hicks argues that if our case for liberty comes from a mysterious other realm, then perhaps we have no case at all. He
Cato Unbound article on Kant translated into Portuguese Read More »
Great fun: An artworld scam from the 1920s.
Pavel Jordanowitch and the Disumbrationist School of Art Read More »
Martin Heidegger claimed that reason is the “most stiff-necked adversary of thought” and an obstacle to be discarded. For more on the context for Heidegger’s claim and his contributions to postmodernism, see p. 69 of my Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism from Rousseau to Foucault. See also: Heidegger and postmodernism: Includes “Heidegger’s synthesis of the Continental tradition,” “Setting
Martin Heidegger in *Explaining Postmodernism* Read More »
I will be a keynote speaker at the first TRAC conference to be held in Europe. Related video: Comments on Odd Nerdrum and Roger Scruton. From Modern to Postmodern Art and Beyond.
TRAC Netherlands art conference Read More »
In my “Why Art Became Ugly,” I claimed that modern art’s trajectory was to abandon art for philosophy. In modernism, art becomes a *philosophical* enterprise rather than an *artistic* one. The driving purpose of modernism is not to *do* art but to *find out* what art is. Here’s a new-to-me datum about René Magritte, from
Was Magritte an artist — or a philosopher? Read More »
Being is nothing. “Nothing,” wrote Martin Heidegger, “not merely provides the conceptual opposite of what-is but is also an original part of essence.” That may not make sense logically, but: “Authentic speaking about nothing always remains extraordinary. It cannot be vulgarized. It dissolves if it is placed in the cheap acid of merely logical intelligence.”
Martin Heidegger in Explaining Postmodernism Read More »
FEE this month reprints Sarah Skwire’s good piece from 2017: “The Moral and Spiritual Blessings of Trade Among All Nations”: “Free trade doesn’t just make us better off. It makes us better people.” At PanAm Post this month, Maria Marty takes up the underlying collectivist premises of many anti-free-trade arguments: “La excusa colectivista para limitar
On the *moral* benefits of international trade: Skwire, Marty, and Hicks pieces Read More »
Some data for my class discussions of wealth and poverty: Source.
Famine by social system, 20th century chart Read More »