Posted on 10/25/2020 6:50:24 AM PDT by Kaslin
It is no secret that art, sacred art, and beauty more generally, are under assault. New “multicultural” guidelines are dictating how art is to be constructed and rewarded. Artistic talent is shunned in favor of diversity quotas. The way to be an artist and art critic, nowadays, is to cry racism or sexism.
Theogonis of Megara divided mankind into two classes of people, the base and the noble. As he said, living through a revolutionary period in ancient Greek society during the rise of democracy, “The deckhands are in control, and the base have the upper hand over the noble.” The outlook of Theogonis is inherently conflictual and violent, not to mention truly classist.
While it is true that much of Theogonis’ poetry reflects his own concerns about Greek societal transformation, his general attitude is often attacked by critics of high culture for its supposed “whiteness,” inegalitarianism, and gendered supremacism. Such assaults on high culture fail to appreciate the real defense of high culture—the belief that all should strive for excellence, nobility, and beauty (even if not all will come to imitate and inculcate that excellence, nobility, and beauty in their own lives).
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Art or what modernists and post modernists slap together?
One need only look at the architecture of the former and present DeYoung Museum buildings in San Francisco to understand the difference between art (as architecture) which elevates the human spirit and that which crushes it. I visited the new Museum with a now former friend who has gone frothy lefty nuts a few years back. I commented on the brutal, cold, de-humanizing feel of the rusty-steel plated exterior and disturbed massing of the structure. He rather strongly disagreed, finding it “interesting”. As time has passed, we very rarely talk any longer.
I remember TV long ago having opera singers, jugglers, comedians, and real dancers. There was a mix of High and Low.
We lost that and basically got stuck with trashy low “art”.
In Kansas City, the Nelson Art Gallery, a classic beautiful building built an annex that looks like a double wide and insisted everybody love it.
A good question and I use a simple test; Do I look at something and wonder what it is showing OR do I look and want to look more and longer and deeper. Even some moderns meet this test, here is one by Peter Max;
OF COURSE AND ALWAYS, art is purely subjective!
One show that I remember and enjoyed that featured High art was the Voice of Firestone, broadcast over NBC stations on Monday nights. It featured classical music with an emphasis on opera. My parents called it the Firestone Hour, its original name when it was an hour-long radio broadcast, but when it came to TV, it lasted only a half-hour. It left the air in 1957.
I found some pictures of it and you’re right, that is one ugly building.
Last year, I went to the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC and saw a panoramic "painting" called Pickett's Charge. It consists of parallel streaks of paint on a wall. The streaks of paint aren't even neat and in many places droplets of paint have dribbled down. Sadly, a lot of garbage like this is now considered to be "art."
And it’ll be standing as testament to our present culture for 200 years, at least. Hopefully, those in the future will look back and wonder “What on Earth were they thinking???”. The design of our cities and buildings uniquely communicate our perception of our humanity to future generations. “We were here. And we wanted to leave you with something beautiful and worthwhile.” The new DeYoung communicates “We were here. We were soulless ghouls, and so left you with this mess.”
Geh ... puns! The guy painted a couple of fence pickets and then mocked people who were better on average than modern liberals by his wordplay.
Now, now, some of us like the Bloch Annex to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art! I think that the design did its best to AVOID overshadowing the original Beaux-Arts architecture style (think solid stone impressive). I know, 'eye of the beholder'! (Smile)
FYI: that is 'Bloch' as in Henry W Bloch (1922-2019), co-founder of H&R Block, which is HQ'd in KC Missouri. He, in his lifetime, made major contributions of art and money to this Museum and elsewhere.
A catholic Twitter poster is running a competition for ugly churches, it any rate over the Catholic Church is. The buildings are just unbelievable, and if it even looked as good as a government building it would be an improvement. They are horrible, unchristian, anti-human piles of concrete.
Both the religious world and the secular world have rejected not only the divine, but the human. After all, we are nothing but economic units of the state, and as such have no need for anything beyond.
I saw a British ad encouraging people who had lost their careers during the severe British lockdown to do the equivalent of learning coding. It showed a dancer tying on her toe shoes, with the words next to her photo, “ she doesn’t know it, but at this time next year, she’ll be working in cyber.”
In other words, her gift, her individual human talent, her studies, and her work are meaningless to new super state. And that’s the same message given by these buildings.
Marxists can not suffer individual excellence and so they must attack it, and redefine excellence. Those that seek to produce more opulent or higher, elevated forms of architecture, literature, painting, theater, etc. must be guilted into settling for more pedestrian pursuits (which the overlords have defined as "excellence"), or be destroyed.
“While it is true that much of Theogonis’ poetry reflects his own concerns about Greek societal transformation, his general attitude is often attacked by critics of high culture for its supposed “whiteness,” inegalitarianism, and gendered supremacism.”
I’m starting to wonder... Could it be that white males DESERVE as a race and gender to feel mildly superior. After all they’ve been responsible for 90% of the arts, the sciences, the technology, architecture, literature, philosophy, governance, etc.
So let’s humbly embrace and thus disarm the “insult” and say, yes given what my group has accomplished, I do feel proud a certain level of pride, without necessarily putting down any other group.
After all, if it’s OK for blacks to loudly proclaim their black pride and Latinos, and Asians and gays and feminists can do the same having accomplished so much less, surely white males ought to be able to shout their pride even more.
So let’s not retreat in shame when the charge of white supremacist is leveled against us, and simply and humbly say... “Here’s what my group has accomplished, what has yours done?”
>>Artistic talent is shunned in favor of diversity quotas.
Straight white males need not apply. Unless you get hooked on heroin and quote Communist texts. Then you may be down with the struggle.
The Metropolitan Opera still reigns as high art.
Very rich people still fund and control it with an intent to preserve.
>> “We were here. We were soulless ghouls, and so left you with this mess.”
tunnel opening ceremony at the Gotthard tunnel in Switzerland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW5gklIKcDg
>>It showed a dancer tying on her toe shoes, with the words next to her photo, “ she doesn’t know it, but at this time next year, she’ll be working in cyber.”
>>In other words, her gift, her individual human talent, her studies, and her work are meaningless to new super state. And that’s the same message given by these buildings.
To see the way Teen Vogue and Fortune magazine pimp sex work as legitimate endeavors, this dancer MAY be working in cyber in a different way
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.