The World Goodwill Bulletin issued a special edition on the United Nations in July, 1957, which contained an article entitled Lodestone…
"Because of the converging walls and the dim light, he will experience a peculiar spatial disorientation, and dimension and perspective will seem difficult to establish. In the center of the room, he will see, illuminated by a single point of light from the ceiling, a rectangular mass…" and a half ton, black altar made of iron ore – it is called, “The Stone of Light“. Dag Hammarskjold, former UN Secretary General, described this center stone as “the symbol of the god of all.” (Cohen, pg 160).
Thank you for your post, which sparked many questions for me.
Do you see any value at all in modern art? Why do you think it happened? I also notice you talk about a deliberate coordinated abandonment of meaning- by who? Do you think this is unintentional or that there is someone or something behind it?
I don't ask because I am any defender of modern art- otherwise I probably wouldn't be subscribed to this lol. I ask more bc I've also had this narrative about just everything falling apart in a darkly intentional way told to me since I was a child as a Catholic homeschooler and on one hand, I see what you're seeing- things get ugly and disordered- and on the other, I tend to feel like it's described like a weather event- like this all just happened and it's so terrible but I never have any sense as to who, what or why. Like if everything was so much better before why would people have felt the need to depict both secular and profane subjects in such a radically different way? Or if it wasn't a legitimate need, why tear things down?
If art responds to the world it is in (big if, maybe it shouldn't- interested in your thoughts), how should artists have responded to modernity? Or is it simply that modernity (however we're defining it- also up for debate) should never have occurred?
Hope it's clear the questions are coming from a place of genuine curiosity.
These are great questions and thoughts.. I would like to see a more merciful take on modernism to balance the very just and sometimes scathing critiques of it.
You can find extensive defences of Modernism, Deconstructionism and all the Isms, as well as a great deal of bitter vitriol lobbed at its detractors in any academic or mainstream art journal and an endless parade of academic art criticism papers. Fill yer boots.
Yeah, I did go to University to study art/design and they tried to make us like Bauhaus and we were rewarded for getting into it. What I mean is, like looking at any disease, an understanding of why and how it comes about.
It's kind of like the virus thing, some people blame all illness on a virus, and some say a virus is the body trying to get rid of toxins or breaking down due to lack of nourishment.
Anyhow, I like the article, and I am visiting Houston in July so I might go check out the Rothko thing for the laugh.
Catherine: It was definitely intentional. The take-over of art by political idealogues in the early 20th century - who still hold "the art world" in their grip - is well documented. I've written about it several times.
That Lourdes display of Rupnik art was really graphic in the way you pointed out the problems. I currently attend a church built in 1968, the only Catholic Church in the town I live in temporarily. It was built In the brutalist style. The outside looks like a huge, unattractive dark brown wooden barn. Over the years, the priests have tried their best to warm up the insides by adding wood paneling and stained glass (just colors - no figures). They also added a huge crucifix behind the altar. When I first saw it, I wasn’t sure I hated or loved it. The corpus is realistic, but it’s in bronze (a cold medium), but the “cross” is made of 4 separated bronze pieces intersected with metal circles. It’s weird. I don’t like it. For me, it is something to bear until I can move on. You’d have to tear it down and start over to overcome the horrid modernist design. I’m used to the beauty and warmth of a 1928 church that had real church architecture and real stained windows with saints. You have reminded me of how starved I am for it.
It is fascinating to "discover" what we sense is there (or not there in some cases ) without realizing it. Our mind and heart sense something is off but we can't always put it in words and here you've done just that. Thank you. I am intrigued and will definitely be reading more of your work (and Lewis!)
It's often hard to tell with modern crap art whether it's designed to induce insanity, if it is the product of insanity, or something altogether worse. When it crosses into religious blasphemy, I am convinced it is altogether something worse. This essay is wonderful explanation.
