I had not heard of Munson, so I looked her up - this video from CSPAN seems to cover a good deal of her material (it's of a talk and Q&A given by her and Hilton Kramer at the Washington Press Club):
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/159740-1 Now personally I will say there's lots of art I don't like, don't understand, find personally repellant, etc. (especially as I am somewhat politically conservative), but I do get awfully tired of those nominally on my side using scary buzzwords - :Marxism! Postmodernism! Deconstruction! Moral Relativism! Loss of Skills! - to try and establish that we are always teetering on the brink of destruction, and Somebody Should Do Something Right Now! As far as I can see they just want power in their court rather than someone else's. Over the long run the art market seems pretty darwinian - most of what they object to in art will be forgotten, just as most Salon art has been, and I'm content with that. Cheers; Chris On Sat, Aug 4, 2012 at 12:40 AM, William Conger <[email protected]>wrote: > I thank Michael and others for helpful advice on not writing free verse. > I am a > technological Luddite and can't focus > on the computer tasks that might help me write simple lines of text. It's > just > painting, reading, writing and thinking that > keeps me distracted from everyday stuff. Today I had lunch with James > Valerio > (see Forum Gallery), a friend of > 45 years. We have very different political views. I'm way too liberal > for him. > Yet we are not so far apart on > issues about art as we are on politics. We both lament the brutish > character of > so much 'postmodern' art thinking > and how it has all but taken over the academy and the art world itself. I > suppose that's because we're both > painters and, as everyone knows by now, painting is dead and gone in the > world > of serious, fashionable art: the art > of contemporary museums, major art fairs, hot critics, dealers, and > collectors. > James gave me a book to read. > Now, I'm usually plenty up to date on books about the art world but this > is one > I missed. It's titled Exhibitionism. > Authored by Lynne Munson, published 2000. I recommend it but it has > flaws. it > does have fascinating, and damming > information about the NEA. Many of your suspicions about current art will > be > confirmed. The near impossibility > of carrying on a good discussion of aesthetics in a postmodern context > where all > meanings have been cut loose is conformed. > > I wonder how this post will look when you read it. On my screen, it's a > perfect > rectangle of text. > wc
