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When good art happens to bad people
In her series on the teaching of taste, art professor Laurie Fendrich reminds us why good art happens to bad people, why VBS teachers like Thomas Kincaid paintings, and why I hope my daughter’s babysitter doesn’t shop at Anthropologie:
It should be obvious (although somehow it isn’t) that having good or bad taste-in anything-has utterly no connection to whether one is morally good or bad, and startlingly less correspondence with intelligence or level of education than one might think. Life mixes morals, intelligence, education and taste in individuals into various stews. When talking about art, it’s always worth noting that, as often as not, brilliant art collections have been built by people who were despotic, wicked or downright evil-Leo X, the Medici, Hermann Goering come immediately to mind.
Of course, this maxim doesn’t also mean that, because we should strive for moral virtue, we should celebrate aesthetic poverty.
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When I was in first grade, we once had to make our art projects out of popcorn and a sort of flour paste kind of stuff. In a fit of creative inspiration, I made an absolutely INCREDIBLE artistic creation that STILL stands in my mind as a singular and spectacular – and defining – event in the history of Art.
Then Travis, the class bully, ate it, while the teacher was out of the room.
He stood and laughed at me with all his little leering henchmen clustered around him, and ate every last little bit of my project, except for the popsickle sticks that held it together. And even those he vigorously chewed until they were a pulpy wooden mess.
But in a sign that the gods indeed have SOME remedial sense of justice, he got really sick a little while later and even threw up all over his henchmen during recess, and had to go home.
So that is my story of when good art happened to a bad person.
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Now, now, what have you got against Anthropologie? The clothes there are actually well-made . . .
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Oh, I agree, Alissa. I would love to buy some for my wife.
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#2 Alissa,
I thought it was a store where you were allowed, or forced, to dig up the floor going deeper and deeper as you search for and look for long lost art and other artifacts like an anthropologist would do on a dig. I don’t think you need well made clothes for that.
Well, I collect art but I am good person and no Nazi tpye and talke offence to being classified with homosexual heroin junked up insane mass murderers like ‘Popes and Pilots’ for Heaven’s sake. It is the art I collect that is bad
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Good one, Drill.
Laurie Fendrich is right; “You Need Judgment to See Art.” In fact, you need judgment for a LOT of things in life.
There are principles of truth and beauty that can and should help guide our taste in or assessments of art. Diversity in taste is not ruled out just because you have a healthy grasp on principles and standards for your taste.
I remember a conversation I had with three art professors as a showing in a university gallery. The exhibition was total nonsense and when those professors asked me what I thought, I told them so. They were astounded by my asthetic judgmentalism and my presumed ignorance of art. But as we talked, they realized I was not ignorant and I had clear reasons for my assessment. They soon began to fall all over each other in confusion (at least that’s my take).
One said, “But those particular shapes have never before existed in human history!”
I responded, “And if I dumped over that youder waist basket, those exact shapes will be totally original in human history.”
To that, one of them responded by referring to the bright yellow color on one of the canvases and actually implied that my negative assessment of the art actually implied that I was some sort of racist, since I discriminated against “yellow” (in his mind).
These were elite university art professors mind you.
Then I asked them; “If there are no standards for judgment, how do you grade your art students?”
I will always remember the reply one gave to me. He said, “I can just tell when they are into it.”
I learned later that most, if not all, of their students get “A”s. And believe me, they got it for a lot of nonsense.
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Drill – “Then Travis, the class bully, ate it, while the teacher was out of the room. He stood and laughed at me with all his little leering henchmen clustered around him, and ate every last little bit of my project…”
I ate it with some jelly beans, and a nice Chianti.
{burp}
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Actually, I disagree that “having good or bad taste—in anything—has utterly no connection to whether one is morally good or bad.”
I do not think there is a direct one-to-one connection, but I also think it is wrong to say there is no connection at all. Picasso’s art shows this connection. I have no doubt that Picasso’s extreme misogyny (disdain for women) is a lot of what made his portrayals of them so ugly and unappealing. He did favorable portraits of his mistresses when the relationship was new, but as he wore out his interest in them, his paintings of them got increasingly insulting, untalented and ugly.
But I liked how Fendrich put it when she said, “Life mixes morals, intelligence, education and taste in individuals into various stews.”
And some stews taste a lot better than others.
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Just yesterday we got something in the mail from the seminary my husband got his M.Div from. A letter explained how the writer felt when he entered the chapel, in which six new paintings have been placed, created by an “artist in residence.” He thought they were so wonderful, so worship-enhancing, that he asked people to provide funds to be able to keep them permanently. I took a look at the enclosed paper showing the paintings, and wondered if there was something wrong with me that I don’t think they’re marvelous. The letter did say that a small photo can hardly have the same impact as the originals (52″ x 100″). There are some parts of some of them that make me think I could like them better if more of the painting was like that. But I don’t see them enhancing my worship.
Here is a link to a press release about them, which has links to images of the paintings.
http://www.christinasaj.com/press.htm
I’d be interested in hearing what others think of them.
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Pauline: I looked at them. I tend to agree with you.
They would not enhance my worship.
They might make me hungry, though. They look like pizzas, not pictures.
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I didn’t see anything in there explaining why VBS teachers like Thomas Kincaid. I always assumed it was because he was a Christian and not really about his art. His style is so syrupy sweet and artificial that it reminds me of a children’s book, not serious art. Perfect for VBS I guess.
As Franky Schaefer points out in “Addicted to Mediocrity”, for some reason modern Christians are easily drawn to cheap kitsch, bumper stickers, wall plaques, etc. unlike their predecessors during the Renaissance.
The Reformation brought a rejection of all things Catholic and some churches began to throw the baby out with the bath water. An even greater austerity accompanied the Great Awakening when churches became meeting houses and no graven images or artwork of any kind were visible.
We threw out instruments and we sang “acapella” meaning “Chapel Style”. We threw out two out of three admonitions of Paul to sing Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Only Psalms were allowed. It took years for pianos to slowly reappear, then a few instruments one by one. But more conservative churches still reject any instruments beyond the 1950’s. Our church taught that the back beat was somehow used by the devil to cause you to sin.
So I am glad to see some stirring for Christians to once again appreciate great art. Since modern schools of art are hopelessly incapable of discerning good art anymore, perhaps there is an opportunity for Christian artists to fill the gap.
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