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Monday, September 15, 2008
Paul Greenberg :: Townhall.com Columnist
Art for the Artist's Sake?
by Paul Greenberg
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Walking by the U.S. courthouse here in Little Rock, a flash of metal outside impinged on my vision, though not much on my consciousness. From a distance, it looked like a pile of leftover construction materials. And indeed the courthouse had just acquired a spiffy new addition.

Not until I saw the story in the paper ("Harsh judgment passed on courthouse fountain") did I realize what that pile of shiny stuff was: a water fountain.

Excuse me, a Water Feature. It has a name, as befits a work of art: Echo Dynamics.

Well, sure. That fits right in with Greenberg's Rule No. 17: The more pretentious the name, the less satisfying the product.

Echo Dynamics. It would make a fine name for a corporation that makes steel tubing, or maybe recording equipment. But by any name, the new fountain hasn't been getting many rave reviews.

To quote Her Honor Susan Webber Wright, the judge who served as liaison between her colleagues on the bench and the committee that chose the artist: "I'm just horrified by it. It wasn't what we ordered."

In the diagram she was shown, the judge recalls, there were benches and trees, and the end result "didn't look like structural steel." It was supposed to be "an oasis, a soothing place for the public to come by and enjoy the spot, and it certainly has none of those attributes."

Her Honor was also horrified by the cost: $391,000. Her verdict: "That is shocking." Well, Your Honor, maybe not so shocking. This was, after all, a federal project.

All the critical reviews sent me back to the courthouse to see what the fuss was about. Just to check out Echo Dynamics in the ferrous flesh.

How describe it? A series of banked troughs, it bears a vague resemblance to a urinal, though without as clear a function.

Viewing it up close, you can see what Echo Dynamics was intended to be: a kind of low-slung, metallic waterfall. But the sound of the water, once you can hear it above the traffic, is more a sanitary gurgle than that of a natural spring. Continued...
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Reply # 1
Date: Sep 17, 2008 - 2:47 PM EST
Jack
As a logician you should know the difference between a soft generalization (dogs usually make good pets) and a hard generalization (all dogs are mammals). In art one can only make soft generalizations.

The dominant ethos of contemporary philosophy is that there is no such thing as beauty or truth. They are merely illusions created by chemical and electrical impulses in our brains. The dominant philosophy of our time says that meaning is entirely subjective, and that nothing has inherent, objective meaning.

Art reflects philosophy, and as such we have art that rejects notions of beauty, truth, and meaning. It is not that I consider myself the sole arbiter of these notions, but rather that the contemporary artist rejects their existence entirely.

Conservatives reject that philosophy, so naturally they reject the art which expresses it.

BTW, was it really necessary to take at shot at my ability as an artist, given that you have never seen my work? Perhaps because you know that a person with my philosophical bent is not likely to produce the sort of art you like. Do you get my point now?
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Reply # 2
Date: Sep 17, 2008 - 1:42 PM EST
The "BEST" Art
Back when I was in college many many years ago, there was an art contest at the University of Oklahoma. The first, second, and third places were won by the same artist - a chimpanse. There was a big laugh and the judges made the lame excuse that the chimp had a good ability for modern art.

A student in New York heard about it and entered a contest there. He also won first, second, and third places although I think they only gave him the first prize - $150,000. Then he announced that he had a chimp do those too. The sponsors sued the judges for not being able to tell the difference between true art ability and the random colors of a monkey.

About the same time I had a teacher who insisted that modern art was the only true form of art. All others were fakes. We decided the real reason for her comment was that she considered herself a "true artist". But the only thing she could do was smear some paint on a canvas since she lacked any talent.

Too many of our modern artists fall into the same ranks. They don't have the ability to actually come up with any sort of real art but they are convinced they are real artists - who you should pay thousands to for a piece of junk.
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