There are endless ways to wrench irony out of the mixture of high and low values, especially when low values are given priority. The high values, high culture, high art, high taste, always become ludicrous when measured by the practical standards of low values, low culture, popular art, vulgar taste. The irony is exposed by maintaining an imagined separation between high and low even as the two kinds of values are transformed to all low. This is not a new concept. Goya was the master of irony in perceiving the "high" as if it were "low". He is often regarded as the inheritor of Velasquez but that earlier artist was the master of the opposite transformation. He made the "low" into the "high". Rightly, Velasquez is regarded as a continuing Renaissance art values whereas Goya is rightly seen as an early modernist. For better and worse, modernism is the age of "low". wc
----- Original Message ---- From: joseph berg <[email protected]> To: aesthetics-l <[email protected]> Sent: Mon, November 29, 2010 1:43:37 AM Subject: "This series investigates the way in which the art market assigns value, and explores the responsibility of museums and collectors as the guardians of our common cultural legacy." "This series investigates the way in which the art market assigns value, and explores the responsibility of museums and collectors as the guardians of our common cultural legacy." http://www.clarkart.edu/about/press/content.cfm?ID=3264&year=2010
