Admit it—You Hate Modern Art

That's Spengler's argument in this Asia Times essay, at any rate. Within that discussion, however, Spengler muses about why modern art is so much more popular with the public than "modern" music—and that's the hmmm part of his essay—that music, unlike the plastic arts, can only be experienced within time.

"When you view an abstract expressionist canvas, time is in your control," says Spengler. "You may spend as much or as little time as you like, click your tongue, attempt to say something sensible and, if you are sufficiently pretentious, quote something from the Wikipedia write-up on the artist that you consulted before arriving at the gallery. When you listen to atonal music, for example Schoenberg, you are stuck in your seat for a quarter of an hour that feels like many hours in a dentist's chair. You cannot escape. You do not admire the abstraction from a distance. You are actually living inside it."

Via John Marks.

COMMENTS
Solie's picture

I typed "I hate modern art" into my search window and got your blog. I'm in the throws of extreme frustration because I'm a classical realist. It seems as though realism isn't being explored today. (I would love to be wrong about that.) People who can really draw or have potential are being discouraged from developing real skills by learning institutions that only respect the 'different' approach, the avant-garde. My personal favorites of the 20th. Century are the illustrators. Now digital imagery is replacing the working artist. Personally I long to see a revolution in the art world - a return to realism. The American Portrait Society is a stronghold of artistic principle, I always get a boost from checking out what the "few" are doing.Thanks for airing your opinions and listening to mine.Best regards,Solie

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