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the college stipulated that its art exhibits at the memorial be "appropriate for families."

"The point of having the show at this space was that there really wasn't the right kind of space on campus to do this," Kotak said.

Liberals can't even think. If there isn't an appropriate space at the college, what makes them think that a "family" place at a memorial is appropriate?

This is just more shocking stuff that is made to gain attention. Problem is that this "shock" is getting boring so it doesn't even work any more. Big yawn.

Professor,

You wrote, "This is just more shocking stuff that is made to gain attention."

Blame it on Duchamp--or at least Roger Kimball does. Duchamp's concept--and one to which I give due credit--is the notion of Art As Idea. The problem with such an exciting concept is that it can quickly degenerate into the postmodernist hypercrap we're seeing today. For example, the whole 'performance piece' trend is sort of a cheap magician's trick, a kind of patter that draws attention away from the lack of technical mastery; e.g., knowledge of color, form, line, and so on, which at one time (not so long ago) defined the artist. Even more, in some cases, the things created--object or event--serve as an attempt to muddy the definition of art as the creation of an object of beauty. (One can argue the subjectivity of beauty all day, or the relativity of truth, for that matter, but 'beauty' has an agreed-upon common meaning regardless.) Bottom line, in my view: proponents of the goings-on at the Brooklyn show and elsewhere (seemingly everywhere) want very badly to be artists, but usually can't draw, can't paint, can't sculpt, can't really make anything--unlike Duchamp, who I'd like to think would recoil in horror at some of the things his ideas have wrought. What they can do, however, is play pretend and work hard to convince others that the pretense is real.

As an aside, it's reassuring to know that there is a Republican professor teaching art, Republicanprofessor. I was beginning to despair of academics altogether until you came along.