Decline of art painting vs decline of philosophy as a subject
Archimedes Plutonium
term branching. I am not saying that art painting is dead, or that
philosophy as a subject is dead, but rather, both are in a decline from
which they will never recover or spring back.
What is fueling this thread on art painting is that I am watching the
VISIONS series hosted by Robert Hughes, renowned art critic for TIME
magazine. Back in DEC98 I watched the series STORY OF PAINTING hosted
by Sister Wendy Beckett. Both series were produced in 1996.
I am analyzing art as a science itself, a minor science within the
Atom Totality theory. Instead of calling it art, I prefer the name
sci.art, the science of art. And I want to analyze what meaning art has
and where its future direction will go. I am looking at art as a
science, as if I were to look at thermodynamics as a science or
electrodynamics. You see, in an Atom Totality, all subjects are
sciences, some larger subjects than others but all are science
subjects. Even poetry is a science subject.
When I started a thread back in DEC98 on sci.art I came to the
conclusion that art is linked to history and that the purpose of art up
until about 1860 was as a photocamera. And that art painting started to
die out after 1860 and as the years went by, art painting has become
more and more insignificant. And that art had shifted by the 20th
century to that of photo, camera, movie camera, movies and computer
screens.
The conclusions I had arrived at were that art as painting had lost
its main purpose with the advent of the camera as a surviving record of
historical events. A camera picture captures history more truthfully
and far better than a painted picture. That the masterpieces of the
19th century and before were those paintings that told us something
about the history of those past times and the most valuable
masterpieces were the most telling of the past history. Before the
advent of the camera, an art painting was the only way to capture a
visual scene. So, art painting was intimately tied to history. And art
painting before the camera was the camera of the past.
And before canvas, in prehistory we have the cave paintings, pictures
preserved on cave walls some 20,000 years ago, then we have pictures
preserved on vases of the Greeks about 500 BC. So, by 1860s when the
camera took over as the better history gatherer, art paintings as art
diminishes or declines just as cave wall paintings declined and as vase
paintings declined.
I started this post by saying the term "branching". In the history
of Art, as Beckett hosts in her series or as Hughes hosts in his
series, art as painting on rectangles had branched out, had died in a
way, had started to decline with the advent of the camera. By 1860s the
camera had taken over the major purpose of art painting. And by the
20th century, the art masterpieces of the world would never again come
from 'rectangular paintings'. By the 20th century, the art masterpieces
would be movies or movie series. One art masterpiece of the 20th
century is the 52 series THE MECHANICAL UNIVERSE. Another is Ken Burns
CIVIL WAR. Another is VIETNAM: TV Documentary. Another is ANDRE RUBLEV.
Another is GUNS OF AUGUST. You see these have 2 more dimensions over a
'rectangular painting'. They have motion and they have sound. A person
learns a million times more from watching THE MECHANICAL UNIVERSE then
ever watching a rectangular painting on the wall.
So, it was good that Sister Wendy Beckett and Robert Hughes tried to
weave human history into their narration with the history of art. What
both failed to see is that art as 'rectangular pictures painted' was no
longer art by the 20th century. And that movies had arrested away most
of all that is considered as 'art' by the 20th century.
And that if a student wanted to major in art. Then the lionshare of
the subject of art is that of movies. Moviemaking was the major portion
of art and that the Universities and schools should no longer emphasis
art painting or the history of art painting for that had started to die
out after 1860s, but rather, these schools art departments should be
predominately preparing people with camera, moviemaking and these sorts
of things.
Yes there is a demand for people who can draw. We need people to
draw and paint things for front covers of magazines such as NEW
SCIENTIST (arguably the most artistic front cover magazine present),
and to draw or paint advertisements or comic strips. But art
masterpieces on rectangular boards or paper had died in the 20th
century. The art masterpieces of the 20th century are the best movies.
Both Beckett and Hughes never saw that. In both of those art history
series they blithely assume that 'rectangular art paintings' will go on
as the unit of art for as long as humanity exists. That is a false
assumption. I put them to the task of considering that as cave painting
died out, and as vase painting died out, so also will rectangular art
painting die out as the unit of masterpiece art work. That the movie
picture usurped the masterpieces of art in the 20th century.
