Vox Day: The End of Art

worldnetdaily.com ^ | 10-13-03 | vox day

[ovrtaxt]

I have often considered the modern art scene an empty forum of pretentious fakes more suited to the Style Channel, or a storefront window than a museum.

Vox doesn't bring film into the discussion, but there are some things worthy of noting. Mel Gibson is a modern exception to the rule of amorality, and Tolkien's epic endures because of the good vs. evil backdrop of the story.

It's the universal guideline of moral perfection that makes the humanity of anything stand out, much like the pure white of a canvas, if left exposed, creates an absolute foil by which to judge all pigments.

[Support Free Republic]

---

GOD BLESS OUR MILITARY THANK A VET! MAKE A DONATION TODAY
	Keep Our Republic Free Or mail checks to FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794 or you can use PayPal at Jimrob@psnw.com
STOP BY AND BUMP THE FUNDRAISER and say THANKS to Jim Robinson! IT'S IN THE BREAKING NEWS SIDEBAR Thanks

[snopercod]

Dadaism

[joesnuffy]

At times, it could almost pass for an Oprah Book Club novel, chronicling the self-absorption and petty martyrdoms of the modern American woman.

LOL....

[George Smiley]

Thirty or so years ago, Tom Wolfe (he of the Merry Pranksters, not of Look Homeward Angel) wrote a "the emperor has no clothes" book on modern art entitled "The Painted Word".

Good read, if you can find it.

[aardvark1]

"Art" as practiced by today by those who seem to get all the press, truly is a reflection of the soul of our society. A crucifix in a jar of urine, dung "sculptures," US flags painted on the floor, or perhaps worse, our inability or unwillingness to separate the baser things that Larry Flynt calls art from the nobler things that have always been recognized as art.

[monkey]

No one who has read Crime and Punishment would refer to Raskolnikov as "Raselnikov". It's unlikely that someone familiar with Balzac would refer to him as "de Balzac" instead of just Balzac. And including "Bronte" (I wonder if he knows there were three of them) in a list of great writers from the past is ridiculous.

The writer is a poseur ("Mensa"). Every sentence in his essay is self-important and inane, but my favorite is: "The art of painting has not only been stripped of beauty by its artless practitioners, but the basic techniques have been lost as well, producing works that are cruder to the eye than the pre-perspective images of medieval times."

[thoughtomator]

Hey, at least the art of rhetoric is still kickin'

[Jack Black]

Based on the picture at the top the art of barbering is also in steep decline.

[jedwardtremlett]

*LMAO*

I was going to make a comment to that effect, but you beat me to it. ; )

[ChewedGum]

OUCH!

Every pate a canvas (mine is becoming carte blanc though!)

Gum

[exDemMom]

I would disagree with Vox's premises on just about every aspect. While the crucifix-in-urine "works" make headlines, one only has to look around to see that there are some truly talented artists out there. At the university where I work, there is a Craft center where people come to learn art of all forms, and some of the items they have on display are awesome. The fact that people want to learn to make real art is proof enough that artistic expression is NOT in decline. And as for literature, I don't do poetry, so I can't comment on that, but the novel is doing just fine. Any work by Terry Goodkind, C.J. Cherryh, Orson Scott Card, Anne McCaffrey... really, there are just too many good writers to list here.

And as for Vox's Mensa membership... I was never tempted to join, since it always struck me as a pretentious "look at me, see how smart I am" organization. Hah. I don't need to tell anyone how smart I am, ever.

[Jack Black]

Great web page.

[WhiteGuy]

ART?????

I thought this was the Vodka thread???????????????

[Jack Black]

Agreed. Warhol painted some beautiful pictures. The "Soup Cans" are not some of them, but they had a profound effect on Art History none the less. Judged purely on esthetics, that is "is this a beautiful work" I believe there are many modern masterpieces. I find much of Pollacks work stunning. Rothko's art is extremely spiritual as well as beautiful. And Warhol's later portraits are delightful in a painterly way. I've debated this elsewhere on FR and don't choose to do so again. Some just hate modern art, fine. But I don't find that a particularly brilliant insight.

Mensa? Give me a break.

[ovrtaxt]

Any thoughts about the moral aspect (or lack thereof) as it relates to modern expression? I agree with Vox that it suffers from a lack of truth. The absence of perfection as a backdrop to showcase our humanity drains art of it's potential power.

[ovrtaxt]

By the way, his hair IS pretty funky isn't it?

[monkey]

Art always tracks culture (good art being a little ahead of its time). You won't find moral art in an immoral age (if that's what you consider this age). One thing we can learn from modern art is that art in not primarily aesthetic; it is predictive.

Clement Greenberg, the trendy art critic of the 50's, felt that art should be flat. The form should match the medium, i.e., the flat canvas.

Flatness is also a big deal in postmodern philosophy. Morality - Responsibility - requires verticality. Even a dictator like Mussolini "made the trains run on time." But in a flat society, no one has responsibility. There are just a bunch of interest groups, and responsibility be damned.

[Jack Black]

Well it depends on the artist. Ad Reinhardt the abstract expressionist wrote a whole book about why he painted his paintings the way he did. This centered on his interpretations of Christianity. Rothko had a very spiritual meaning to his art, he eventually convinced a rich patron to create a chapel for his paintings, as he felt that was the only truely appropriate setting for them. Much of the best modern art is motivated by deep spirtuality and spiritual longings, in my opinion.

[Jack Black]

I think that last statement is quite a stretch. To say that 2-D paintings somehow have to do with a lack of morality just doesn't stand up to the reasonableness test. Much of early Christian art was 2D. They hadn't discovered and perfected vanishing point perspective. Russian Orthodox icons tend to be very flat. Are these paintings lacking the 3rd and "moral" dimension.

I don't think there is a connection.