Bravery beyond the call of duty: the men who dared to say boo to Picasso

The Spectator (UK) ^ | 06/01/2002 | Frank Johnson

[IncPen]

Modernism is like liberalism; two of the biggest scams foisted on the world. I took a course on Modern Art and it and liberalism go hand-in-hand.

You make an interesting point.

Conservatives will tell you that there are absolutes in the world: is means is , for instance.

Liberals like to change the rules as they go, so that they never have to take responsibility for anything.

"Modern art" plays on the liberal insecurities and lack of absolutes perfectly.

I've made my living as a designer and artist, and frankly, I have no use for 'modern art'.

[Sam Cree]

Sure, I like the Spitfire also.

[Cicero]

Picasso was extremely talented and powerful. But much of his later work is cruel and brutal. In particular, he is noticeably brutal toward the women he paints. Some terms that come to mind are deconstruction, rape, and debasement. So the question is, can a painter be great if he is technically sophisticated and emotionally powerful but morally debased?

I don't think so, but then I'm in the minority on this one.

[dighton]

An Orwell essay addresses your question:

... the worst crimes are not always the punishable ones. By encouraging necrophilic reveries one probably does quite as much harm as by, say, picking pockets at the races. One ought to be able to hold in one’s head simultaneously the two facts that Dali is a good draughtsman and a disgusting human being. The one does not invalidate or, in a sense, affect the other. The first thing that we demand of a wall is that it shall stand up. If it stands up, it is a good wall, and the question of what purpose it serves is separable from that. And yet even the best wall in the world deserves to be pulled down if it surrounds a concentration camp. In the same way it should be possible to say, “This is a good book or a good picture, and it ought to be burned by the public hangman.” Unless one can say that, at least in imagination, one is shirking the implications of the fact that an artist is also a citizen and a human being.

-- Benefit of Clergy: Some Notes on Salvador Dali.

[Erasmus]

EMD E-8 locomotive, designed in the 1930's plus many appliances and furniture from the 1950's.

Pfui!

The Alco PA-1 in Santa Fe Red Warbonnet.

+=<)B^)

[Erasmus]

Pablo: "Es guano in Majorca."

Pedro: "Pablo, Picasso!"

[Sam Cree]

"The Alco PA-1 in Santa Fe Red Warbonnet."

I like that one also, though I still prefer the E series for beauty. I guess the environment leftwingers would have fits about the way the Alcos smoked, which gives those locomotives an endearing quality.

It is sad that Alco is gone, I've never liked the EMD GP series too much.

I was riding Amtrak a year or so ago, when I looked ahead (on a curve) at the Genesis engine pulling us out of a station, I was startled to actually see flames coming out of her stacks (in daytime). Of course, not too many years ago, when airliners used piston engine planes, they all showed flames from their stacks at night.

[Paul Atreides]

In the course on Modern Art I took, it was explained that what made modern art so significant was what the artist was "feeling" at the time he painted, or sculpted, the work. In other words, an artist can do a bunch of squiggles on a canvas and, because he was thinking about his opposition to the war on terrorism at the time, he can give it some sort of pretentious title about being anti-war and he is hailed as a genius.

[Eagle Eye]

Picasso's early years were awesome. Then he went insane.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Jonathan Richman bump!

[ArrogantBustard]

I admire the Spit on purely artistic grounds

Gee, I wonder why...

[7thson]

I like Norman Rockwell. To me, that is art with a message that everyone can understand.

[SoCal Pubbie]

" There is other modern(e) art that I admire also, the EMD E-8 locomotive, designed in the 1930's plus many appliances and furniture from the 1950's. "

Excuse me, but that is NOT art- it's Industrial Design!

SoCal Pubbie, member IDSA.

[ArrogantBustard]

I like Norman Rockwell.

Nothing wrong with Norman Rockwell. I love the artistry in a well designed machine or structure.

Anybody recognise that one (without peeking)?

AB

[Sam Cree]

"Excuse me, but that is NOT art- it's Industrial Design!"

Well, I guess you're right, it's not "fine art" like Picasso did. Still, it's art IMHO. But don't Industrial designers still often have an eye for beauty? (I know, these days, beauty and art are incidental). I know architects do, architecture is often considered to be fine art, though it strikes me as closer to industrial design.

BTW, my son is considering law school in San Diego, a long ways from our home in FL. What do you think of the area?

[SoCal Pubbie]

I was only half serious. Few people know what industrial design is, even though every product is shaped by it! Design is indeed artistic, but at it's best it falls between art and engineering.

San Diego is a great place. What school, Western State?

[Sam Cree]

"I was only half serious"

Yes, me too. U of San Diego, does that sound right?

[Billthedrill]

I agree whole-heartedly. Picasso's non-modernist stuff is exquisite - in Japan (Hakone, to be precise) I saw a pencil drawing of a human hand that rivalled Da Vinci, and a set of plates on which he'd painted bullfighting scenes that seemed to explode off the wall. He may have been a salesman and even a bit of a con artist in later life, but the boy could actually employ various media to communicate beauty, and that's my working definition of "art." Too many "artists" these days cannot draw a table lamp, but Picasso wasn't one of them.

[ladyjane]

Don't get me started on Truman Captoe

While his personal life was a bit out of the ordinary, some of his writing was wonderful!

[RightWhale]

Thanks for mentioning that Picasso was a skilled painter first who did the highly stylized works later. Dali another. Excellent draftsmen.