Now, let me try to relate the subject of philosophy to that of art
painting. Philosophy as a subject died out after Quantum Mechanics
especially the Uncertainty Principle by the 1930s. Philosophy was in a
scramble to save itself from extinction as a subject. Sort of like
astrology or alchemy of the past. Astrology, what could be salvaged
became a subset of astronomy. And alchemy, what could be salvaged
became a subset of chemistry. Chemistry with Quantum Mechanics became a
subset of physics. Biology was always a subset of chemistry since it
was made up entirely of chemical elements.
But philosophy, what was philosophy a subset of? For most of history
until the last two centuries, philosophy was a Natural Science. It was
considered to be a full fledged science as what physics and chemistry
are now. But with the advent of QM and the Uncertainty Principle in
particular, it became widely known that physics was going to answer the
most important questions and that philosophy was no more than a
observer in the process of finding out how the world works. So, where
did philosophy run to, in order to not die out completely. Well, it ran
to 'analytical philosophy' such as Wittgenstein that proposed no books
be written on philosophy but that all books be philosophically written.
Meaning that philosophy was merely a clearer English. And that a
philosopher was a clearer thinking English teacher. However, one
philosophy movement is salvaged and seems to progress into the future.
It is Pragmatism and is a philosophy that is modelled after the method
of science.
I am going to watch the entire series of VISIONS and the series STORY
OF ART and compare them to philosophy as a subject. It is a analogy
comparison. In that I want to compare a subject "in death throes".
We see how philosophy in its Analytical Movement collapsed down into
the remote and esoteric. Where its members do more arguing than solving
of anything.
We see in rectangular art painting where its members collapse down
into 'cubism' such as Picasso and further collapse down into 'abstract
art' of things like a few colored bands on a rectangular paper and call
it art. When a subject is in death throes, it goes the opposite of
enormous skill. Skill of a Rembrant or a Duccio, into that of throwing
paint on a rectangle.
Universities still maintain philosophy departments. But why? Why not
maintain alchemy or astrology departments. Universities still teach
about the history of rectangular art painting. This is okay if it were
just one course. But the trouble is that the lionshare of a degree in
art entails about 90% of studies of rectangular art painting, when it
should entail about 90% of moviemaking and camera picture taking and
computer picture making. Movies have killed rectangular art by the 20th
century.
Sure, some philosophy such as Pragmatism will survive into the far
future. And sure, as long as there are humans there will be rectangular
painting art. But as a major subject field, philosophy died in the 20th
century and was subsumed under physics, or as a English teacher. And
art as rectangular paintings died in the 20th century and was replaced
by movies, cameras, computers.
Why did they die? Because philosophy lost its main purpose-- figure
out the truth of Natural Science, for which physics displaced
philosophy. And art as rectangular painting was displaced by the camera
and art lost its main purpose-- record history.
Both philosophy and art painting, in the throes of their deaths in
the 20th century displayed some similar signs. Both went into a
collapse phase. Philosophy tried to bolster its image with the
presentation of numerous "schools of philosophy". And art painting
tried the same trick of bolstering its dying subject with the plethora
of "new schools or techniques ploy". For instance the cubism school or
the impressionism school.
From the money angle, a comparison is harder to make between
philosophy and art painting. Since the old art painting is genuinely
valuable since they were the camera eyes of the past, there is always a
high price to pay for old art. But the new art in the age of cameras
and movies, the high prices makes little sense at all. And perhaps that
is the reason that modern art has reverted to the unskillful Pollack
throwing of paint on a canvas or the abstractionist taking a roller
brush of one or two colors on a canvass and calling it art. When the
game is about up, no use in applying skill to get a 10,000 check when
it can be got for no skill.
In a period of death throes of a subject, expediency of money is the
aim. The subconcious of the artist feels in his/her bones that art
painting is in death throes so a school of abstractionism is dreamt up,
and this gets at the money purses with the least amount of skill and
work.
