Posted in Art, Art History, Art Writing, Artistic Pretension, Sacred Art on Feb 20th, 2011
ShareHOW TO BEGIN? Objects of Devotion and Desire: Medieval Relic to Contemporary Art does not make it easy. I could take the high road and start this way: “Memory of the sacred lingers even among secular moderns who proclaim themselves celebrants of a totally profane world.” Or I could be up front about the unbearable [...]
Posted in Art History, Artistic Identity, Artistic Pretension, Things to Read on Dec 19th, 2010
ShareWHEN WE TALK OF BOHEMIA, we are referring to a shifting cultural phenomenon that began among the Romantics, came to dissolute bloom in the prosperity of France’s Second Empire and continued, sporadically, through the Twenties and on into the Sixties. From Thomas De Quincey (17-85-1859) to the Beat Generation, thereabouts. But eccentricity has been with [...]
Posted in Art History, Artistic Identity, Artistic Pretension, Culture Cues, Things to Read on Dec 17th, 2010
ShareARTISTS DO LOVE TO THINK OF THEMSELVES as different from everyone else. They are first on line for the latest article, book, monograph or lecture on the problems of the artist’s personality and the mysterious springs of his creative power. They bathe in popular notions of their own otherness and cater to popular illusion like [...]
Posted in Art Education, Art and Politics, Artistic Identity, Artistic Pretension, Culture Cues, Environmental Piety, Fashion Arts on Nov 23rd, 2010
ShareTHERE WAS A TIME, NOT LONG AGO, when fashion began in the fingers of individuals gifted with a sense of style and the moxie to make something of it. Not any more. Now, aspiring fashionistas have to draw on their parents’ retirement income, take out loans and subject themselves to degree programs in fashion studies.
The [...]
Posted in Art, Art Education, Art and Politics, Artistic Identity, Artistic Pretension on Nov 20th, 2010
ShareAN ATTENTIVE READER SENT ALONG notice of a new grad course offering at Portland State University in Oregon. The PSU link came with a wry: “Figured you’d like this.”
Well, yes, I guess you could say I like it. But only because it confirms my contention that art is increasingly not about art at all. It [...]
Posted in Art, Art Education, Art and Politics, Artistic Identity, Artistic Pretension, Culture Cues on Nov 7th, 2010
ShareINFLATION IN THE ARTS IS OF A PIECE WITH INFLATION IN ACADEMIA. The upcoming College Art Association, in New York this year, has just mailed out its conference information.
Scheduled for the first day of the conference are workshops on the important things: finding a job, keeping it, and getting grants. One of them aims at [...]