Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to re: Reality check

Only genius survives.
Mary Anne — (archived)

Although controversy gets an honorable mention, but for different reasons: it survives in the public outrage that finds other expressions, such as in literature.

The art you speak of is hundreds of years old. Please consider the possibility that there were equally shocking (for their time) people of lesser talent expressing themselves in ways that have been completely forgotten today because, when it came right down to it, they had nothing much to say.

Aspiring artists with a less than firm grip on the nature of art mistake being shocking for making people think. The one sometimes causes the other, but sometimes shock is just inflammatory. Artists with something to say know the difference, or will learn it as their work becomes mature. We can say we think we know who they are now, but some of the ones we think are great will be forgotten, if Earth is not hit by a meteor soon (in which case, most things will be forgotten). Some of the great have yet to be discovered. Vermeer has not been fully appreciated until this century.

Weird sex, excrement and extreme violence are the shockers today because we have largely eliminated heresy, political dissent, abstract expression (vs. realistic depiction, thanks to the photograph), eroticism, and violent depictions of a less extreme sort from the list of forbidden, and indeed, unlawful subjects. If the object is to shock, those are the only places to go.

I guess you could say it's liberalism's fault. If not for the rise of liberalism, we would still be throwing people in jail for lèse majesté and burning people at the stake for heresy in their artistic expression. No one would be messing around with peepee art; what would be the challenge in that?

Remember that the "elite" scorned Monet, rioted over Stravinsky, and rejected Elvis. Remember also that the "regular folks" put strategic draperies over Michelangelo's nudes, made fun of Picasso, and condemned the Beatles, especially after John Lennon's unfortunate remark about Jesus. The jury is still out about Elvis and the Beatles, but as for the rest, it goes to show that contemporary taste, be it "elite" or "regular", is not always the best arbiter of artistic longevity and relevance.

That doesn't mean we owe it to art to buy copies of the breathing peekaboo Adam and Eve. Indeed, if they don't speak to you, you are obliged, as an art consumer, not to buy them. Another little thing about the immortals: enough of their work was treasured over the centuries to make them into immortals.

Vote with your wallet and let them fade into the obscurity they so richly deserve. Controversy is the only road to immortality open to them. Close the bridge.

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