Comments on: Bang a Drum for Artistic Failure b/w Why Can’t We Just Try to Empathize with Each Other? http://www.artisticfailure.com/2008/09/29/bang-a-drum-for-artistic-failure-bw-why-cant-we-just-try-to-empathize-with-each-other/ Where hope springs eternal in the eye of the artist. Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:51:59 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.2 By: bob schulz http://www.artisticfailure.com/2008/09/29/bang-a-drum-for-artistic-failure-bw-why-cant-we-just-try-to-empathize-with-each-other/#comment-1311 bob schulz Mon, 06 Oct 2008 03:04:57 +0000 http://www.artisticfailure.com/2008/09/29/bang-a-drum-for-artistic-failure-bw-why-cant-we-just-try-to-empathize-with-each-other/#comment-1311 One question, shouldn't the voice of the critic be neutral as to the flavor of political content? As a teacher before a history class, no evidence of bias during a political discussion from the profession should be apparent. No? What are your thoughts? If the teacher, leader, authority figure, tips their hand, the freedom of open exchange is in danger of being squelched. No? And what can be learned in such an atmosphere? Another question, would an exhibit with the proper amount subtlety, workmanship, beauty, cleverness, but political content considered inappropriate for the political hubris inherent within the arts have been exhibited? It's never enough to say, "that's just the way it's always been, get used to it!" One question, shouldn’t the voice of the critic be neutral as to the flavor of political content? As a teacher before a history class, no evidence of bias during a political discussion from the profession should be apparent. No?

What are your thoughts? If the teacher, leader, authority figure, tips their hand, the freedom of open exchange is in danger of being squelched. No? And what can be learned in such an atmosphere?

Another question, would an exhibit with the proper amount subtlety, workmanship, beauty, cleverness, but political content considered inappropriate for the political hubris inherent within the arts have been exhibited?

It’s never enough to say, “that’s just the way it’s always been, get used to it!”

]]> By: bob schulz http://www.artisticfailure.com/2008/09/29/bang-a-drum-for-artistic-failure-bw-why-cant-we-just-try-to-empathize-with-each-other/#comment-1304 bob schulz Wed, 01 Oct 2008 05:30:13 +0000 http://www.artisticfailure.com/2008/09/29/bang-a-drum-for-artistic-failure-bw-why-cant-we-just-try-to-empathize-with-each-other/#comment-1304 If only a new political thought could be murmurred in an art exhibit before I die, then I too could be lured into one of these otherwise predictable heartfelt, poorly conceived and dolefully hopeless jumbles of tossed off dreck. Shocking, it would be. Front page stuff, "Artists physically attacked by curators as they attempted to assemble inappropriate exhibit." Sorry to fall back on something which has never been fully understood, I couldn't stop myself. You would agree that there is an entire genre of political thought not yet examined by artists in our contemporary era? Not that it should be examined, just that it is not examined. Not that artists would be correct examining it, not that there would be anything wrong by not examining it, given that the audience should be offended, and rightly so, by such an examination, i.e., the antithesis of what is normally presented as a political thought in, what else, a contemporary art exhibit. No reply necessary. If only a new political thought could be murmurred in an art exhibit before I die, then I too could be lured into one of these otherwise predictable heartfelt, poorly conceived and dolefully hopeless jumbles of tossed off dreck.

Shocking, it would be. Front page stuff, “Artists physically attacked by curators as they attempted to assemble inappropriate exhibit.” Sorry to fall back on something which has never been fully understood, I couldn’t stop myself.

You would agree that there is an entire genre of political thought not yet examined by artists in our contemporary era? Not that it should be examined, just that it is not examined. Not that artists would be correct examining it, not that there would be anything wrong by not examining it, given that the audience should be offended, and rightly so, by such an examination, i.e., the antithesis of what is normally presented as a political thought in, what else, a contemporary art exhibit. No reply necessary.

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