Thank you for your serious consideration, Franklin. Your thoughtfulness and erudition are very heartening in a time when such seriousness seems to have deserted the critical stage. I shall ponder what you've written and see if I can get together a cogent response!
I expect there are no more art movements because the game is no longer about art per se but about ulterior motives using art as a means--as a "prestigious" and respectable or legitimate pretext. In other words, actually artistic movements are beside the point. That goes a long way to explain the otherwise absurd and even bizarre ignorance of and disinterest in historical art by people who "live for art."
I tend to think that the causation goes the other way, that art's lack of historical forward motion allowed the cultural values of finance and progressive politics to overtake it, basically what I said here: https://dissidentmuse.substack.com/p/the-postcritical-era
One can say that artists failed art and allowed it to become, or to be taken for, something else--that they both allowed and encouraged it to be perverted and betrayed, Obviously, the rest of the art establishment and, however passively, the public went along with that. All I know is that my respect for the art system is very low, but I know where and how to get what I want and what works for me. Of course, I am not an artist, which helps considerably.
Wow, we agree about something! "The irrational conviction of the sacred" is a succinct description of my driving motivations in art school, and for twenty-some years after that. I had a gang in school, also, that did gang-like activities like starting an alternative artspace and engaging in turf wars, both covert and overt.
Of course Schjeldahl is right about Art education and I agree with the “irrational conviction of the sacred”…as a very general motivating force with artists. The gang idea is interesting. Getting the balance of yin and yang is difficult and tricky and yeah I think we are in a off-balance situation at the moment.
Thank you for your serious consideration, Franklin. Your thoughtfulness and erudition are very heartening in a time when such seriousness seems to have deserted the critical stage. I shall ponder what you've written and see if I can get together a cogent response!
I appreciate your adroit pondering of the topic. Looking forward!
I do like the idea of everybody aspiring to be 3rd best...
Best recent gangs I remember are Neue Wilde and Rammstein
\m/
I expect there are no more art movements because the game is no longer about art per se but about ulterior motives using art as a means--as a "prestigious" and respectable or legitimate pretext. In other words, actually artistic movements are beside the point. That goes a long way to explain the otherwise absurd and even bizarre ignorance of and disinterest in historical art by people who "live for art."
I tend to think that the causation goes the other way, that art's lack of historical forward motion allowed the cultural values of finance and progressive politics to overtake it, basically what I said here: https://dissidentmuse.substack.com/p/the-postcritical-era
One can say that artists failed art and allowed it to become, or to be taken for, something else--that they both allowed and encouraged it to be perverted and betrayed, Obviously, the rest of the art establishment and, however passively, the public went along with that. All I know is that my respect for the art system is very low, but I know where and how to get what I want and what works for me. Of course, I am not an artist, which helps considerably.
Wow, we agree about something! "The irrational conviction of the sacred" is a succinct description of my driving motivations in art school, and for twenty-some years after that. I had a gang in school, also, that did gang-like activities like starting an alternative artspace and engaging in turf wars, both covert and overt.
Of course Schjeldahl is right about Art education and I agree with the “irrational conviction of the sacred”…as a very general motivating force with artists. The gang idea is interesting. Getting the balance of yin and yang is difficult and tricky and yeah I think we are in a off-balance situation at the moment.