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Contrary to art’s original purpose which was to inspire, uplift, transcend, elevate, explore the mystery of God's creation and draw us closer to Him; to experience ever-deepening pleasure and awe, something to increase joy and enjoyment, observe the magnificent and powerful—this is gone. And the article describing pornography as art in the LA Times highlights how old-school it is to view art as something we can define.
Getting beyond pornography—which is not art—art today is narcissism run amuck. Art is created to show the artist’s contempt, hatred, anger, darkness, disgust, confusion, chaos, etc. Art is now created in order to depress, alienate, provoke, and shock. This is what the art world venerates. It is art for the sake of projecting their crap onto the rest of us. There is very little place for a truly talented artist in the art world today. Art is in the hands of art-haters. 90 percent of you, in my opinion, could run a better gallery than many gallery owners and art museum curators because you would at least be able to say, “This is beautiful.” You may not know enough about art to say, “This is great.” That takes an eye that is discerning and I fully acknowledge that. So-called art experts tell us, “This is a good work of art.” and businesses—see your local law firm—put a slab of orange and a slab of yellow on canvas and hang it on their walls. Arrrghhh! What are we to think when it comes to art?
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One criterion I have for whether art is worth something is if I can do it, and if I can do it, it is a bad sign. By definition, today’s post-modern art world envelops the word nihilism. Many of the leading people in the art world hate meaning and loathe bourgeois, Judeo-Christian, middle-class society. If the art is provocative (e.g., crucifix in urine, menstrual blood exhibit, vomit exhibit, fecal matter exhibit and yes, pornography) they see it as worthy. The word “art” becomes meaningless here because this means that any art is beautiful, or put another way, no art is beautiful. If everything is art. Nothing is art. Don't you see?!
This is just a microcosmic spotlight on the greatest macro problem facing the world today: relativism. Or in today’s jargon: “It’s all good!”—or just as bad–it is all the same. I beg to differ.
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