In philosophy, in order that there is still some jobs, seeing that
the subject is in death throes, the philosophers have wisely moved into
clarifying English. Thus a philosopher is none other than a English
teacher. And some philosophy departments have tried to hold Logic as a
philosophy subject whereas Logic was always in the domains of
mathematics and physics.
So, in these death throes the practitioners of these subjects make a
scramble to bolster their dying subjects.
It would have been nice if the hosts: Beckett and Hughes, instead of
arguing that 20th century rectangular paintings were art, it would have
been nice if they had entered the notion or the question to the viewer.
Is a Pollack painting really art or is it a sign that in the 20th
century, art as rectangular painting had entered a death throes and
that art was now moved into other media such as camera, movies, and
computers.
It is obvious that a great movie of the 20th century has stirred
millions, even billions of people, much, much more than any rectangular
painting in the 20th century.
Material Fellow
All the easy good stuff has already been painted, and painted well.
Great works are therefore harder to imagine, create and execute.
All of the easy good thoughts have already been written, and written
well.
Great philosophy is therefore harder to imagine, create and execute.
What is so hard about understanding that???? Supply, Demand, Competition
and Prior History.
Please try something else.
jim buch
Dan Bollinger
MF, I'm in a feisty mood this morning, so I think I'll have a little fun at your expense.
All of the easy good lives have already been lived, and lived well...
...Great lives are therefore harder to live, so why don't you just curl up and die.
Bygones.
--
Dan Bollinger
Wabash Men's Council
http://www.themenscenter.com/wabashmen
Material Fellow <jbu...@pacbell.net> wrote in article <371A48...@pacbell.net>...
Dan Bollinger
Arch, Your name is about as long as your message. Somehow I doubt that your forecasting skills are any better than the two art historians you mention. The impact of new media in art has been discussed many times before in decades past, so I'm not sure what you are wanting to accomplish? If you want to delve into this further, then I suggest you not watch a PBS special, but contact an Art Historian and request a reading list. When in doubt, go to the well. By the way, photography does not necessarily record history better than a painting, it might record details better, but not the sensations. It might take many photos to accomplish what one painting does. For instance, compare a picture of Kosovo on the 6 O'clock news to Guernica. As long as we are talking about decline and skill in art, I think you are all wet when you say that skill is declining. Last I heard, contrast, color, texture and light and shadow are still taught in art schools regardless of the media, cinema included. And if you think you can throw paint as well as Pollack, give it a try. It's a LOT more difficult than it looks. It took him many years to learn what he did. Did you know there are more artists making a living doing art right now, than in all history combined? If you want to approach this subject in a scientific fashion, I suggest you learn more about the subject first. And then get rid of your parochial biases, too; they interfere with your science. Dan Bollinger
Archimedes Plutonium <Archimedes...@dartmouth.edu> wrote in article <7fc0je$mtk$1...@dartvax.dartmouth.edu>...
gannon
>
> It is obvious that a great movie of the 20th century has stirred
> millions, even billions of people, much, much more than any rectangular painting in the 20th century.
*****
what room is there for expression in motion pictures vs. "rectangular"
paintings?
g.
Archimedes Plutonium
Art
---
Join Sister Wendy Beckett on an incomparable journey through art and
history in this first chapter of her critically acclaimed BBC series.
From the mysterious cave paintings at Lascaux to the ecstatic
spiritual visions of the Middle Ages, Sister Wendy traces the roots of
Western art-- the tomb paintings of ancient Egypt, Greek vases and
statuary, the Roman paintings of Pompeii, Ireland's masterpiece, the
Book of Kells, and France's Les Tres Riches Heures. Then see the dawn
of
artistic Enlightenment in the work of Giotto and the vibrant art and
life of Tuscany, before traveling north across Europe to Bruge, where
Flemish painter Jan van Eyck created miracles with oil and wood, and to
Holland, where the horrific visions of Hieronymus Bosch marked the end
of the Gothic era.
--- end quote STORY OF PAINTING ---
--- quoting from STORY OF PAINTING episode #1 ---
The Mists of Time
The story of Western painting starts here... in the south of France,
20,000 years age, .. covered in ice and snow. Caves of Lascaux II......
