Dear Manifesto readers (Jack Cullen, ‘rhinoboy’, Thomas Castillo & Francois),
I began by replying to Jack but I think my reply is also relevant to Thomas, Francois and ‘rhinoboy’. The writer, Irving Babbit, (‘Rousseau & Romanticism’. Babbit was T.S. Eliot’s teacher at Harvard) described the world of ideas as having ‘a prodigious peripheral richness linked to a vast central void’, meaning we have lost our soul or, as the Art Lover says, “We have lost touch with ourselves. Only the art lover stays in touch with ideas.”
Yes, there are ideas but the ideas are the ideas of the specialist: a specialist is someone who knows more and more about less and less. At the time of the Renaissance there was not so much knowledge and men attempted to know everything which was known and attempted, therefore, to have an overview. Nobody today could possibly know all the scientific stuff that has been discovered and new knowledge is happening all over the world faster than anyone could assimilate it. And I want to pay tribute to all those people who have ideas as to how to save the planet with their hands-on approach. But overall we are victims of global dogma: competition, growth, profit for a few. (The Pirate represents the fact that we are all supposed to benefit from the false propaganda of trickle-down.)
The problem is that we are dangerously short of culture; this has been replaced by the cult of the individual. For example, I don’t know of any practicing visual artists. These people who call themselves artists subscribe to the dogma: anyone can be an artist – this follows from the blanket view of democracy that we are all equal – the media (propaganda) flatters us all that everything we do is precious so of course we all complacently agree. Artists’ aspirations these days are to express themselves when what is required is that they should tell the truth: self-delusion means telling lies.
And I do believe that artists should limit themselves to truth telling. There is no originality, though I do agree that some people whose art is derivative do try to tell the truth. To them, I recommend that they should extend their view of art beyond the 20th century, e.g. most of today’s artists would be at a loss if Jean Cocteau or Marcel Duchamp had not lived. Duchamp’s urinal overthrows the idea of skill and the intrinsic value of a work of art and transfers its value to the eye of the beholder. When the work of art has no value, this subjective appreciation can be nothing more than a whim. This applies to abstract art – there is no value in red in relation to blue and yellow. They have no more meaning than a symphony composed of a few notes. The other oppressive tenet of dogma which the AR Manifesto refutes is that the past is irrelevant. It is important to remember that there is no progress in art.
Regarding culture, I try to avoid using the sense now in daily use that culture is something that applies to any social group. As the AR Manifesto seeks to establish, ‘culture elevates’ (p25). And this depends on the artist telling the truth and the art lover discovering it. So, I don’t agree that all art is a political and cultural act. I think this only applies to all true art (of course an artist can try to make an overtly political statement as well.)
Thank you all for reading the AR Manifesto and for your intellectually rigourous opinions. However, I am more critical than all of you.
Umm… i guess im lost for words as am not sure if this comment is going to be read by The Dame or the whoever writes on this website (your doing a great job if i may say) and im afraid i dont really have anything specific to say but i would like to thank whoever is writing these blogs for representing modern style and for giving children (well, tweenies…12 year olds)like me something to work for a people to look up to so thanks
xxxx Jewel
Comment by jewel grace simpfendorfer on 27/04/2011 at 1:54 pm
For an artist to tell the truth must he, with a retrograde fluidity, hearken to the ideals of Rousseau? He criticises artists for clamouring for praise above seeking the creation of a work espousing of true virtue- a sensory exposition of a truth rather than a grandiose self expression. Socrates too, in Ancient Athens, elucidated a similar criticism.
Are there truths and virtues of art that exist independently of the artist, universal human truths? Or world truths? Did the cult of the individual begin with the desolate beatification of the telegenic in recent decades or with the burgeoning individual of the englightenment? Universal human reason and Hegelian postulations of unlimited reason, did these concepts become something actually inimical to true culture?
