There's something actually scary about Miller's constant attack on art schools, institutions of learning, etc. It's the lack of specificity. He never shows us the exact curricula or specific criteria he's against. Instead, he just attacks one and all broadly. It's analogous to book burnings. What does he want, no more schools, no more learning?
One should presume, with much evidence, that students in any context are primed to question their teachers, to challenge ideas, to tinker with the system. What art program is made up of sheepish students, timidly imitating whatever is held up to them? No one who has ever been in an art school or taught in one would say the environment is like an English prep school. I don't like generalized critiques of any domain of knowledge. Miller should become specific or put his matches away. WC --- On Fri, 1/30/09, Chris Miller <[email protected]> wrote: > From: Chris Miller <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: History of 'Sentimentality' > To: [email protected] > Cc: [email protected], [email protected] > Date: Friday, January 30, 2009, 11:37 AM > So .... I just took up the challenge to find good cat art on > the internet -- > which was not easy -- since "cat" also refers to > "catalog" -- and contemporary > art of ANY kind is so overwhelmingly awful. > > But -- here's the first good one I found -- by Yumeji > Takehisa(1884-1934) --- > an artist of whom I had never heard -- so I guess the quest > was worth it. > > (is that cat-woman shedding a tear ? How sentimental! And > how beautiful, too. > Apparently, Yumeji was taken to task by his contemporary > Japanese critics for > being so unconventional -- and he had not apprenticed to a > master. But I > doubt he was ever accused of being too sentimental -- > except by critics who > followed Modernism. But even then -- I don't know. > Yumeji was apparently a > big fan of Edward Munch, and may have considered himself a > cutting-edge > modernist. Whatever -- he was and still is very popular -- > with own museum in > Tokyo) > > I don't know whether the injunction against > sentimentality (unless ironic) > still holds in contemporary art schools. > > Did that teacher really bring in some pickled cats for the > students to draw? > What a joke! This is the educational community that > created Damien Hirst. > > *********** > > > >On this subject, one of my earliest art instructors > repeatedly cautioned us > against sentimentality and as an excercise he brought into > drawing class > several embalmed and flayed cats from the biology > department for us to draw. > He said that there was no way we could be sentimental about > that subject > matter. Sentimentality seems to have to with content and I > don't know why you > can't make a good work of art about sentimental subject > matter. > > ____________________________________________________________ > Click here for a free directory of employee development and > training > solutions. > http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL2231/fc/PnY6rc0pGA5gFXn4R810xzqjj3BCWJ > ieG7XTE29vWMGA30eTLrEUE/