And after the caves, a blank, 15,000 years go by and then the story
starts again, in ancient Egypt.
-----
Ancient Egypt 3000 BC
From the name of sculpture and painter-- he who keeps alive
-----
Ancient Greece 500 BC
... only Greek painting left is on vases.
"Achilles kills Penthesilea"
------
79 A.D. Vesuvius erupts burying the Roman town of Pompeii.
-----
Italy 1300
Any story worth telling needs heroes. But for over 1,000 years, art
did not have any heroes. Or if it did their names have vanished into
oblivion. Suddenly out of nowhere, came a man who would change all of
that. Legend has it he was just a humble shepherd, and his name was
Giotto.
--- end quoting STORY OF PAINTING ---
I do not remember where I encountered this idea in these two series,
but in one of them it said that the term "painting" derives from the
idea of "that which is kept alive".
And that which is kept alive according to my sci.art theory is the
recording of history. Art was the photo picture camera of the
historical past when no camera was available. We would have to wait
until the 19th century to make accurate 'visions of history'. From the
19th century onwards we can accurately preserve the visions, looks, and
true-history-in-sight.
So, the best preservation of prehistory was cave painting, and next
was vase painting that could be baked-on. These would be preserved
better than any painting on rectangles of paper or other materials.
Then, art painting on rectangles became the camera from Greek vases
until the 19th century. Rectangular art paintings were the preservers
of historical visions until the 19th century.
And, as art branched from cave paintings to Greek vases and branched
again to rectangular art paintings. So, also, by the 20th century,
rectangular art painting branched to that of camera photo pictures,
movie pictures, and computer pictures.
Rectangular art died in the 20th century, just as cave painting died
and as vase painting died.
I will analyze sci.art as per these two series and make comments. In
my analysis I will contrast the death-throes of the subject of
philosophy with the death throes of rectangular painting as art. And I
will use the fake physics concept of black-holes. For the subject of
philosophy for the most part and the subject of rectangular art
painting for the most part fell, and begun to vanish into a black-hole
in the 20th century. And these two subjects have been replaced and
subsumed.
--- quoting jacket of AMERICAN VISIONS, 1996, BBC & Time, episode #2
The
Promised Land ---
Before there is an America, disparate bands of settlers strive to
carve out an identity in a virgin land. In the West, Spanish missions
use art to convert the natives to Catholicism. In the East, plain
Protestant settlers are suspicious of art's pleasures. And in Virginia,
an exiled aristocracy recreates its ideal of England. Early portraits
of
these settlers ask us to consider the emergence of this new person,
this
American.
Hosted by Robert Hughes, renowned art critic for Time magazine.
--- end quoting VISIONS ---
jeff
paintings, even the ones you have to travel great distances for? Of the
other part of your argument seems to be that the number stirred is the
important aspect of the value of art. It may be that one rectangular
painting might be more stirring than a great film.
jeff
On Tue, 20 Apr 1999, gannon wrote:
> Archimedes Plutonium wrote:
> >
> > It is obvious that a great movie of the 20th century has stirred
> > millions, even billions of people, much, much more than any rectangular painting in the 20th century.
>
Dan Bollinger
Jeff, Actually more people see the evening news each night than have ever seen the Mona Lisa.
--
Dan Bollinger
Wabash Men's Council
http://www.themenscenter.com/wabashmen
jeff <afn0...@afn.org> wrote in article <Pine.A32.3.95.990420...@freenet2.afn.org>...
> Plus, don't you think that millions or billions of people have seen the
> paintings, even the ones you have to travel great distances for? Of the
> other part of your argument seems to be that the number stirred is the
> important aspect of the value of art. It may be that one rectangular
> painting might be more stirring than a great film.
> jeff
>
>
> On Tue, 20 Apr 1999, gannon wrote:
>
> > Archimedes Plutonium wrote:
> > >
> > > It is obvious that a great movie of the 20th century has stirred
> > > millions, even billions of people, much, much more than any rectangular painting in the 20th century.
> >
Material Fellow
>
> Jeff, Actually more people see the evening news each night than have
> ever seen the Mona Lisa.
