Instapundit directed me to a post by James Lileks, proprietor of The Bleat, that takes on those who believe that travel to “touristy” places by the masses is just so gauche, starting with cruise ships.
Sidenote: I’ve always wanted to try ONE cruise, but TMEW is terrified when I bring it up – “out in the middle of the sea?” I’ve relegated it to the dust heap that includes having a motorcycle, a private pilot’s license, and a few other things.
It’s the same kinds of people that believe that food is too cheap and too ordinary, that we all should be willing to pay far higher prices for “better” foods. “Choice is for knaves” is the general theme of these “snoots in the air.” And, of course, it’s all for their version of “utopian culture.” Lileks fights back (emphasis mine):
Why? Because it is important to trash the happy things – at least the happy things regarded as such by people who are irritatingly ordinary. The people who would not, for example, bed-rot. The people who, ugh, do things. Now, I don’t think that all of the people who are attracted to this ship are industrious go-getters who want five days of high-octane activities; maybe some are. Bring the kids. They’ll be amazed. Time of their life, even if they barely remember it. Others just want a spot on the deck, lots of food, a nice view, and some fun. A party atmosphere enlivens the vacation.
Which means the majority of us. These “culturally upper-crust” agents are just like the Eco-Socialists in that there is only ONE way to be happy, and that’s their way. There is no sense that happiness is different for different people. It is outside their ken that others do not share their outlook on life.
I like art, but I’m no art critic, and I almost failed Jr. High art class stick figures, but I’m not stupid enough to fall for most pieces of modern abstract art (I think many of which are examples of “where’s the gullibility horizon can I push the limits?” Like the image at the top, which is, according to Bard (Google’s AI), “some of the most important works of abstract art ever created.” A blank canvas. But it would be hoi-polloi and gauche of me to say, “It represents nothing, not even art.” A null “thing isn’t art; it’s just a nullity.
I summoned Bard to cough a couple more modern “art” pieces. Like this – can you tell me without reading further what it is?
Neither could I. Looks like a high school failure of something (Ashtray, glazed ceramic, Sterling Ruby).
Or this: I can see the “head” (at least that’s what Bard said it is), but can you?
Done by Oscar Murillo. It’s art, I get it (well, that’s what I’m being told to do). But back to that “gullibility” event horizon. Another word that can be used is “pretentious”:
- Claiming that or behaving as if one is important or deserving of merit when such is not the case.
- Showing or betraying an attitude of superiority.
- Marked by an extravagant or presumptuous outward show; ostentatious: synonym: showy.
The catalog “essay” gave the game away:
“The individual canvases are very much the DNA; they record that movement, the process of making.”
Oscar Murillo, 2013In Oscar Murillo’s practice, concepts of distance, displacement, and movement play a monumental role. He explores the themes of movement and change in location as well as physical activity in his work, which becomes a mixture of both the artist’s incisive inquiry into the geographies of space and a manifestation of his body in transit. His work is also defined by questions surrounding studio practice. In fact, it is a collaboration of the artist’s creative body and his creative environment, which merge into a variety of textures and layers. Before the work is elevated into the realm of fine art, he likes to expose every element of it to the real world. Always made on the floor of his studio, “a cradle of dust, dirt and pollution,” Murillo leaves his paintings lying for several months to wear them off and let them gather “DNA information.”
The present lot, Untitled, from 2011 certainly appears to layer the numerous activities that he performs in his studio. It combines oil paint, oil stick and graphite to result in a kaleidoscope of cobalt blues, urgently tangled, both expressive and aggressive but harmonious and beautiful. Whisks of various tones of blue are mixed to lines of grey and black to form a spontaneous and intuitive composition, relating to themes of distance, displacement, and movement. Left on the floor of his studio, dirt, dust and debris, more than just widely available materials, become as much component materials as oil paint, pastel or graphite. This process of democratization also adds an archival element to his production. By ignoring the formal ideas of painting but intensively processing materials, Murillo unwraps a consciously composed wildness based on things that make life and art.
It sold for $377,000. So what do *I* know about art? I still hold that there are a lot of people with a lot of money that want to be in the “in crowd” at all costs. Jr High and High School only got older and richer, but the same cliques exist.
Back to Lileks. He had the temerity to show what I understand to be real art – when it really spoke to all men’s souls and when it “connected” with “awe” in the artist and in what was meant to be awe-inspiring like these sculptures:
And this (I know I said three, but I meant four):
You instantly connect – I have no idea what the title is or who the sculptor was, but I see age, grief, and sorrow. I see the attention to detail in the fingers, the knuckles, and the forearms of skin, blood vessels, bone, and sinew. It is striking; it grabs.
Contrast that to the top image: detail vs nothingness. Life vs. nullity. Fullness vs emptiness. Skill is present in both, but I could NEVER do this sculpture – but I’m betting with a little bit of practice, I could get some rich guy or gal to buy my pretentious crud as long as I can wrap it up like that “essay”; that I could spin up (though it might make me ill in the process).
Most modern art is meaningless, with no foundation in reality. Our Society has moved in that direction with post-modernism along with “the present is unknowable, there is no absolute truth, there is no sure morality, no right or wrong.” Mere solipsism to make themselves feel superior to us in the “lower classes.”
While many hold that art is a mere reflection of society, too many, I believe, are the equivalent of Black Lives Matter, Social Justice, Transgenderism, and the turning inside out of our Education system to be not about academic rigor but molding children; another way to change what Society should be to THEIR liking and for their means. Look at the news, movies, TV, and the rest of the media: who controls it (no, do NOT leave a comment stating “The Jews” as I’ll ban you straight away)?
Yes, those that don’t like Liberty, Freedom, Choice, and a bunch of other things they don’t like. They do want serfs, however.
