Why it's OK not to like modern art

I'm not sure I've totally written it off; but from what I've experienced so far; Opera is not to my liking.

I know it's by design and no doubt can't be otherwise, but I still can't get next to the garrishness of it all, what with the use of extremes of art - exaggerated singing, exaggerated costumry (sp?; word?), exaggerated acting - it's all too much bombast for me.

And while I love a tenor, there isn't a soprano out there who doesn't make me wince during her performance.

So you see, either I'm not made for the Opera or the Opera is not made for me. But as the curator said; I'm not duty bound, so it's really no big deal right?

Duty-bound? No, of course, not.
I hate operatic soprano myself.
But to give up Gotterdammerung,
Ride of the Valkyries...the Rhinemaidens,
The Ring of the Nibbelungen...
unthinkable.

Art...whether in painting, sculpture, or music...comes from the soul. Wizzened modern souls produce pigmy art. They are incapable of leading us to new insights or understanding because they are totally lost themselves. We would not miss anything if the last 50 years of art and music were flushed down the cosmic toilet.

Have you checked out Anderson Keyes from Taos, NM?

He's done some interesting work.

from

[From "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen]

CURRENT COMMUNIST GOALS (1963)

1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use ["]united force["] to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction] over nations and individuals alike.

That's in KC MO, yes? If that is what I recall from KC, I couldn't figure out what they were for when I saw them - I thought they were some kind of antenna-farm.

Yup, it's right at the south-west corner of downtown KCMO. The city spent a butt-load of money on the damn things, and it caused quite an uproar, for about 2 or 3 days. The mayor and city council can pretty much do what ever they want, the people be damned... Sort of a throw-back to the Pendergast days, just without the class...

Mark

Modern art functions like a prestigious wallpaper or fabric, making a colorful decorative statement.

Indeed, there is nothing necessarily wrong with having some entirely blasé piece of colored canvas on one's wall if it improves the overal 'feel' of a room. To be sure, in many settings a piece of real artwork might be overly distracting and not really suitable.

Still, I do think there's a major "Emperor's New Clothes" movement afoot in the "art" community. Just as the shysters in that story pursuaded people that if they were intelligent they should have no trouble seeing the emperor's fine raiment, so too with today's "art" peddlers. While I'll readily admit that there are some forms of artwork which are subtle and require a certain amount of discernment to appreciate, much of today's modern "art" has no real artistic merit whatsoever.

BTW, I don't think anyone has yet linked directly to it, but I highly recommend www.artrenewal.org. Wonderful sight, with thousands of absolutely positively gorgeous artworks. I can't recommend that site enough.

Hi jalisco555,

Thanks for posting this interesting art article!

I happen to like some modern art but certainly not all of it. However, I do appreciate when artists break the rules traditionally and create something that is actually beautiful or inspiring or thought-provoking; yet, obviously, I do not place all modern art in this category.

This afternoon I was reading an essay titled "What is a Renaissance Painting?" and in this essay, the author makes the point how back in the Renaissance, a 15th centurty painting like "Madonna and Child" was not actually called a "painting."

Rather, people commonly identified works of art by "its subject, type and function."

Consequently, they would discuss this work of art "as a story or narrative depicting Christ, the Madonna and other holy figures" (subject); and explain this was an "alterpiece, an object to be placed on an altar in a church" (type); and its purpose was "to illustrate religious ritual and belief" (function).

In the same vein, I think much of what we commonly call "modern art" needs an entirely new name -- because we truly are moving out of the realm of "art," and into pure marketing.

I am thinking specifically of this show now at The Guggenheim, and I am wondering if you've seen it.

The NYT has lavishly praised the modern artist, Matthew Barney, and his show, "The Cremaster Cycle," by saying he is the "artist of the decade." However, from what I have read of it, I am not yet convinced. I will have to see it. Until then, I keep thinking: This may in fact be the silliest show I have heard of in a long time. Below is one reviewer I found who agrees with me.

The subject "artist" here (Matt Barney) is a marketing genius, that's for sure, and I'll give him credit on that count -- but, I'm still missing the art.