> --
Great thought.
Material Fellow
scientific and philosophical need for "round movies".
They are really rectangular movies, but taken with a small knothole in
front of the lens, so they come out round.
jim
jeff
jeff
> Dan Bollinger
> Wabash Men's Council
> http://www.themenscenter.com/wabashmen
>
>
>
> jeff <afn0...@afn.org> wrote in article
> <Pine.A32.3.95.990420...@freenet2.afn.org>...
> > Plus, don't you think that millions or billions of people have seen the
> > paintings, even the ones you have to travel great distances for? Of the
> > other part of your argument seems to be that the number stirred is the
> > important aspect of the value of art. It may be that one rectangular
> > painting might be more stirring than a great film.
> > jeff
> >
> >
> > On Tue, 20 Apr 1999, gannon wrote:
> >
> > > Archimedes Plutonium wrote:
> > > >
> > > > It is obvious that a great movie of the 20th century has stirred
> > > > millions, even billions of people, much, much more than any
> rectangular painting in the 20th century.
> > >
Archimedes Plutonium
Archimedes...@dartmouth.edu (Archimedes Plutonium) writes:
> doric, ionic or corinthian
Can anyone do a ascii-art of a doric column, an ionic column and a
corinthian column?
Archimedes Plutonium
movie music. Can someone confirm this and please tell me what this
music is?
From watching #1 today, I see many Greek architecture styles and see
some improvement on my own architectural design _World's Most Beautiful
Building_ by making the doric, ionic or corinthian
design at top of column as gold with surrounding walls and columns of
purest white. The columns and porticos of Greek architecture. My my
_World's Most Beautiful Building_ I believe I must make a gold leaf
doric, ionic, and corinthian design for the tops of the columns with
its white, tinted slightly blue walls and rest of the columns.
I had seen some of Visions on Web,
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanvisions/gallery/index.html
of pictures and the paintings I admire the most are Thomas Cole of
ancient Rome. And so I was guessing where I would encounter
Cole's work in the episodes. I rent the series from the Hanover Howe
Library and so I do not see them in sequential order. Of all the
paintings I have seen in this series of Visions, and had a choice of
owning some, my first choice
would be the Thomas Cole "The Course of Empire" five paintings
1) Savage State, primitive hunter-gatherer
2) Arcadian, or Pastoral state, birth of religion & art
3) Consummation of Empire
4) Destruction
5) Desolution, wilderness, with ruins for Cole the threat was not
nuclear but moral
Cole's series shows us how so vitally important is history to art
painting. Cole knew the Roman superpowerdom history, of its rise and
fall and was asking would the US follow the Roman pattern of rise and
fall. Art by rectangular painting was the "recorder of history" in the
past time when no photo camera or motion picture camera or computer
were
available. And not only as a recorder but as a "model of ideas", a
vision of ideas where the ideas are abstract and have no 'real time'
image in the material world for either a painter to paint or a photo
camera to take a picture thereof. Artists are still needed and needed
into the future to
paint rectangular pictures of abstract ideas of images that are in the
mind but have no material image existing.
Test of my History to art theory: Suppose one never saw any American
paintings but knew the history of US well. Would they be able to guess
the pattern of art that took place through that US history? Now, take
the
reverse, suppose someone saw a-lot of American art paintings that was
dated and
spanned the history of US, yet knew almost nothing about the actual
history. Would this person be able to guess the pattern of history that
had taken place from that art?
If my theory that art is correct, that art is intricately connected
with the recording of history, then, the person knowing the history
really well
would not be able to predict any of the art patterns that emerged. But,
the person who knows almost nothing about US history, from the art,
would be able to uncover some of the history. Art is a tiny subset of
history, and history is enhanced by art but not needed as essential. In
fact, there were many civilizations that had a history, but either left
no art or their art was destroyed.
