Sounds good, David. Thanks for letting us know about Patrick Doorly's new book. Looking forward to it.
On Sat, Jun 1, 2013 at 1:52 PM, david buchanan <[email protected]>wrote: > > > 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 > > > > > > > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org/md/archives.html > -- http://www.danglover.com Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
