Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Much Sorry with Delays
Birth, Death and All That Stuff in Between
How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
My Yom Kippur Miracle (Repost from 2010)
Good intro to fly casting
Peach update, with pie
NYC update
Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
Pickled Peaches
Water Shoes
Labor Costs in U.S.
Your "identity"
Good news about The Great Courses
Uses of Hot Pepper Jelly/Sauce, Chutneys, and Jams
A Saturday Drive to Litchfield County, CT
How to Pick a Kayak
Civilized: Fruit forks and knives
Loads of kayaking on Cape Cod
Psychology Experiments' Questionable Results

Categories


All categories

Quicksearch

Links

Blog Administration

Open login screen

RSS Readers

Add to Google

Subscribe with Bloglines

Tuesday, October 6. 2009

"What is a Warhol?"

From a NY Review of Books look at three new books on Warhol, one of my favorite art critics, Arthur Danto,



...called him "the nearest thing to a philosophical genius the history of art has produced."



Rembrandt had an art factory too. Interesting article.

Posted by Bird Dog in Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 12:34 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Yes, interesting article, I read it entirely. I still don't get Warhol or the value of his work. And "philosophical genius"? For discovering that he needn't even do the work himself?
#1 Luther on 2009-10-06 16:17 (Reply)
I don't either, really. But one has to take Danto seriously and see what he says. As I mentioned, how many Rembrandts did Rembrandt paint? I think he mainly did the designs.
#1.1 Bird Dog on 2009-10-06 16:45 (Reply)
I get your point about Rembrandt. And further agree that there may be a fine line between conception and execution and the proportional value of each. But still, for me personally, it goes against what I consider a 'true' artist to consider something the artist has never touched 'original'. For the rest, of course I'll defer to Danko as all I know about art is 'what I like', though I might wonder still at Danto's reasoning.
#1.1.1 Luther on 2009-10-06 17:04 (Reply)
So according to that perspective, is architecture art or is it engineering?
#1.1.1.1 KRW on 2009-10-06 21:55 (Reply)
You're a smart fucker, KRW. :)

Great question.

Being a half glass behind the eight ball at the moment... I'd have to say that the two might not be compared. Art and Architecture. The one is obviously attainable by one person, as witnessed by centuries of art. The other... well, never presumed that one person could see his vision come to life depending on his own labor. A matter of perspective, I think. But that doesn't disallow architecture as art, of course.

It's technique isn't it... art and architecture, apples and oranges?

I mean, look at the video of Portus that was linked. That took an artist to envision and engineers to bring to fruition. But then look at, oh hell, I don't know, some famous piece of artwork. The same but different. They both relied on initial vision... but execution... a different matter.

They are also aimed at different audiences, are they not? One the glory of a state, the other the glory of a wall in the study. Or something.

Good thinking point you've brought up.
#1.1.1.1.1 Luther on 2009-10-06 22:36 (Reply)
Here ya go:

"art 1 |ärt|
noun
1 the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power :"

What's cool about art and all of its myriad forms - and I include some human characteristic/personality traits in that- is that YOU get to be the judge.

"Art should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us."
Franz Kafka

"Human life is a sad show, undoubtedly: ugly, heavy and complex. Art has no other end, for people of feeling, than to conjure away the burden and bitterness."
Gustave Flaubert

"Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pattern."
Alfred North Whitehead

I think those quotations are rather depressing, but when you compare them to Warhol, they are positively uplifting. Warhol messed up the culture with his 'art'. He started the slide into intellectual decadence, in fact:

"What is honored in a country will be cultivated there."
Plato

But this is my favorite, and it can apply to anything:

"You must treat a work of art like a great man: stand before it and wait patiently till it deigns to speak."
Arthur Schopenhauer

You stand in front of Warhol and take a bite out of your hot dog and drizzle mustard down your Bermuda shorts, and his 'art' still can't find the words....
`
#2 Meta on 2009-10-06 23:07 (Reply)

Add Comment
(Your e-mail will not show in your comment)

By commenting on this site you agree to the site rules listed here. Email
addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for email notifications.

Quick reference guide: [i] italics [/i], [b] bold [/b], [u] underline [/u],
[url] (web address) [/url]. More tips here.

Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_.
E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications.

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.
CAPTCHA

BBCode format allowed
 
 
A Chris Southern Consulting website.