Werckmeister came to Northwestern the same year I did, both of us hired by then dean Rudy Weingartner (who himself had been a victim of Nazi purges). Werkmeister retired from Northwestern a year or two before I did. He is indeed a major and very influential art historian. He was generous with his time, often given freely to artist/students, even when he was also deeply committed to a group of graduate art history students.
One humorous anecdote: Once it happened that both prof. Werkmeister and prof. Ed Paschke (another NU superstar) were mistakingly scheduled to teach courses at the same time in the same room (a frequent academic screw-up) but neither one would permit a change in his schedule. It was a matter of prima-donna (nascent totalitarianism in profs?) face-saving and which prof would need to give in to the other. I settled it by asking their students to decide which time and place change would be OK with them. They did and so the two profs were happy, neither of them needing to appear subservient to the other and both of them pleasing their students. Back to the issue: You note that a theme of Werkmeister's Totalitarian Art course is how some art blurs the distinction between aesthetic and moral content, effectively masking the "hyperbolic" evils of totalitarianism with presumably refined aesthetics. Isn't this precisely what Miller has missed in his previous assertions of praise for some totalitarian type art? I suggest he read Werkmeister, too. WC --- On Fri, 8/15/08, Chris Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > From: Chris Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Totalitarian aesthetics > To: [email protected] > Date: Friday, August 15, 2008, 11:49 AM > Just came across this rather spectacular (and scary) view of > competing > totalitarian monuments from the Paris Expo of 1937. > > http://faculty-web.at.northwestern.edu/art-history/werckmeister/March_30_1999 > /ParisExpo2.jpg > > ..Part of the best collection of that genre that I've > ever found on the > internet: > > http://faculty-web.at.northwestern.edu/art-history/werckmeister/index.html > > > ....all courtesy of one of William's colleagues -- Otto > Karl Werckmeister -- > who has also written a few books for Saul and his comrades > to help them > "reconnect cultural critique to a cultural policy of > the Left" > > Actually -- I was drawn to the site by a sculptor who is > mostly known by > collectors of Art Deco, Georges Gori -- whose toy-like > equestrian is in the > foreground -- facing the Seine, across from the monuments > of the USSR and the > National Socialists. > > Of special interest to William, might be this > representation of Mussolini by > Enzo Benedetto. Would William find it any less > reprehensible than those > fascist-hero portraits that don't need a title to be > recognized as such? > > http://faculty-web.at.northwestern.edu/art-history/werckmeister/May_13_1999/1 > 231.jpg > > ...and of special interest to Saul, might be > Werckmeister's books -- with > quotes like this: > > > "Now, cultural critique could be advanced in even more > radical terms, since it > no longer felt obliged to offer political solutions and > could be expressed in > an openly inconclusive hyperbole. Tending toward the > aesthetic, the > moralistic, and the agnostic, it became a part of the > prevailing, officially > sanctioned culture that claimed to be critical in and of > itself. I have called > it Citadel Culture, a performance culture in which > moralistic > self-incrimination and aesthetic posturing made for a > display of glaring > tragedy. At this point the Marxist tradition of cultural > critique lost any > residual political perspective it may have harbored during > the preceding > decade -- Marxism blended into a cultural critique of > politically > inconsequential dissent, where it was kaleidescopically > configured with > poststructuralism, > femnism, psychoanalysic, and deconstruction. -- it was > reduced to sharing in > the coexistance of discrepant values beyond political > dispute, the pluralistic > social ideal of "postmodern" culture" > > (which seems similar to the point I was making last year -- > that Marxists in > the arts are either goofing off - or satisfying an upscale, > trendy niche > market) > > ____________________________________________________________ > Click for VA loan resources and rate quotes. > http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL2231/fc/Ioyw6ijmOilJT2TE9p4MLUzvvaREHK > gylwa3pFiFwEq4eK1B2E0amo/
