Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Reclaiming Art as a Force for Liberty
American Thinker.com ^ | June 11, 2021 | Richard Bedsloe

Posted on 06/11/2021 3:56:59 AM PDT by Kaslin

When I was a kid, I collected Wacky Packs — a series of stickers inside packages of gum. The images were well illustrated but crude satires of familiar products and brands. For instance, instead of Gillette's Right Guard Deodorant, the Wacky version was Killette's Fright Guard, the can depicting a thug proudly unleashing lethal B.O. This raunchy spoof and others like it thrilled my kindergarten boyish sense of humor.

Fast-forward a few decades, and such shenanigans aren't a childish novelty in the candy aisle anymore. Now cheap-shot rip-offs of corporations are supposedly groundbreaking art, and tools for social change. As Art and Object states:

Whether you call it artistic activism or artivism, the compound word keeps gaining traction. The use of creative expression to cultivate awareness and social change spans various disciplines including visual art, poetry, music, film, and theater. To make their points, artivists cleverly employ parody or satire through culture jamming and other forms of subvertising — a portmanteau of subvert and advertising — to change the original meaning of a well-known image or corporate logo.

"Cleverly" is not a word that applies here. An example of subvertising would be creating and distributing as art a feeble graphic where the word "McDiabetes" is inserted into the Golden arches logo.

What Art and Object is promoting as cutting-edge are progressive activists using Wacky Pack–level discourse, while preening as if they were brave rebels artfully skewering The Man. In my ongoing art market research, it's becoming rare to find any efforts that don't aspire to partake in misconceived ideology. Artist statements are sociology lectures. Landscapes preach on climate change; portraits must feature hot takes on racism. Left-wing proselytizing and conformity are mandatory conditions for advancement.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Philosophy
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-35 last
To: bert

Yikes! And heres me thinking about the strange war between feral artists and house artists that the feral artists aren’t even aware is a thing!


21 posted on 06/11/2021 9:32:10 AM PDT by BlackAdderess (...and then, what?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

All of these comments are spot on. About 5 years ago I started learning oil painting and have been studying art history via youtube lectures from a number of art historians, universities and museums.

Today, the greatest art of all time is still recognized as Renaissance art of people like Michelangelo and Leonardo DaVinci when art was driven by patrons from the church and world leaders.

I am still a student but focusing on classical art techniques and am looking for support and assistance. I still consider myself a student and need more practice before becoming a fulltime artist.

Following is the link to my artist page at The Haddock Center where I have been accepted as a Resident Artist:

https://www.haddockcenter.com/gail-spurlock

And, here is a link to my painting album on Facebook. It starts with my earliest work with Bob Ross paint-alongs, with selections up to my most recent work so you can see my progress:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10210938219039610&type=3

I have found that even in the community of realist/representational artists, most of them are liberals and are terminally politically correct. Even worse, they have adopted the modern/postmodern idea that artists are all geniuses and should only paint for themselves rather than using their gifts to be of service to others.

If anyone has any recommendations or suggestions to find other conservative artists, potential patrons or opportunities, please share.


22 posted on 06/11/2021 9:35:03 AM PDT by gspurlock (http://www.backyardfence.wordpress.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin; ClearCase_guy; Joe 6-pack; BlackAdderess; bert; who_would_fardels_bear; Pirate Ragnar; ...
Kaslin (& everyone) thanks for this thread. This type of discussion is exactly why I have been on FR for years – so much intelligence & insight. I’m not polishing yer apples – I mean it. This subject has been near & dear to me for a long time.

CCG mentioned Tom Wolfe, who was pretty much spot on with almost everything he wrote, delightfully skewering fakes & hypocrites…ties in with the ‘commie block architecture’ mentioned by BlackAdderess, in his book “From Bauhaus to Our House” (yes, it’s German, but the commies use it for ‘efficiency’) – he is devastating toward Bauhaus (though he got Bucky Fuller wrong). Delightful book.

Joe – your double major is admired by me! Are you familiar with “Modern Art and the Death of a Culture”? I’d be surprised if you aren’t ;)

Bert, I wouldn’t say artists have always been parasitic to society. Interesting story you tell at the end there, about production work. I fed my family doing production work glass blowing for a time!:)) Lampwork, or table flame-work really, making ships, birdbaths, necklaces, etc. I do NOT consider myself an artist in glass…more of a craftsman if anything :)

Fardels – “I suspect what the essayist means by good art is ham-fisted, over-the-top landscapes and portraiture.” I hope not. I think McNaughton deserves a mention here, and I will say that I cannot read T.S. Eliot’ Prufrock without throat-tightening!

I would like to mention to you all that your insights would be very much appreciated on The Bible In Paintings threads, and thus, ask you ALL(!) to join the ongoing edumacashun!

23 posted on 06/11/2021 10:25:16 AM PDT by spankalib
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: spankalib

Not seeing a lot of Bauhaus in the housing in Alamar, one has sleek lines and good proportion, the other is a haphazard plopping of enormously long buildings full of enormously tiny units.


24 posted on 06/11/2021 11:17:03 AM PDT by BlackAdderess (...and then, what?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: BlackAdderess
I've become a fan of neoretroism:

https://www.blackardco.com/media

25 posted on 06/11/2021 2:33:59 PM PDT by spankalib
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: Yardstick

I got to sit at the same table as Michael Ramirez at a Cato Institute luncheon featuring P. J. O’Rourke as the main speaker. Nice fellow.


26 posted on 06/11/2021 7:52:20 PM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear (This is not a tagline.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: ClearCase_guy

It’s bitcoin.


27 posted on 06/11/2021 7:55:23 PM PDT by aspasia
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: bert

Cake, why, a good cake is too much work. It’s not required if you take your lunch in pill form. Or just plug yourself in for a recharge while you sleep.


28 posted on 06/11/2021 8:07:30 PM PDT by aspasia
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: annalex

FYI


29 posted on 06/11/2021 8:10:24 PM PDT by cornelis
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Who else, but an artist, can create liberty where there is none?


30 posted on 06/11/2021 8:12:46 PM PDT by cornelis
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: who_would_fardels_bear

He is a supreme talent and the best in the business right now IMO. It’s a genre full of lefties but he sits at the top of the pyramid so to speak. As such he may represent a model...they have the numbers, populating the nominal elites, but maybe our goal is to own the top tier of the true elites.


31 posted on 06/11/2021 8:32:46 PM PDT by Yardstick
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: cornelis

Thanks. Sad.


32 posted on 06/12/2021 6:56:08 AM PDT by annalex (fear them not)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: annalex; cornelis
Sad? But it's true in a good way!

The function of all art lies in fact in breaking through the narrow and tortuous enclosure of the finite, in which man is immerged while living here below, and in providing a window to the infinite for his hungry soul. (paragraph 5.)
The Function of Art
33 posted on 12/03/2021 2:34:52 PM PST by Askel5 († Truth suffers, but never dies -- Teresa of Avila †)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Askel5
It is so good to see you.
Art is dangerous to the status quo, especially a status quo organized around deceit. The conjoined establishment maneuvers of the Overblown Outbreak and massive election fraud are peak Postmodernism. This tyranny of falsehood is an existential threat to the United States and, by extension, Western civilization. We must fight back against these attempts to destroy us from within.

Let art become one of our weapons...

That is the hopeful part.
34 posted on 12/04/2021 8:52:43 AM PST by annalex (fear them not)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: Askel5
Faith, Nation, Beauty
35 posted on 12/04/2021 10:06:26 AM PST by annalex (fear them not)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-35 last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson