Pages

Monday, September 26, 2011

Clark re: Greenberg and Marx

Somethings missing here. Imagine I dip a spoon into a bowl filled with theorem and taste it- I dont bother blowing on it, this isnt white hot theorem like 70's feminism or 90's AIDS activism, it's older theorem, more like vichyssoise. I taste and proclaim, "I need more salt!" Which is not to say that the authors should 'spice it up' a bit, but rather that something critical is missing in the discourse. Perspective maybe? Heres what bugs me about all of this writing thus far- it seems to be missing any sense of real perspective. Not once have I seen any one say something like 'it's beautiful, and that's fine." The alleged triumph of the proletariat is nothing more than a re-transformation of the bourgeois - its not about who exists in what class based on birth right but who has the money and how much and what is their taste based on the having of that money and so on and so forth- but if this is to be believed then all of this criticism of art versus class versus the people versus taste and such is really irrelevant since no one is talking about education; and one more thing- I am not so crazy about being the artist who seems like little more than a Delphinean simpleton, dribbling into his palate, mindlessly making things and passing them along to the 'class' folks and waiting breathlessly for Greenberg, or Clark, or some other ass hole I never met to determine what it was that I did. Regardless- the ideas and criticisms woven together with the class struggle just seem a bit out dated what with all the mixture of the classes in the past 50 years. Im not convinced that such a framework even exists anymore. Furthermore, isnt it a little bit hyposriticasl for greenbegr to champion the revolution and then to suddenly turn his back on the new garde all at once? Is his revolution so short lived? Anyway, I dont agree with the whole modern art is about negation arguement- to simplify, to purify for the sake of study, is not the same as negation- its a little too much Zen Buddhism for me- which I like- (Zen that is)- but if I wanted Buddha with my painting I would have ordered it along with my vichyssoise thank you very much! Now wheres my damn salt!?

1 comment:

  1. Bingo, well said!

    we live in the now, yet critics of the now are using failed theory's of the past, endlessly searching for something to revolt against.

    Knowing the past the question should be "What now"

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.