"The historical paradox one encounters in reading Sedlmayr today is that of a reactionary anti-modernist whose thought reflects a certain tendency in Marxist aesthetics that runs from Theodor Adorno to Hal Foster; namely, his contention that the distortions and fragmentations of modern art constitute a mimetic response to the real historical fragmentation of the human relationship to the world.14 As Christopher Wood aptly notes, Sedlmayr offers “a mirror image of the avant-garde myth. Revolution and reaction agree on the meaning but not the worth of modern art.”15 This is why Adorno was willing to engage with his thought. Adorno observed in 1958–59 that “my work on the ageing of modern music… paradoxically, runs parallel to the work of Sedlmayr.”
In addition to Sedlmayr, Rookmaaker is another antimodernist of note:
We seem to be thrust into a ubiquitous "Objective Room" everywhere we turn.
I am reminded of the contradictory public safety orders during the Pandaemonium as a way to break the will. And then theres the intentional misuse of English pronouns in the transgender phenomenon. Then there's the body positivity advertising all around.
I think this is an opportunity for all men of good will to create truly beautiful things. Our enemies are hell bent on ugliness and destruction. They can no longer compete and the bar has never been lower.
Such a profound, and yet less discussed situation. I would dare to expand your and Lewis's paradigms to most parts of our present lives.
Fascinating and spectacular article!! I have never read Mr. Lewis' adult books. That one is on my list now.
Thank you. For every word.
Beautifully put.
I just picked to read this by the title and it turns out to be on That Hideous Strength my favorite!!!!!!!!!
It's such a great book. I read it on recommendation in 2020/21(?) and it felt almost too prophetic... for me more helpful than Orwell or Huxley.
I think I understand a bit better these days why Lewis is such a hearty meal. He was an actual Christian!
Huxley and Orwell were both essentially atheistic nihilists, and while they could observe they had nothing to offer but despair.
This all reminds me or the trapezoid shaped room at the UN headquarters https://www.un.org/ungifts/meditation-room
The World Goodwill Bulletin issued a special edition on the United Nations in July, 1957, which contained an article entitled Lodestone…
"Because of the converging walls and the dim light, he will experience a peculiar spatial disorientation, and dimension and perspective will seem difficult to establish. In the center of the room, he will see, illuminated by a single point of light from the ceiling, a rectangular mass…" and a half ton, black altar made of iron ore – it is called, “The Stone of Light“. Dag Hammarskjold, former UN Secretary General, described this center stone as “the symbol of the god of all.” (Cohen, pg 160).
https://usahitman.com/meditation-room-un/
This one actually made me laugh out loud. These people are self-parodies.
Thank you for your post, which sparked many questions for me.
Do you see any value at all in modern art? Why do you think it happened? I also notice you talk about a deliberate coordinated abandonment of meaning- by who? Do you think this is unintentional or that there is someone or something behind it?
I don't ask because I am any defender of modern art- otherwise I probably wouldn't be subscribed to this lol. I ask more bc I've also had this narrative about just everything falling apart in a darkly intentional way told to me since I was a child as a Catholic homeschooler and on one hand, I see what you're seeing- things get ugly and disordered- and on the other, I tend to feel like it's described like a weather event- like this all just happened and it's so terrible but I never have any sense as to who, what or why. Like if everything was so much better before why would people have felt the need to depict both secular and profane subjects in such a radically different way? Or if it wasn't a legitimate need, why tear things down?
If art responds to the world it is in (big if, maybe it shouldn't- interested in your thoughts), how should artists have responded to modernity? Or is it simply that modernity (however we're defining it- also up for debate) should never have occurred?
Hope it's clear the questions are coming from a place of genuine curiosity.
These are great questions and thoughts.. I would like to see a more merciful take on modernism to balance the very just and sometimes scathing critiques of it.
You can find extensive defences of Modernism, Deconstructionism and all the Isms, as well as a great deal of bitter vitriol lobbed at its detractors in any academic or mainstream art journal and an endless parade of academic art criticism papers. Fill yer boots.
Yeah, I did go to University to study art/design and they tried to make us like Bauhaus and we were rewarded for getting into it. What I mean is, like looking at any disease, an understanding of why and how it comes about.