Also, a comment, note the split in North and South from the settlers
of the South as outcast British aristocracy. I forget which episode of
Visions this was printed in. If memory serves it was #2. Somehow I was
never taught this fact in my history classes that the US South colonies
were outcast British aristocracy. Perhaps if slavery were not
even a issue, that the North and South would someday fight a civil war
just because of the different class structure of people that could not
live under a weak Constitution with Federal power vying with State's
Rights power, and that a US Civil War would have happened even if
slavery had never existed? Instead of slavery it may have been another
issue that would have pitted Federal power against State's Rights and
that the US South was a different class structure. That is just a
speculation and posed as a question to explore. Many view the Civil War
as two major issues converging, one of slavery and one of Federal power
vs. State's power.
--- quoting jacket of AMERICAN VISIONS, 1996, BBC & Time, episode #1,
The Republic of Virtue ---
Some fo the first images made in America resemble ancient ones.
Jefferson and the other Founding Fathers feel that classicism lends the
young nation power and authority. From heroic statues of George
Washington to the architecture of Washington D.C., the new republic
adopts and transforms the classical style to serve a new, democratic
ideal.
--- end quoting VISIONS ---
I liked the many Greek columns and porticos shown in the Nevada
desert
of its gold corinthian columns
I like the Washington monument of its obelisk. I had mistakenly
thought several times in my mind that the obelisk was for Jefferson.
And it
seems that Washington DC is dearth of statues for Jefferson, the man
who
increased the size of the US with the Lousiana Purchase.
But I wonder, as this series by Hughes is trying to connect history
to art,
how much of the Puritan influence went into the making of the
Washington
obelisk itself? In that the Puritan's shyed away from art as devil's
diversion and idleness and blasphemy. I am wondering about the Puritan
influence and if the US colonies had not been Puritan that the
Washington
monument would have been some huge Statue of Washington on the size of
the
Statue of Liberty. But the thing I like most about the obelisk is its
two huge red lights at night at the top as a beacon. Perhaps someone
can put a huge red eye on the obelisk and call it Washington's eye, for
he was a free mason and as the US one dollar bill shows Washington on
the front and shows the pyramid and eyeball on the back
llizard
Here's a try. The Corinthian decoration leaves a bit to be desired. (no
pun intended there.) And should the Doric column really have ridges?
Doric
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Ionic
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Corinthian
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(@^,^,^,^,^,@)
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NOTE: I do not pick up my mail from the idirect address. If you
are e-mailing and hit the reply button, add an "e" to "freent";
its absense is to stop the torment of automatic mailers.
--
llizard aka ejm
cq547@freene+.+oron+o.on.ca ,^
ASCII-ar+, ASCII and gif anima+ions ===%^^7^^^^7^^^^
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/9334/
Archimedes Plutonium
The Promised Land ---
Before there is an America, disparate bands of settlers strive to
carve out an identity in a virgin land. In the West, Spanish missions
use art to convert the natives to Catholicism. In the East, plain
Protestant settlers are suspicious of art's pleasures. And in Virginia,
an exiled aristocracy recreates its ideal of England. Early portraits
of these settlers ask us to consider the emergence of this new person,
this American.
What struck me the most about #2 was the fact that the Southern US,
from the very beginning, 1607, of the US was so vastly different in
social mindset from the North, that they would eventually fight each
other in a civil war. There is good reason to state that the US Civil
War began with the early colonialism of a North with a Puritanical work
ethic of the North, and a aristocracy-non-working boss ethic of the
South. Just add some economic issue and the full scale Civil War would
ignite.
--- quoting jacket AMERICAN VISIONS, episode #3, The Wilderness and the
West ---
From the majestic primal America, there arises the idea of landscape
as God's fingerprint. Landscape painting holds deep religious and
patriotic connotations; soon, the belief in Manifest Destiny is
embodied
in art. Traveling from Yellowstone to the Hudson Valley, Hughes
explores
the artists Albert Bierstadt, John James Audubon, Frederic Church,
Frederic Remington and Thomas Cole. In their work he finds the
conflicting impulses to worship the land and to conquer it, to create a
myth of the West just as the frontier itself is closing.
