Newsgroups: az.general
Having just returned from the Phoenix Art Museum's "Old Glory" exhibition, I must admit that as a middle-aged white American, I was unenlighten and unimaginably angry; I obviously "just didn't get it." But "understanding" set in upon reading the "key" by art historian Leo Steinberg, "If a work of art or a new style disturbs you, then it is probably good work. If you hate it, it is probably great." I realized that, hey, I can do that. I can be an art critic. Now, my classes in rigorous logic said that this is a false premise, that while art makes a statement, not all statements are art. But then again, logic was developed by Aristotle, the ultimate dead white European male. He has no place on a "modern" liberal arts university like ASU.
On to my ideas about returning the favor to those liberal who so thoughtfully give us benefit of their "art". Why don't we give them some of our own? Can't be too difficult. If it enrages, then it's great (maybe even stupendous) art. How hard can it be to tweak the PC crowd? After all, they'll be properly enlightened, we'll be pleased at their disgust, and the cutting edge of art will have been advanced.
Now some examples of how simple it is. We know what happens when Christmas and Hanukkah roll around. Display a creche, the Menorah, and various other religious symbols on the local public square, call it an art exhibition, and "presto"Ð art for the liberals. We can gage their enthusiasm and pleasure by the number of ACLU law suites it spawns. Other ideasÐ display an AIDS quilt in some of the same decorous and reverent ways that Jim Ballinger found appropriate for the US Flag. A "Hillary" dart board (who doesn't have one of those already). Pictures of females performing various graphic sexual acts (rememberÐit's not pornographic, it's artÐstop being so judgmental). A MLK sculpture crafted from a familiar substance akin to chocolate but somewhat more malodorousÐalthough chocolate has been found to be an acceptable substitute for those who are squeamish or weak of nostril. Multitudes of caricatured oppressed victims. Flights of artistic fancyŠsee, it's easy. You can be an artist too. Just don't get your hopes up for an NEA grant. They may think your art is filthy crap (which it is, if taken literally, not figuratively).
Please do not construe from these comments anything other than my genuine desire, as a newly found art critic, to give "good" art back to our fine liberal friends. It would be unfair, for example, to claim artistic freedom when displaying something "un-PC" on a local university. Unless, of course, you knew it was art because the PC police were on your tail. Then, your only recourse would be to graciously accept the accolades of an artist who has "arrived". I suppose that, ultimately, every graphically depicted political statement is artistic.
So, my friends, lets repair to the junkyard or bathroom and create some "art". Anybody got a quilt?
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