27 Tuesday Nov 2018
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Chapter 19 of my research book about the morality and politics of our time as seen through the subjects of representational art is now available.
Whatever you do, find meaning in the struggle.
As representational artists, are we addressing the truly important issues of human existence? What is your creative response to the dilemmas with which we all live?
20 Tuesday Nov 2018
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Chapter 18 of my research book about the morality and politics of our time as seen through the subjects of representational art is now available.
Who are we? Why are we here?
Generating new culture presents a worthy challenge to representational artists, to work with great skill and insight towards generating new visions into what it means to be aware as human beings and to be benevolent towards each other.
13 Tuesday Nov 2018
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Chapter 17 of my research book about the morality and politics of our time as seen through the subjects of representational art is now available.
What are the moral and ethical responsibilities of representational artists to each other?
There are rumors of recurring issues affecting the arts community, including representational artists. Rumors such as:
–jurors who judge and award cash prizes to friends
–teachers who show up too impaired or unprepared to teach
–artists who use others’ photographs to create new works without credit
If rumors such as these are true, and issues such as these exist, are they moral or are they political issues?
06 Tuesday Nov 2018
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Chapter 16 of my research book about the morality and politics of our time as seen through the subjects of representational art is now available.
How can a representational artist claim power in today’s culture?
To this point I have addressed morality and politics in the content of representational art, and I turn now to morality and politics in the practice of representational art. Alia al Bermani responded to a question of ethics that I posed in The Representational Art Group on Facebook encouraging me to propose a paper on this topic. The figure of the representational artist today might exemplify the dilemma of being human today–as insignificant in the culture of celebrity and success as man in the universe; as pitiful or worse, contemptible as so many attributes of tradition, begging for scraps.
30 Tuesday Oct 2018
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Chapter 15 of my research book about the morality and politics of our time as seen through the subjects of representational art is now available.
Are we only subordinate to external power, or are we free to dream?
The enigmatic, the tragic, the open ended, the mysterious nature of human existence remains. Can artists create new visual allegories to explore what the meaning of life is in the face of our inevitable death, the profound existential dilemma? What can we show about being human today?.
23 Tuesday Oct 2018
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Chapter 14 of my research book about the morality and politics of our time as seen through the subjects of representational art is now available.
What makes a visual allegory?
What Have We Done to Angels by Nelson Shanks works as an allegory because the artist took an object visually charged with meaning imbued by centuries of understanding, and used it in a composition such that we can see what he intends. He meant to show the price paid when we ignore the higher state of being, once described as angels, for reasons of expedience. It is not necessary to know or agree with the Christian tradition to grasp the meaning of the dove figure created with the knot of the string.
16 Tuesday Oct 2018
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Chapter 13 of my research book about the morality and politics of our time as seen through the subjects of representational art is now available.
Steven Assael works allegorically. “Passengers” describes a metaphorical journey between new and old civilizations, between the present and the past,” James F. Cooper informed us in the Newington-Cropsey Foundation’s American Arts Quarterly 26(3). The monkeys here are personifications of the distraction that the soul must conquer.
09 Tuesday Oct 2018
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Chapter 12 of my research book about the morality and politics of our time as seen through the subjects of representational art is now available.
The painters who have banded together as “Metamodern Classicists” tell us at their eponymous website that they aim to create “an entirely novel mythic system.” Many work with technical skills comparable to the atelier movement. Their concerns expressed verbally are ambitious–indeed, they call on allies as “makers of gods yet unborn.” While I applaud the intent, their claims raise two questions. First, there is the question of creating myths. Myth achieves its power through recognition, through referentiality, through repetition.
02 Tuesday Oct 2018
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Chapter 11 of my research book about the morality and politics of our time as seen through the subjects of representational art is now available.
According to philosopher William Barrett, “Art is the collective dream of a period.” How can an artist or a group of artists do more than reflect their times?
I had intended at this point to show an image satirical of the power of the state, a moral and political issue if ever there was one, by the artist known as Banksy, but in a delicious twist of irony I learned that “the use of this image involves quite a few potential legal issues.” I have grave concerns about the so-called permissions culture, and the idea that an image of a picture painted on the side of someone else’s property, which is technically vandalism, cannot be legally or ethically presented in an academic setting, which strikes me as both ridiculous and unseemly.
25 Tuesday Sep 2018
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Chapter 10 of my research book about the morality and politics of our time as seen through the subjects of representational art is now available.
How can an artist respond to the expression of political power?
Not surprisingly, there is a school of thought in the study of mythology that regards myths as a form of broad understanding, telling stories connected to power, political structures, political and economic interests. This description sounds remarkably similar to the post-modern take on the world.