Normally on an art day I just put up a piece of art (if I can get the one I want off my laptop onto the machine! computers… growl) and a bit of commentary. But I'm starting to research for a planned article on art, and I was curious to hear what you, my readers, have to say.
When did art die? No… that's not quite right. There is still art, beautiful art, but it's in unlikely places. It's not in the museums of modern art, or the upscale galleries. There, you find installations the cleaning lady mistakes for trash and tosses out (I'm not exaggerating. This happened in Spain).
What happened to beauty? I know the current school of thought is that there is NO objective measure of beauty, and to that I respond… well, I can't, in public. I'm a lady.
There is beauty, in art, in the world, in men's souls. But it is no longer fostered, encouraged, allowed to spring forth and celebrated when it bursts out in a way that makes you stop and feast your eyes on it. Instead, that kind of art is damned with faint praise as 'commercial' and relegated to posters or something.
What is hanging on the gallery walls, at museums, being paid for in outrageous sums by Universities to 'inspire' their students? Simon Doonan summed it up in an article that had me chuckling and shaking my head.
So where do you think the downfall began? What killed art, and how can we revive it?
Lilacs: my first attempt at using the pentablet in conjunction with Corel PaintShop