It's kind of like the virus thing, some people blame all illness on a virus, and some say a virus is the body trying to get rid of toxins or breaking down due to lack of nourishment.
Anyhow, I like the article, and I am visiting Houston in July so I might go check out the Rothko thing for the laugh.
There's a rather funny bit in an otherwise stupid movie with Seth Rogan talking about how everything that makes you feel bad is " a gluten".
While you’re there, visit the Cy Twombly exhibit at the nearby Menil. I really tried, but just couldn’t get it.
Catherine: It was definitely intentional. The take-over of art by political idealogues in the early 20th century - who still hold "the art world" in their grip - is well documented. I've written about it several times.
Here: https://hilarywhite.substack.com/p/woe-to-him-who-calls-ugliness-beauty
Here: https://hilarywhite.substack.com/p/the-queen-and-the-italian-painter
Here: https://hilarywhite.substack.com/p/the-man-who-saved-art-how-the-classical
And especially here: https://hilarywhite.substack.com/p/who-killed-art-and-why
thanks- i will take a look
That Lourdes display of Rupnik art was really graphic in the way you pointed out the problems. I currently attend a church built in 1968, the only Catholic Church in the town I live in temporarily. It was built In the brutalist style. The outside looks like a huge, unattractive dark brown wooden barn. Over the years, the priests have tried their best to warm up the insides by adding wood paneling and stained glass (just colors - no figures). They also added a huge crucifix behind the altar. When I first saw it, I wasn’t sure I hated or loved it. The corpus is realistic, but it’s in bronze (a cold medium), but the “cross” is made of 4 separated bronze pieces intersected with metal circles. It’s weird. I don’t like it. For me, it is something to bear until I can move on. You’d have to tear it down and start over to overcome the horrid modernist design. I’m used to the beauty and warmth of a 1928 church that had real church architecture and real stained windows with saints. You have reminded me of how starved I am for it.
It is fascinating to "discover" what we sense is there (or not there in some cases ) without realizing it. Our mind and heart sense something is off but we can't always put it in words and here you've done just that. Thank you. I am intrigued and will definitely be reading more of your work (and Lewis!)
It's often hard to tell with modern crap art whether it's designed to induce insanity, if it is the product of insanity, or something altogether worse. When it crosses into religious blasphemy, I am convinced it is altogether something worse. This essay is wonderful explanation.
Here's an article that contends that Left and Right agree on what Modernism is doing; they just disagree on its value: https://selvajournal.org/article/chaos-of-total-decay/
"The historical paradox one encounters in reading Sedlmayr today is that of a reactionary anti-modernist whose thought reflects a certain tendency in Marxist aesthetics that runs from Theodor Adorno to Hal Foster; namely, his contention that the distortions and fragmentations of modern art constitute a mimetic response to the real historical fragmentation of the human relationship to the world.14 As Christopher Wood aptly notes, Sedlmayr offers “a mirror image of the avant-garde myth. Revolution and reaction agree on the meaning but not the worth of modern art.”15 This is why Adorno was willing to engage with his thought. Adorno observed in 1958–59 that “my work on the ageing of modern music… paradoxically, runs parallel to the work of Sedlmayr.”
In addition to Sedlmayr, Rookmaaker is another antimodernist of note:
https://artway.eu/content.php?id=3355&action=show&lang=en
Wow. Modern abstract art being used to torture people. I knew abstract was pretty sus (as my students say), but now I have proof.
The bit about torture cells is a fascinating, startling, and non-refutable example.
Good article.
We seem to be thrust into a ubiquitous "Objective Room" everywhere we turn.
I am reminded of the contradictory public safety orders during the Pandaemonium as a way to break the will. And then theres the intentional misuse of English pronouns in the transgender phenomenon. Then there's the body positivity advertising all around.
I think this is an opportunity for all men of good will to create truly beautiful things. Our enemies are hell bent on ugliness and destruction. They can no longer compete and the bar has never been lower.