Monthly Archives: September 2018

Meaning & Purpose Chapter 10

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?

Myth, Power and Politics

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.

 

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Meaning & Purpose Chapter 9

18 Tuesday Sep 2018

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Chapter 9 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 fairy tale resonate?

Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales

I move deeper into social reality to works based on nursery rhymes and fairy tales. Frederick Turner reminds us that fairy tales serve a particular function in tradition. They teach “that your own moral decisions and choices are determining factors in making you who you are.” Paula Rego uses nursery rhymes in narratives to make sense of her childhood in Portugal, a world with dark secrets, compromise and betrayal. “With unforgettable imagery and ambiguous titles, she subverts the family, the so-called traditional role of women, opera, Fascist governments and any institution that the rest of us might confuse with authority,” we learn from the complete edition of her works in print.

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Meaning & Purpose Chapter 8

11 Tuesday Sep 2018

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Chapter 8 of my research book about the morality and politics of our time as seen through the subjects of representational art is now available.

Who else has been missing from our view?

Redressing Historic Wrongs

Postmodernists tell us that “The logics of domination structure the world.”1 Kerry James Marshall makes art that addresses the domination that was exerted by enslaving Africans to build the New World. Voyager depicts the actual event of the Middle Passage across the Atlantic to the Americas. Plunge also shows the Atlantic Ocean, but the “Private” sign on the gate leaves us uncertain about how the descendants of the enslaved have fared in succeeding years. Who is included? Who is excluded? are questions that acknowledge that social isolation, or segregation, becomes a two way street.

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Meaning & Purpose Chapter 7

04 Tuesday Sep 2018

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Chapter 7 of my research book about the morality and politics of our time as seen through the subjects of representational art is now available.

What kind of culture expresses itself this way?

Social Awareness

Massively claustrophobic, Dana Schutz’s massive Fight in an Elevator bridges this category and the very large next one, in which we see painters working with traditional forms and social awareness. It is highly likely that you can name at least one of the celebrity fights in an elevator to which she refers. This work refers to impacts of technology today, not just the relentless coverage of scandal but the loss of a presumption of privacy. A girl just cannot count on slugging somebody in private any more.

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