I think his whole show should be newly classified, for it sounds like it's actually this: "Specatator Sport."

In the meantime, I'd rather see other modern art, or Renaissance art like The Madonna and Child, or, a retrospective of that great American painter, Edward Hopper. :)

Matthew Barney: The Cremaster Cycle

From a review posted at www.haberarts.com:

...The avant-garde, the male gaze, collage and contemplation, and big money—they already sound like a history of Modernism. In fact, [Matthew] Barney indulges in all of these. The familiarity of the movies may explain his [high] standing with critics and the public. The Guggenheim has not drawn a crowd like this one in some time. I mean not just attendance, but also a younger audience than at other museums.

His genealogy makes him interesting and challenging, too. It also makes for one of the silliest exhibitions in memory.[...]

Review by: jhaber@haberarts.com

"Matthew Barney: The Cremaster Cycle" runs through June 11, 2003, at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum [NYC].

Make that: "Spectator Sport"

supercat, thank you so much for the link to www.artrenewal.org. It is thrilling.

Dear Miss Marple, if you haven't seen it yet, please check out www.artrenewal.org (described in supercat's reply no. 87 above). It might be of interest to your sister and your daughter.

I posted this on another thread awhile ago, but here it is again, as this is a piece of art I really love. I wish someone would create a sculpture like this and install it in Brooklyn, looking toward Ground Zero:

Reuters

A Truly Priceless Work of Art

Chinese tourists in the seaside city of Weihei standing at a bronze sculpture measuring 30 feet by 60 feet.

By 1951, Kootz realised that he had made a mistake and he sold all his Brownes in a deliberately demeaning sale in Gimbel’s department store.

I've felt sublimely comfortable in disliking modern art ever since George Will called it the last refuge of the incompetent artist. Upon reading that I realized that he had hit the nail on the head.

Hi Summer. Good to hear from you again. No, I haven't seen the work in question. Frankly, I'd have trouble just getting past the name. I'm really tired of "transgressive" art and I'm just waiting for that phase to past. That being said I'm not as down on all contemporary art as some are. There are some great things at the Museum of Modarn Art in New York and I look forward to seeing their new, expanded space. I admit to a real fondness for Jackson Pollock and I could stare at his drip paintings for hours.

It's the stuff that is deliberately offensive or purposely ugly that I strongly object to. It's not as if there's an excess of beauty in the world after all. Why deliberately create ugliness?

That sicko freak is in my texbook! Eeeew!

Hey FReepers, I need help! I have a final exam for my Art Appreciation class on Monday night. The Prof is horrible-no ability to explain this stuff to people who don't have a clue, like me.

The essay question will require us to view a piece of art, place it to time and place and describe it. The only thing we discussed along this vein is sculpture. He talked a bit about early pre-Greek sculpture, moving to Greek, and then Roman.

My text touches on this very briefly and my limited ability to draw and describe what the prof said makes my notes unhelpful.

I've looked for web sites and find pictures but not any kind of explanation for what makes what, what. Can anyone help me?

Can you help me? (see post 96)

When I was last at MOMA and saw basically a neat stack of bricks that someone paid 350,000 dollars for i knew I "had left Kansas".

Maybe, but you hadn't left Iowa. The Des Moines Art Center paid $200,000 for a Jeff Koons piece consisting of three wet-dry vacuum cleaners stacked in plexiglass boxes with fluorescent lights. Clearly, I am in the wrong job.

I think this is a wonderful image. Who hasn't traveled in America, looked at abandoned houses, and wondered...what happened here?..who lived here? who escaped from here?

I'm not sure I've totally written it off; but from what I've experienced so far; Opera is not to my liking.

I have to agree; I don't have the independent twin I-beam suspension on my disbelief that it takes to believe that in La Bohéme, Mimi can still sing while dying of tuberculosis. :) I also have a hard time dealing with the thick layer of Ethel Mermanesque vibrato on the singing. Give me early music or even Bulgarian women's choruses over opera any time.