Tag Archives: Clement Greenberg

divine claims from the secular spirits

Guides for the perplexed? The narcissism of small differences? Christopher Hitchens did write a book called Be Prepared for the Worst. So, even in an atheist like Hitchens there is a little ping somewhere. There is a famous quote by … Continue reading

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12 tribes: piety to paris

Chagall was always caught in the proverbial rock and a hard place: a conflict between an attachment to Judaism, that tug of history and tradition and between the modernist, secular context in large part atheistic in nature. Artistically, he may … Continue reading

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new oldism: away from para-art

As a marketing term its not too sexy, a “new old master” lacks the punch and novelty, but it does express a direction for art that reverses the purely conceptual infinity that Marcel Duchamp bestowed on the world with the … Continue reading

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smuggle the uncomfortable

“The contradictory works of storied illustrator Norman Rockwell resonate in an age of anxiety”, or so the article began. Well enough anyway. But downhill from there. There is a process of historical revisionism underway that seeks to place Rockwell solidly … Continue reading

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A toast to dorian gray

Is our post-modern condition characterized by an instilling of youthfulness into an ancient world. A rejuvenation of creaky old bones. Baudelaire wrote of youth as a sort of priesthood, at least according to the young. Youth is a fetish, a … Continue reading

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wild bauhaus bohemians: mechanical paradise

A “house for building” is what Walter Gropius called the new school he founded in Germany in 1919. But the Bauhaus was much more than its modest name implies: it was a force that changed the shape of the modern … Continue reading

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melancholy scribbles and drips: one dribble at a line

Mere doodling of only psychological interest? Even then. After its initial surge of authenticity could abstract expressionism be sustained? The mendaciousness of the art industry to hype this style knew no bounds. Like Marcel Duchamp asserting that everyone is an … Continue reading

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the washington square drips and splatters

Hard to pinpoint what brought them together, this collection of opposites that endured to the end. Arshile Gorky was a late and marginal member in Andre Breton’s surrealist circle and he may have transmitted the importance of trusting introspection, and … Continue reading

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retro tribal

by Art Chantry (art@artchantry.com) i repeat – i love modernism! it’s just so RETRO!! see that “big idea”? it’s about ‘thinking outside the box (canvas)’. get it? it’s whatcha call yer “HIGH CONCEPTING”. *belch* …well, keep in mind it’s only … Continue reading

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correctional devices

Truth at the margins. Playing with trauma and variations on holding the traumatic moment. There is an uneasy relationship with popular culture, kitsch, and an underlying current of fascism. As Adorno said, “The encouragement of kitsch is merely another of … Continue reading

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