Abstract Expressionism and kosher holy water

  What do they have in common?

The faithful believe what they are told and avoid even thinking about what may be a challenge to their faith. Kosher foods and holy water are items considered changed from their ordinary state on the basis of an incantation mumbled over the stuff. You can ask the consumer what the difference is between between the food before and after and  you will usually get a series of vague answers which amount to a belief that the blessed stuff now possesses some sort of spiritual enhancement. 

Critical Artspeak incantations by the high priests of Modern Art are presently reserved for the latter day saints of Abstract Expressionism and the approved isms that followed. This has earned them a permanent place on the sacred walls of the modern sections of museums. The faithful believe that  what they perceive is not what they actually see due to those Artspeak incantations.

If it needs a long sermon to proclaim it's art, it's probably bullshit.

A MODEST PROPOSAL

 I do not advocate that museums cease exhibiting Modern Academic Art. However, I do suggest that in fairness to today's extremes in taste, museums should have two different curators. One for each side of the presently polarized art debate. They could then compete by means of the artwork each chooses to hang and engage in lively debates. People will then have an opportunity to see the work of both sides and decide what they prefer for themselves. If this were to happen the censored approach of the last 60 years would end.

Museums could show the finest works that are popular with a large facet of the public. What critics dismiss as illustration, kitsch and commercial will then reappear in museums. Only then will our finest illustrators, nature and scientific artists, cartoonists, animators, comic book artists etc. have an opportunity to have their original work shown to that audience which can then compare and decide for themselves what they like.

At present we are exposed to long-winded dull one sided opinions. Almost no one in the media dares criticize those who conform to the present fashion. Think of how interesting it would be to feature the opinions of  two opposing critics expressing their divergent views in the media.

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Abstract Expressionism and kosher holy water
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Before the advent of the Internet this kind of criticism was impossible.

Copyright 1997-2006 Mani de Li
2006-01-30
Modern Art, Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian, Pollock, de Kooning, Johns, Rothko, Miro, Warhol, Cezanne, Kline, Chagall, Dali, Greenberg, Bauhaus, Barnet Newman, Calder, Castelli, Dubuffet, Duchamp, Gorkey, Guston, Kandinsky, Hans Hofmann, Clement Greenberg, Paul Klee, Motherwell