Can Love Of Art Conquer Woke Ideology?

1st the schools, MSM, corporate America, med profession & pols, now “woke ideologies” are taking over American art museums? Old news, new recipe: Commissars dun connoisseurs until they yield to PC BS …

At least, that’s the take made by Eric Gibson in a WSJ op ed. He explained: “Like higher education [and other institutions], art museums face a crisis of purpose. They are now widely seen as shameful relics of the era of Western colonialism, whose proper social role is to advance a progressive agenda. The doctrine of art for art’s sake, the idea that aesthetic values alone should guide their operations, is increasingly taking a back seat to political ideology. As a result, they are undergoing the greatest transformation since the 1960s, when the art museum as we know it – popular, populist and a must-see destination – came into existence.”

If true, how sad. How foolish. I recall during those 60s years spending many an afternoon in Chicago’s Art Institute amazed at the centuries of art works there, treasures really, of Western Civilization. I was especially enthralled by the Impressionists like Renoir, Degas, Lautrec, Gauguin, van Gogh … Studied their techniques, brush strokes, even tried to pick their brains on their intent, feelings when they imagined what would appear on canvass. Not that there weren’t questionable art on display. Not that politics didn’t play a big role in the subject matter reflected knowingly or subliminally in those works. Like rap music, I now know I’ll never like the ultra-modern art of that period, whether innocent or politicized. But, I APPRECIATED what I didn’t like anyway. That’s called LOVE OF ART.

Davd Soul