Roger Kimball: The End of Art (Profound Essay)

First Things ^ | July 2008 | Roger Kimball

[mojito]

Nearly everyone cares—or says he cares—about art. After all, art ennobles the spirit, ­elevates the mind, and educates the emotions. Or does it? In fact, tremendous irony attends our culture’s continuing investment—emotional, financial, and social—in art. We behave as if art were something special, something important, something spiritually refreshing; but, when we canvas the roster of distinguished artists today, what we generally find is far from spiritual, and certainly far from refreshing.

It is a curious situation. Traditionally, the goal of fine art was to make beautiful objects. The idea of beauty came with a lot of Platonic and Christian metaphysical baggage, some of it indifferent or even hostile to art. But art without beauty was, if not exactly a contradiction in terms, at least a description of failed art.

Nevertheless, if large precincts of the art world have jettisoned the traditional link between art and beauty, they have done nothing to disown the social prerogatives of art. Indeed, we suffer today from a peculiar form of moral anesthesia—as if being art automatically rendered all moral considerations ­gratuitous. The list of atrocities is long, familiar, and laughable. In the end, though, the effect has been ­anything but amusing; it has been a cultural disaster.

[mojito]

A long, but thoughtful essay by one of our last critics with any claim to moral seriousness.

[ml/nj]

Kimball's The Rape of the Masters: How Political Correctness Sabotages Art is one of the funniest books I've ever read.

ML/NJ

[martin_fierro]

[the invisib1e hand]

working through it.

thx.

[the invisib1e hand]

It’s funny or you’re being facetious?

[ETL]

From 45 Communist Goals:

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

http://www.uhuh.com/nwo/communism/comgoals.htm

[Arkinsaw]

Depends on what is considered beauty.

Most minimalist art I consider absolutely worthless. But then there is the one that is just a simple curved black line, but you recognize that this is the minimum necessary to evoke the shape, and thought, of a woman. Just a simple black line, but beautiful in its way. Similarly, I have seen one that is just some smudges, but it is recognizable as the minimum form necessary to describe a sea shore.

I used to consider Jackson Pollock's work absolutely worthless and paid little attention to them at all. But, later studies have posited that they have a fractal nature not found in attempted duplications. I haven't really made a decision about what I think of Pollock, but it made me at least take a look and see if there is any there there.

[ml/nj]

It's side-splitting funny. I was laughing so hard that I was crying and had to stop reading. I really recommend this book.

ML/NJ

[the invisib1e hand]

I really recommend this book.

Lemme guess, you wrote it.

[the invisib1e hand]

Depends on what is considered beauty.

[angry, loud buzz.]
[loud, crashing gong.]
[...large hook emerging from stage left...]
[...three-second-delay utilized to cut to commercial...]

in other words, buh--freeking--osh.

[the invisib1e hand]

I’d prefer not to see those, moron.

[zarodinu]

Fascinating article, indeed for an atheist like me, art is the closest thing to a religious experience. The fact that art exists is to me the strongest argument for the existence of God.

Beautiful art still exists, at least in cinema. The Kubricks, Kurosawas, Bergmans, and Tarkovskys of the world will continue to carry the fire.

[ml/nj]

Lemme guess, you wrote it.

I wish.

Read the reviews at Amazon and see what others thought.

ML/NJ

[the invisib1e hand]

I’d trust your word before theirs. I’ll keep an eye out for it.

[Arkinsaw]

[angry, loud buzz.] [loud, crashing gong.] [...large hook emerging from stage left...] [...three-second-delay utilized to cut to commercial...]

in other words, buh--freeking--osh.

I don't consider your response to be artistic.

[the invisib1e hand]

I don't consider your response to be artistic.

it's totally artistic. didn't you read the article?

[Arkinsaw]

it's totally artistic. didn't you read the article?

I did. But I just don't see the beauty in it.

[tbpiper]

Most minimalist art I consider absolutely worthless.

In the summer of 2007, my wife & I visited the art museum in Minneapolis. In the modern art section was a 'painting' I thought for an instant was a joke. It was a blank canvas. And it was a genuine display. Some people just put too much credence in the ethereal nature of art.

[Arkinsaw]

In the summer of 2007, my wife & I visited the art museum in Minneapolis. In the modern art section was a 'painting' I thought for an instant was a joke. It was a blank canvas. And it was a genuine display. Some people just put too much credence in the ethereal nature of art.

That is indeed worthless.