Someone
wrote to me in defense of a “sculpture” made of glued together
eggshells. Instead of giving a snappy answer I want to elaborate.
Across
millennia art has been executed in particularly permanent
materials. Artist would make a statue in marble or bronze rather than
papier mache or cabbage leaves. It simply makes sense to match
seriousness of commitment with permanence of the material. But when
gravity of professional commitment is absent and replaced with
light-hearted,spirited impishness than pretty much anything goes. It
should be noted that this boldness is bolstered by vague recollection
that at least equally surprising materials were already featured in
“Art in America” or “Art Forum”and therefore made legitimate.
Of course ever since the toilet was accepted as art-piece the gates
were wide open to allow some decades later a sliced cow in
formaldehyde as great breakthrough in art materials. Against that the
eggshells seem shy, pallid,almost innocently bashful. The runny
egg content would be much bolder to use,but the young gluer betrayed
himself as a classicist opting for less amorphous shapes.
Where
this conviction came from that one can make a sculpture just by
walking into mom's kitchen and glue some eggshells?Or that
“sculptures” or parts of them are already everywhere and
“creation” is in simply harvesting them.What is the origin of
such astonishing license?
The "Peplos Kore" of Athenian Acropolis
marble and bronze
marble and bronze
I
think it is a small part of ever-growing,pulsating malignancy which
afflicted Western Culture about a century ago and has been burgeoning
globally in all directions. One had to be hiding deep in the remote
parts of Eastern Kalamantan to be spared the affliction. People more
exposed to the radiant influences of contemporary civilization get
infected by public education disseminating the lamentable malignancy.
Within it reality no longer is authoritative. What is true is not
what is but rather what should be -and what should be is decided
by some unseen committee of Liberal Thought. Almost osmotically
everybody realizes that what was common sense and everyday experience
is not true at all and indeed cannot be even uttered in whispers.
The root of it,of this
world-view is the belief in “Equality”.Equality among
people,man-made objects,equality of value,of outcomes,of endowments.
Everyone deserves equally and therefore existing
distinctions,differences should be corrected to bring us closer to
the ideal of Equality. When those abominable differences stay true to
their nature at least we all should pretend that they don't exist and
plaster over the reality of the obvious. I used to think that
communism was the most solid block of un-truth ever propagated :
lamentably -no! The American Fog Machine is as in everything else
much better. One
of differences is that under communism nobody believed in their
lies,whilst here liberal un-truth is pronounced with sincerity and
earnest expectation that any “normal” person would chime in with
agreement. It means that if some desperado would propose ,say that
opposite is evident,namely that nothing is equal to anything
else,that marigolds are not equal to old roses ,Kandinsky's painting
is not equal to Giorgione's, people stare in embarrassed silence.
They seem confounded because they misjudged your level of
intelligence and now are forced to peg you down ,momentarily
forgetting that we are all equal - especially in intellectual gifts.
Most
damaging is the liberal myth that all cultures are somehow equal. Not
that facts are proving such wild assertion but because it feels good
to grant that equality on human attainments. It does take extreme
refusal of the obvious to bestow such unwarranted equality on all
cultures,but the reward is instantaneous. The frisson of righteous
goodness,tickle of its moral superiority tinged with patronizing
largess,because the lesser cultures never claim such equality. They
know better and dislike both their own inferiority and patronizing
phoneyness. The important element of motivation is actually a feminine
one- strong wish to avoid offending anyone's feelings.
It has to be avoided even at the cost of flushing truth down.
Harmony , good feelings of caring for sensitive self-worth of others
are valued much higher than blunt , however irrefutable truth. That
is how everybody goes each morning to a well padded rooms of
kindergarten for grown-ups.4 plus 4 can be 5 as long as feelings
are
not bruised. The vast territories of inquiries cannot be pursued,or
even mentioned because they are known,guessed to be off-limits for
public discourse. Just like in communism.
In
that atmosphere modern art is thriving. What could be more
democratic,more open to all,talented or not at all ; everybody is
creative. Lack of any remembered criteria ,rampant relativism and
cult of “experimentation” made the conditions in which few
eggshells could be and are considered a successful piece of art.
Eggshells are equal to marble or play-dough,”found objects” are
equal to wood sculptures and paintings to digital assemblages.
There
is two roads available to everyone interested in art. One , where
black smear by Franz Kline is considered “a powerful statement”
and garbage that might be Art .Or, another road,one on which five
hundred and fifty years ago, as if yesterday, Jan van Eyck went .To
continue our glorious heritage of Occidental Culture you have to
follow him.
