Been reading a book about art controversies in the United States. Was reminded of how I loathe so much of contemporary art. There are in fact many spheres in which I think - and I believe I am not alone - that what has been chic among intellectuals ostensibly serving the various muses for the last forty to seventy years (depending on the genre) is not merely false, not merely bad, not merely worthless, but quite destructive of the soul - visual art, architecture, poetry, classical music jump to mind, but I'm sure there are other areas in which I am equally curmudgeonly. There are certainly many social constructs in which participants display the same sort of collapse into pure masturbation. I have no time to parse this out right now - in fact, I think it might be more of a book than a blog entry - but I'm rather fascinated by the idea that after all is said and done I am a rather proud conservative in the arts, as liberal as my political and social thinking may be. I'm not a reactionary, and I have an open ear and eye and mind to new work, but I think there are quite genuine and valid reasons to despise much of the high culture of the moment.
Perhaps my top concerns - and again I don't have any time to parse this out - but I say perhaps my top concerns are:
- the claim that art's highest purpose is to "challenge" or shock
- the difficulties of the artist who would try to recover something of what has made art great in the past (which includes the tendency to appear reactionary or stupid, problems I admit are very real)
- the way the problems in the arts are fed by or maintained by or enforced by the broadcast media and other new forms of communication
1 Kommentar:
I'm with ya, bro: we crossed the threshold of creative masturbatory collapse some years, even decades ago. I can't PROVE this, since I tend to limit my exposure to such things in psychic and artistic self-defense, but I can point to my instinctive fear and revulsion as at least a KIND of evidence.
Unfolding your thoughts at greater length (Chronos willing) could prove quite interesting: I hope you consider doing so. The only downside is, you'd have to at least partly submerge yourself in the stuff you find so questionable. OR—you could reflect on the constituents of real or great art, supply a few positive examples, and let the rest of us judge individual cases for ourselves.
Kommentar veröffentlichen