--- end quoting #3 ---
In a stretch of #3 it discusses how the railroads wanted to promote
travel to the West, so the railroads wanted to advertise Yellowstone to
Easteners. The Easteners had heard of geysers and rivers of boiling
water but would not easily believe such, and then in 1871, Hayden hired
a 34 year old artist named Moran, but along with Moran, he hired a
photographer to take photo pictures of Yellowstone for veracity. This
is claimed as the first time a artist worked alongside a photographer,
and we can take the years 1860-1870s as the years for which photography
replaced rectangular painting as "art". The host of VISIONS states:
"Jackson provided the
objective record of this world of wonders to a public which thought
that
the camera would not lie."
According to my theory of art, sci.art, art is linked intimately with
history and is the recorder of history, the truth, as best as possible.
Before photography, rectangular painting was the best means of
preserving visuals, or visions of the past, and to get those visions
saved and seen in the future. But when the photo camera took over in
the 1860s, rectangular painting art no longer served the function of
the preserver of visions for the future. Photos are more accurate and
photos do not lie, unless trick photography. In the 1870s, trick
photography was relatively new and unknown and so Jackson's photos
would be 100% believed.
And I did mention that rectangular painting as art did not die off
100%, for there is always a need for rectangular painting of ideas for
which there are no material reality to take a photograph thereof. We
see this painting of "imagination" in things such as the cover of NEW
SCIENTIST. So, when I say that rectangular painting as art, or
philosophy as a subject, are in death throes or die-off, I do not mean
that they are going extinct. What I mean by death-throes is that these
two subjects of (1) rectangular painting as art, and (2) philosophy as
a subject had branched out or subsumed into more important subjects.
For rectangular painting as art branched-out into photography, motion
pictures, movies, and computer visions. For philosophy, the subject was
subsumed by mostly physics, with some parts of philosophy trying to
make a base in language, where the philosopher is seen as a
super-English-teacher-of-grammar. And where some philosophers have
taken shelter and harbor from religion calling philosophy departments
as a combined religion-philosophy subject.
I should talk about how religion branched-out and was also subsumed
by physics by the end of the 20th century. And where I made the
observation that once a subject is in death-throes, the subject has a
tendency of explode-shattering into a plethora of divisions. In art we
see the plethora of "many schools" such as cubism, expressionism, etc.
In philosophy we see the "many schools" of analytical, existentialism,
zen, taoism, etc. And in religion we see the "many schools" effect of
the many diverse religions.
When a subject is in death-throes, it has a tendency to multiply its
divisions. This multiplication into subunits is perhaps an economic, in
that the chances of one of these subunits surviving is better than if
the entire subject were to fall. This is seen best in philosophy in
that departments have spread out to help the English teachers, or
saying that Logic was a subunit of Philosophy when Logic always was a
part of mathematics. And to flee to Religion and call the various
philosophies as a gradation of religion.
Leaving on a good note. Religion by the 1990s was started to be
subsumed by physics, especially the Atom Totality theory which posits
that a god exists, in fact, a multitude of gods, and thus, religion is
a subset of physics. Throughout the entire history of human culture, it
was thought that religion was superior to the sciences and that
religion was on top and science subjects such as physics were lower
down. By the 1990s, physics will begin to take the topmost position of
all subjects and religion is a subset of physics, a small subset of
physics, but an important one. And, as where rectangular painting as
art was a branching-out from Greek vase painting and cave painting
before that, so also, rectangular painting as art branched-out to
photography and motion picture and computer. The art masterpieces of
the 20th century are not found on any rectangular painting, but are
found in things such as THE MECHANICAL UNIVERSE, or CLASH OF THE
TITANS.
Archimedes Plutonium
The Gilded Age ---
The many sides of America in the 19th century: the extravagant
"cottages" of Newport's tycoons, the triumph of the Brooklyn Bridge,
the haunting realism of Civil War photography, the elegant portraits of
John Singer Sargent, the American Impressionism of James Whistler and
Mary Cassatt. Together with a new breed of distinctly American artists
like Thomas Eakins and Winslow Homer, they mirror widely different
experiences of the American Dream.
--- end jacket #4 ---
The host mentioned that the Civil War was America's Illiad. I liked
that analogy and perhaps there is more to it than a poetic resemblance.
