On Dec 6, 2010, at 3:24 PM, joseph berg wrote:

>
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703377504575650882413327998.htm
l

You're way waaaay late to this one, as is the WSJ. Jacques Barzun was writing
about the rise of the "interesting" aesthetic category and the studied lack of
outrage and affront back in the 60s and 70s.

A small note: the WSJ author wrote:

>  (One can imagine NPR was hoping the Portrait Gallery would hold its ground,
if only to divert fire from Capitol Hill.) But maybe just as salient in the
curators' calculations was a sense that the art in question was hardly worth
going to the mattresses over.

Um. The expression is "going to the mat," referring to the cushioned covering
of the wrestling ring, and it's etymologically unrelated to "mattress." So,
what do you imagine was on the author's mind?


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Michael Brady

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