I was in NYC a while ago when the bienniale was happening at the Whitney. My family was there from out of town and so we went. Why miss out on an important show?
The art was dreary and unmemorable. What was memorable was how many of the artists wrote thar they were trying to capture how banale life is.
Banale? Life is too short! It wasn't just one or two artists, either. Imagine being so uncreative. It was more humorous than baffling. "Okay, artists, now go back to your cheez-its and government stipend." Not that I have anything against cheez-its.
Funnily enough, just yesterday someone on here was asking me about whether art appreciation is always a matter of personal taste, or if there really are things that are universally and objectively more beautiful than others.
I won't go into the full answer I gave them on that - but suffice to say, I agree with pretty much everything you've written here.
And particularly this idea that great art is about offering meaning outside of ourselves. That's so true.
A lot of modern art over the last century or more has pretty much been built on either an artist wanting to glorify themselves (i.e to achieve fame / notoriety / spark controversy etc) - or on wanting to seemingly break apart our very concept of the purpose of art.
So I honestly pray for the day when we collectively remember how art should be - or how "beauty can save the world" (to paraphrase Dostoevsky)
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it. And yes the Dostoevsky line is true. This is my first attempt at thinking about art appreciation as art appreciation, and I realized that many books could be written on the philosophy behind these things. This post wanders a few steps into the wide river: hoping to read/learn more myself in this department in the future.
After reading up through the furry teacup part, I was all amped to impress you and I was gonna write a comment on this CS Lewis illustration of the objective room… and then you got to it the very next section! Lewis is just the best. Thank you for another great essay!
I was in NYC a while ago when the bienniale was happening at the Whitney. My family was there from out of town and so we went. Why miss out on an important show?
The art was dreary and unmemorable. What was memorable was how many of the artists wrote thar they were trying to capture how banale life is.
Banale? Life is too short! It wasn't just one or two artists, either. Imagine being so uncreative. It was more humorous than baffling. "Okay, artists, now go back to your cheez-its and government stipend." Not that I have anything against cheez-its.
This is eminent. I enjoyed reading it.
Glad you liked it!
Another brilliant essay, Cody.
Funnily enough, just yesterday someone on here was asking me about whether art appreciation is always a matter of personal taste, or if there really are things that are universally and objectively more beautiful than others.
I won't go into the full answer I gave them on that - but suffice to say, I agree with pretty much everything you've written here.
And particularly this idea that great art is about offering meaning outside of ourselves. That's so true.
A lot of modern art over the last century or more has pretty much been built on either an artist wanting to glorify themselves (i.e to achieve fame / notoriety / spark controversy etc) - or on wanting to seemingly break apart our very concept of the purpose of art.
So I honestly pray for the day when we collectively remember how art should be - or how "beauty can save the world" (to paraphrase Dostoevsky)
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it. And yes the Dostoevsky line is true. This is my first attempt at thinking about art appreciation as art appreciation, and I realized that many books could be written on the philosophy behind these things. This post wanders a few steps into the wide river: hoping to read/learn more myself in this department in the future.
After reading up through the furry teacup part, I was all amped to impress you and I was gonna write a comment on this CS Lewis illustration of the objective room… and then you got to it the very next section! Lewis is just the best. Thank you for another great essay!
Haha the Objective Room is a powerful image that sticks with you after the first read. Thanks for the kind words and glad you enjoyed it!
Did God create the 1,4,5 chord progression, and if so, does he get royalties from Taylor Swift?
Haha. Most scholars agree that the I IV V on acoustic guitar is actually what Israel played when marching around Jericho