Perhaps the Civil War for the US superpowerdom is the harmonic
oscillator repeating of the Illiad for the US superpowerdom, just as
the Illiad was some type of Civil War for the Ancient Greeks in their
superpowerdom? A possible historical research.
Civil War was the first war to have photography record its history.
Ken Burn's documentary is exceptional. I remember the eerie scenes of
Richmond with its catacomb ruins. Matthew Brady in Washington.
Documentary impact. "O grave, where is thy victory?"
By the 20th century, WWI and WWII would have many photographs and some
movie pictures, but by the time of the Vietnam War, the first TV war,
almost an entire war can be captured on film. In a post some years
back, I had recommended that the military have special designated photo
units, whose job is to capture on film as much of the action as
possible.
--- quoting the jacket on AMERICAN VISIONS, History of American Art and
Architecture, 1996, vol #7 The Empire of Signs ---
In the post-war era, America's power is unrivaled, and its artists
make an explosive break with the past. Hughes considers the impact of
Hiroshima on art, traces the development of abstract expressionism and
the life of Jackson Pollack, and explores how artists as different as
James Rosenquist, Claes Oldenberg, Joseph Cornell, Andy Warhol and
Jasper Johns reacted to the new consumer culture. We end with the
nation on the eve of divisive conflicts, as media images begin to
overwhelm anything created by artists.
--- end jacket #7 ---
According to my sci.art theory, most of what is considered art after
1860s is not art at all but commercialism-out-to-sell-decoration. Once
photography, and motion pictures, movies and computers took over,
rectangular painting as art, in large part ceased. No painting of the
20th century is a masterpiece. However, many movies and movie series of
the 20th century are masterpieces, far more beautiful, esthethic,
moving and influential.
I remember watching a documentary on World War I and II, and how a
movie had so much influenced German youths to go into rocket
engineering, which as a result built up the German missile industry and
would eventually come across the Atlantic and put the US onto the Moon.
Mind you, just a movie. Rectangular- painting-as-art had started to die
by 1860s and by the 20th century was in death-throes.
--- quoting the jacket on AMERICAN VISIONS, History of American Art and
Architecture, 1996, vol #8 The Age of Anxiety ---
Our final program explores how American art has reflected the
upheavals of the last 25 years. Hughes traces the evolution of abstract
art and minimalism and considers the spiritual richness of earth works,
in which nature is the artist's medium. He ends the series by profiling
a wide range of contemporary artists. Using a diversity of mediums and
approaches, Richard Serra, Susan Rothenberg, James Turrell and others
continue to capture uniquely American visions.
--- end jacket #8 --
I was hoping to see some glimpses of Vietnam despair. I liked Philip
Guston's "The Street" and "Pit".
According to my sci.art theory that art is intimately tied to
history and where that linkage is lessened or broken, means that art no
longer is there, but has branched out into another medium and is now
embodied within that newer medium. The history of art goes somewhat
like this:
1 cave paintings in France
2 Greek vase painting
3 rectangular painting
4 by 1860s photography takes over
5 by 20th century, photography, movies, computers are the mainspring
of visual art
Having watched this series VISIONS in full now, my theory of sci.art
is reinforced. My practical conclusion is that art, before 1860 that
has some historical significance, is art and is valuable in terms of
money. But that all rectangular paintings after the 1860s that has no
historical value in the painting such as cubism, abstract, etc is not
art, but rather, is commercial decoration.
Dan Bollinger
considered art after
1860s is not art at all but commercialism-out-to-sell-decoration." You
are welcome to invent any theory you'd like, but that doesn't mean it'll
hold water. The majority of the art made prior to 1860 was on a
commission basis, that is to say commercial, a contracted trade service.
Making art for personal pleasure is a new concept.
jeff
consistently the same and people continue to want to see the Mona Lisa, more
than once even while many people stop watching the evening news. And the
evening news is a heckuvalot more available than the Mona Lisa.
jeff
On Wed, 21 Apr 1999, Material Fellow wrote:
> Dan Bollinger wrote:
> >
> > Jeff, Actually more people see the evening news each night than have
> > ever seen the Mona Lisa.
> > --
>
>
> Great thought.
>
>