Subject: Re: poem because I don't know what else to do...
From: Tim O'Connor (oconnort@nyu.edu)
Date: Fri Sep 14 2001 - 19:12:06 GMT
On Fri, Sep 14, 2001 at 11:51:58PM +0100, Scottie Bowman wrote:
> One thinks of Guernica, of course, & some of Auden's
> pieces, yet am I alone in thinking that artistic responses
> to public events are hardly ever successful? (Even these
> that I once found so moving have - for me now -
> the unmistakable odour of the propagandist.)
It's hard to find a position from which to argue with you. Guernica
is exceptional, of course -- but, then, so was Picasso himself.
However, Guernicas (the picture) are few and far between, aren't they?
(Regrettably, political, not artistic, Guernicas, are entirely too
common.) I've always felt that the picture known to us as Guernica
managed to skirt propaganda to achieve a great degree of universality
-- essential to the creation of great art, I feel.
It's difficult to reconcile the needs of the private artist with the
VERY different rhetorical requirements of a public person acting
publicly. Some can pull it off, but not many can manage it well.
> OK, I know I AM alone in maintaining that art is always
> an individual enterprise & cannot truly emerge from the group.
I strongly disagree with you on this. 8-) I don't think you're
alone in your belief. It's likely that many of us here are not
believers in "group art." I -- and perhaps many others here --
am a strong believer in the achievement of the individual above
anything done collectively. (I, personally, am instantly disheartened
by the word "collective" as applied to creative endeavors. I'd rather
see a child's finger-paintings than suffer through a miserable
presentation of "collective" art, which smacks of either 1930s Soviet
art or 1960s "happenings," neither of which appeals to me in the least.)
> sandwich eating - & leave us with little alternative but the dutiful
> reiteration of what is communal & acceptable. And flat & dead.
Yes ... please spare us the "communal & acceptable." I can live a
long time without exposure to such "art"!
What, I wonder, makes you think that the community here would be
inclined to enjoy bad group art? I'm not challenging you. I'm just
flat-out curious at your assertion.
--tim
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