Dave, Thank you for the update there about Patrick Doorly's new book about Quality and Art. That's much appreciated.
I'm especially impressed by the two reviews of the book that you pasted below. Even where Doorly's "hypothesis" supposedly fails (see Nicholas Mann's review) in relation to Duchamp (i.e. "a hypothesis that tellingly only fails when confronted with what he calls the ‘intellectual pranks’ of Duchamp"), I'd say exactly otherwise! As I recently illustrated (on May 20th - also see below) Duchamp's "installation pieces" are, at best, making an intellectual point. They are not (nor were made to be) Art that reflects the "Godhead" (i.e. fine Art) in the sense that Doorly (and in consequence, Pirsig) define Art. Professor Doorly's book is due to be published on August 16th. Best wishes, Anthony ---------------------------------------- Ant McWatt stated to MOQ Discuss, May 20th: In fine art, there's been a substantive amount of derivatives of Marcel Duchamp's "ready mades". (These were initially objects of everyday use often presented in a twisted way - the first one of which appeared in 1913, the most famous one being an urinal submitted by Duchamp to the "Society of Independent Artists of New York" in 1917 under the title of "Fountain".) Now as Duchamp would be the first to tell you, these pieces are all junk without artistic merit. (This is probably why the first version of "Fountain" doesn't exist any more - it was thrown out without second thought). Unfortunately, much of the Art world have either missed the joke or, (as I highly suspect as the real reason) chosen not to, as it is far easier to place half a sheep in a tank of formaldehyde (or put together a small pile of house bricks - as illustrated in my MSU presentation) than it is to create a "Mona Lisa" or a "Flora Zoologica" (to name a piece by a contemporary fine artist - Alan Aldridge). If you can then find some rich mug to buy your piece of junk/installation art by writing a "manifesto" then it's a far easier way to make money than to actually create an artistic masterpiece (as Aldridge often does). I term this process "Laughing all the way to the bank with Duchamp's ghost!" (I suppose what I object to "Installation Art" above all is that it fills this precious world of ours with junk rather than beautiful things. Maybe one day, an enlightened society will make the public display of such objects a civil offence...). ---------------------------------------- David Buchanan stated June 1st: As some MOQers may recall, Patrick Doorly of Oxford University is a major league MOQer. He organized the MOQ Study Day at Oxford back in 2009. He has written a book that's scheduled to be out this August. It's titled "The Truth about Art: Reclaiming Quality". http://www.zero-books.net/books/truth-about-art I imagine that Pirsig must be pretty happy about this. Let the intellectual infiltration begin at the top, right where Pirsig wants it to start! This is very exciting, eh? > > > Amazon says, "Patrick Doorly was educated at St John’s College, Oxford; > Stockholm University; and the Courtauld Institute of Art. For much of his > career he taught critical and theoretical studies to students on studio-based > courses in art and design. Since 2000 he and his wife have lived in Oxford, > where he divides his time between writing and teaching art history at the > university’s Department for Continuing Education." > > > "...The message that Doorly seeks to drive home, sometimes with almost > missionary zeal, is that Art and Truth are not facts of nature but constructs > with a cultural legacy, and that the word ‘art’ in particular has throughout > its history had changing meanings attached to it. His aim is systematically > to question, from first principles and without preconceived ideas, what it is > that distinguishes art from artefact or object. His approach to the > half-jocular question “but is it Art?” is deeply serious, and impatient of > orthodoxies, whether those of Kant or Winckelmann or of more recent critical > theory; he has a sharp eye for flawed argument, and takes a slightly > schoolmasterly delight in leading his class through the basic facts, the > etymologies and semantics, the evolution of ideas, so as to lay bare a long > history of misapprehension. The fundamental hypothesis that he proposes and > proceeds to test is that art is ‘high quality endeavour’ (a hypothesis that > tellingly only fails when confronted with what he calls the ‘intellectual > pranks’ of Duchamp), aiming to show that significant artists have at all > times sought to achieve excellence by building on and improving or > transcending the tradition that they have inherited. Doorly concludes that > Quality is of the essence, and that Pirsig’s model of the interaction between > the Dynamic Quality of the creative individual and the Static Patterns of a > culture is the most promising conceptual model of artistic endeavour that he > has encountered. Readers who delight in the works of artists of all periods > (other than the professionals of the art and art-historical worlds, who may > well not welcome this book on account of its uncomfortable home truths) will > find Doorly’s systematic demystification of the critical apparatus > surrounding these works enlightening. The obvious integrity of his enquiry > and the clarity with which it is conducted enrich our ability to understand > what it is that delights us, and give a further dimension to our appreciation > of the creative process." ~ Nicholas Mann, Director of the Warburg Institute > (1990–2001) > > > "Doorly has written a book that is full of interest, and he presents his > thesis in language that sparkles with clarity. I am in broad agreement with > his treatment of the Italian Renaissance, and with his views of virtue, > quality, and related topics. In areas where I have no expertise, I learned a > lot about artistic creation from his ideas and from the conclusions he draws > from an enormous amount of essential reading. The book deserves to be widely > read." ~ John Woodhouse, Fiat-Serena Professor Emeritus of Italian, Oxford > University (http://www.amazon.com/The-Truth-About-Art-Reclaiming/dp/1780998414) . 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