Well Neo you've put a suitably dense response up to my rather dense criticisms of modern art and if permitted I'll parse your verbiage for areas of consensus and disagreement.
You said in part, "People esteem things, and therefore have values, regardless of their ethical theory, just like they believe things regardless of holding to a skeptical theory, because that is how we are built. Thus, it is impossible for modern art to be value free." I agree with this completely and believe that modern artists bring specific values to their projects. Let's limit this criticism to painters, sculptors and the like for the moment since for my part this began as critique of modern painting and not as a criticism of modernism in general. You may recall that my original expression of distaste for modern art occurred as also I lauded the science fiction genre for its uniquely "modern" sensibilities. Let's avoid that strawman of recasting this diatribe of mine as a complete censure of modernism, if we can.
Unfortunately, the primary value that most of these artists bring is nihilism and a general rejection of normative conduct with regard to how most people earn a living and raise families. I refuse to begin speculating on why this particular generation of artists are so devoid of any sympathetic perspective of their own families and countries (particularly in light of their own unique historical freedom of expression and absence of material want) but there is very little consideration on their part of the beneficial merits of their own society. (Could it be that both academia and the media have cultivated that nihilistic sensibility because it best serves their political agenda? Oops, I said I wouldn't speculate that way...)
You also said that, "Besides, modernism is not clearly associated with a world view." Modernism in the sense that one adapts an existing artistic form to reap new insights or to express new ideas is, as you say, value free. The cannons of modern art, however, are so uniformly nihilistic that its adopted formalisms can't be viewed as something separate from its content. |
