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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (81526)	6/12/2000 3:47:00 PM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

What larger purposes, beyond enjoyment, might art have? In the first place, art reflects and helps to generate the emerging historical moment. It thus reflects shifts in cultural perspective and values. Aristocratic art, for example, is given to over-adornment of the subject, republican art is given to simplicity and dignity, when it is patrician in origin. Democratic art is more vulgar, but full of vitality. Modern art often reflects the machine aesthetic, and a fascination with geometry, as in cubism, especially the work of Fernand Leger. It is also prone to incorporate the surrounding design objects of modern life. Already, in cubist collages, advertisements and newspaper headlines appear. By the time one gets to Pop Art, Warhol is using tabloid photography and Lichtenstein is using the style of comic books, initially through appropriated imagery. Thus, the art of the period is encoding its "personality" in artworks, and the artworks are, in turn, altering sensibilities to make them more attuned to the world that surrounds them. It is no accident that rock and roll emerged as the dominant musical form in the post- war period, reflecting a greater democratization of American society, the rise of ethnic minorities and working class whites, and the affluence that was allowing these groups to put their stamp on American culture. Second, art is meant to humanize the environment, to give it shape and make it congenial to us, to embody the idea of civilization. Architecture provides fitting abodes and dignified spaces to conduct business. Sculpture and painting are meant to adorn these spaces, give them personality, fill them with a sense of meaning. Music permeates the environment, filling it with with human expression. Literature and drama tell us stories, so that we can contemplate the varieties of human experience. Third, art promotes allegiance to the overall progress of human civilization, by providing us with objects of admiration, and reminding us immediately of the greatness of human achievement.........

To: Neocon who wrote (81526)	6/12/2000 6:32:00 PM
From: Dayuhan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

When one either seriously thinks that the most popular "art" is necessarily the best, or that there is no standard worth arguing for, because everyone has a right to his own opinion, it becomes much more difficult to sustain a climate that supports fine art.......... My observation is that a lot of the discussion of what is art and what is not, or of what art is "better", spins off from the notion that art should be deserving of government subsidy, and that non-art should be subject to censorship. If you remove both the carrot and the stick, which I believe should be done, the discussion hardly matters, except as an academic exercise. Art should not be subsidized or censored. Let those who aspire to the status of artists produce what they will, and let the market decide what has value. True, this is a little hard on the "true artists", as only a small percentage of the population appreciates "true art". But hasn't this always been the case? And isn't it true now, as it was in the days of Bach or Rembrandt, that although the number who truly appreciate (or who aspire to the social status conferred by patronage) is small, many within that number are those with the resources to support the artists of their choice?