Number 31

Very funny Babylon Bee. I wouldnt mind seeing those lefty’s vandalise a toilet art or dot on a canvas art or anyone of those absurd things which somehow pass as “art” today. Or maybe Hunter Biden’s art might want to receive some “climate action” treatment.

Fun fact: In 1973 the Australian Government, through the National Gallery of Australia’s acting director, James Mollison, bought Blue Poles by Jackson Pollock- No 11. $1.3 million ($1.9 mill US)- the most ever paid for an American painting in the world at that time. It was considered a controversial move by then PM Gough Whitlam whose Labor Government was inept at balancing the country’s budget. I’ve seen it. It’s..meh.

https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/blue-poles

There is no such thing as understanding art in any period apart from the philosophy of that period. Philosophy inspires art, and art reflects philosophy. We can never tell what the art of an age is unless we know what is the thought of the age. If the thought is lofty and spiritual, art will be lofty and spiritual; if the thought is base and material, art will be base and material. If the thought is of the heavens heavenly, art will be of the heavens heavenly; if the thought is of the earth earthly, art will be of the earth earthly.

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In that period of Grecian history, for example, when Plato and Socrates and Aristotle were giving eternal truths to men, the clear lines of the Parthenon and the airy Ionic of the Erechtheion served as so many petrified incarnations of their thought. Closer to our own times, when Rousseau set loose his exaltation of the ego and the romanticism of sense-passion, artists were found drinking at his fountain the shallow drafts of hatred for academic tradition, a license of inspiration, and a glorification of fleshy sensibilities. And now in our own day, what is the philosophical inspiration of Futurism and its wild love of novelty and “absolute commencements,” motion for motion’s sake, but the thought of Henri Bergson? What is the philosophical inspiration of Cubism, with its unrelated blocks, but the philosophy of Pluralism, which maintains that the multiple does not imply the unit? What is the whole inspiration of modern art but a Subjectivism introduced by Kant and his school, the heritage of which is a belief that no work of art itself is beautiful, but that it is our psychic or mental states that are beautiful, either because we project these states to the object, which is the Einfühlung theory, or because they harmonize with the tastes and commandments of society, which is the sociological theory, or because they produce interesting reactions, which is the Pragmatic theory?

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If modern philosophy explains modern art, medieval philosophy explains medieval art. If we are to understand why they painted and why they sculptured and why they built a certain way, we must ask ourselves how they thought, for art is the lyrical expression of philosophy. Their civilization was much different from our own; in the thirteenth century, Christendom knew but one Church. There was just one Faith, one Lord, one Baptism, one Church.

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Modern thinkers are quite generally prepared to look upon this world as a lasting city and as an end rather than as a means to an end. They quote Swinburne approvingly: “Glory to man in the highest, for man is the master of all.” Religion then, instead of becoming the sum of man’s duties toward God, becomes the sum of God’s duties toward man. A typical expression of its nature is the following, “To put the question bluntly, religion must be separated from the other-worldly pull of the traditional theologies and be sanely grounded in the outlook of modern knowledge.” Earth must resume its rights, for the earth is the paradise and the end of man.

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But in the perennial thought of the Scholastics, religion meant an ordination to God as our First Cause and Last End. Religion is no more intelligible without God than physics is intelligible without matter. The world, too, instead of being an end is a means to an end. In other words, the world is a great sacrament. There are seven sacraments in the supernatural order, which elevate and perfect man in the higher divine life, and in the natural order, everything can be a sacrament. A sacrament is a material thing used as a channel of spiritual sanctification, and since everything is destined to lead us to God, everything is a sacrament. The process by which matter is to be sacramental-ized is after the fashion of a pyramid, at the base of which is the material order and at the peak of which is man. There is progress and continuity in the universe. Plants consume minerals, animals consume plants and minerals, and man consumes all three. Thus, physically, there is within man the whole material universe.

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But there is yet another way than the physical one by which he possesses all orders below him, and that is by knowledge. Because man has a spiritual soul he can know all things and thus contain all things within himself in a spiritual way. Hence man is destined to become not only a microcosm, as Aristotle tells us, but a living voice for all creation. He is to be the spokesman of the minerals, the plants, and the animals, for the very reason that he sums up all these orders. He is to lead them all back to God.

From “The Philosophy of Medieval Art” in Old Errors and New Labels by Fulton J. Sheen (1931)

What really annoys me is that whenever I take my young children to an art gallery, I can feel the security guards eyes burning the back of my neck, waiting for one of my children to get what they consider “too close” to a painting so he/she can pounce and tell them or me off. My kids are pretty well behaved and I’m very vigilant about how they behave and remind them consistently to stay back.

But I will notice a grown adult stand inches away from a painting but the security person won’t notice because they have their eyes on me and the kids. I’ve even seen adults touching the surface. But the security will still monitor families.

And yet, you get what’s meant to be fully-grown adults vandalising priceless paintings.

But young children are meant to be the target audience which should be monitored around priceless paintings.

That’s my rant for the week. Sorry.