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?

Power and Choice, Nihilism and Freedom

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?.

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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?

When Allegory Works

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.

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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.

Metaphors and Revelation

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.

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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.

Can Artists Create Myths?

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.

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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?

Myth and Meaning

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.

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