Art Sickness
Art Sickness Winston Smith Dear Mr Smith, This will be a short letter about the rise of modern and postmodern art, and what I see as the deliberate removal of beauty. It’s been on my mind, so here I go… It has been rather obvious to me that an attack on beauty and art has taken place, alongside the so called ‘death of God’, in Europe since the 19th century. A quick survey of art over the past century shows there has been no pause in this accelerating and corrosive attack. Although I have already touched on the role of art (and its importance) in a previous letter, what I have not touched on is the perceived offensive nature of what I would consider good art. What I mean is there is something fundamentally ‘good’ about certain works of art in my opinion. Powerful artwork has remained powerful because it holds and transmits universal truths between itself and the observer. Whether it be telling a story or simply displaying beauty, works of art which are true are confronting in...