Three big aspects [of Modernism]

Home / Education / ARChives / Discussions

Three big aspects [of Modernism]

From Castle.Proxies.AuthorProxy

Published on before 2005

Iian Neill wrote:

As for the third aspect, Ingres has the last word (Nietzsche seconded him): "You say that I must follow the age. But what if my age is wrong? Should you commit error merely because your neighbour does so?" - words to that effect.


Yup. This is the answer to one of the big lies of modernism. Nobody is obliged to merely emulate others in general or those magical few who (supposedly) define the age. It is a terrible "cage" they try to put around artists as they demand that nobody produce any art other than their kind, and all the while they proclaim that they have broken all barriers to creativity. Instead, they try to force us all into tiny pre-determined boxes where all we can do is choose between one brand of useless garbage and another.

Artists more than anyone ought to be thinking for themselves and using the best tools they can find to make the best art they can. Of course there are trends and fads, and not all of them are entirely bad either, but each artist (if he's worth his salt) should think for himself and make the best art he can, not be a member of some herd.

--Brian

Co-Founder of ARC, ARC Webmaster for several years, Host of the Art Renewal Audio podcast, Founder of the GoodArt discussion group that brought the original ARC founders and board of advisors together. Brian is a tireless advocate for skill, quality, technique, meaning, and innovation in art and has been writing and speaking on the subject for many years. He is the moderator of the Pasadena Socrates Café, a live philosophy discussion group and the Ideas that Shaped History live discussion group both of which meet in his home town of Pasadena, California (for more information on these search for them on Meetup.com).

He studied Computer Science and Mathematics at Central Michigan University, and is currently the Chief Software Architect at Moffatt and Nichol. He has previously held senior technical positions at Peter Norton Computing/Symantec, US Networx, EarthLink, uWink, OpenSoft, Scalable Network Technologies, CyberDefender, and Brian Yoder Consulting, where he has worked on virus and malware detection, networking, gaming, animation, printing, simulation, mathematical, and military security projects.