Comment by Chloe Campbell on 08/05/2012 at 7:49 am
Dear Chloe
Your style of language is brave and potentially engaging – over the top – but you do need to be more careful. Are you really choosing the best possible words to say what you mean? Sometimes there is a charming flow but then you block your chance to communicate by a string of words jammed together. Please tell me what the word ‘telegenic’ means in the context of its sentence; what does “human dislocation catalyses the evisceration of the natural world” really mean?” Catalyses” is a puzzle and “evisceration” would be better kept until we really need it to drive a point home; even “dislocation” isn’t really clear – it needs more explanation. You need to weave your idiosyncratic style together with the beauty of plain language.
Regarding philosophy: since the Greeks, who are practical and easy to understand, I have not been able to summon enough interest to sustain any study of the great bulk of philosophy. It seems to me that it’s OK for academics to put their students through these mental gymnastics. But I have never had the time to invest in the effort to penetrate this esoteric bolus. Some of it may be good but cant like Kant and Hegel? Do me a favour!
I will try to answer the one question about art that I understand. Your other questions are unclear – I don’t think even you know what you’re asking: “Are there truths and virtues of art that exist independently of the artist? Universal human truths?”
I think we receive art as direct knowledge. We feel spiritual satisfaction when we feel we “know” these universal truths.
You are kind. I can’t give you the answer as to how we can help present climate refugees. The British government has cut funds for care of all refugees. My view is that we must first rely on NGO’s etc. to help and that the more we can engage the public, the more we can put pressure on governments. The big picture is to fight Climate Change at the same time as fighting for human values (All this austerity is rotten for a true economy). I hope you can find some way to help. If you try, you will succeed in finding people to work with on this.
Comment by Vivienne on 06/06/2012 at 4:01 pm
I am easily carried away when writing, I hope I can find a clarity this time around.
For me, it has seemed as if the deterioration of human rights has followed the growth of the celebrity, the worship of the telegenic… JFK and the like became secular martyrs- a desolate beatification in death… It is as if these cults of celebrity and the individual have usurped the place of truth in art and culture (not universally but in much of what is publicised) and so much of the wealth of human culture is not seen in modern society, or not appreciated any longer.
In Ancient Athens, when the universal truths and spiritual gratification of the arts and culture was apprehended, the orator and the playwright garnered the most praise.
Today, it isn’t so much a youthful idealism that draws the attentions of the public but manipulation of the media. Rhetoric is no longer the attractive feature of an individual whether it be masterful or passionate… rather whether they are telegenic or not…
I wonder whether this strange culture began over the last century or earlier in the enlightenment when the individual consciousness was championed by so many philosophers…
Wittgenstein asserted that the best philosophy was the one that did not change anything outside of philosophy itself; a questionable assertion certainly but one that perhaps has a small truth… Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche – all their philosophies were taken, distorted and then used as grounds for some of the most misguided and repugnant actions over the last few centuries… Youthful idealism and enlightenment values had become the harbingers of a chaotic age of Horus rather than a new world liberated from dogmatism, founded on basic principles of respect for all life and freedom.
When life is wasted (for want of a better turn of phrase) the masses come to together in mass hysteria; when resources are wasted governments construct lengthy accords (like that of Kyoto) and innovations like carbon credits to profit rather than tackle real problems and extend the hand of compassion… It seems as if human rights have wasted away to a shadow of what they once were…
In the Nuremberg Trials the allied forces talked of absolute human rights but now, only two of the five permanent members of the UN are signed up to the declaration of human rights and even they haven’t upheld its principles.
Once society and capitalism did indeed thrive on waste and alienation but it is now, in parts collapsing under its own weight, this way of profiting is no longer sustainable.
That your blog, your manifesto is concerned with so many global problems and retains an obvious integrity… when there are so many others that instead exploit the emotive… It is one of the things I love so much about this blog.
Have you ever come to know any other universal values or truths outside of art?
Comment by Chloe Campbell on 06/06/2012 at 10:42 pm