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Angelus Novus is a beautiful painting in every (authentic) sense of the word, and only philistines think otherwise
Scott just published Contra Everyone On Taste:
This post is a followup to the earlier Friendly And Hostile Analogies For Taste. It seems that the track of the discussion went roughly as follows: Scott was reflecting on how the tastes of art connoisseurs (either self-proclaimed or credentialed) tend to a) differ sharply from the tastes of the much larger mass of non-experts, and b) show a preference for art that the majority of people consider to be ugly or incomprehensible. He essentially argued that the opinions of the "experts" are grounded in bullshit status games, political power struggles, arbitrary fashion trends, etc, while normal people are free to enter into a more natural relationship with artworks that are actually beautiful and pleasant:
When people responded to the post and argued that people with more "elitist" tastes actually are responding to features of artworks that are both objectively real and deserving of attention, like the artwork's historical and social context, philosophical content, etc, it eventually prompted Scott to respond with his latest post.
He argues that many of the proposed features of artworks that are allegedly worth appreciating, like the art's historical context or its position in an ongoing artistic dialogue, are essentially extraneous, and will only serve to hinder one's natural and immediate appreciation of the art's "sensory pleasures" (or lack thereof). He really seems to be pushing this idea of a pure and natural response above all else, abstracted away from any possible considerations of context. I think this dialectical maneuver of his is ultimately grounded in his incredulity that anyone could actually, really enjoy the types of "weird" artworks that art elitists claim to enjoy. I think he thinks that if he can just cut off all of the "escape avenues" for the mustached hipster -- "no, you're not allowed to talk about the history of this or that movement, or the artist's biography, or the dumb pseudo-philosophical artist's statement, you have to just look at the thing itself and tell me what it actually looks like" -- then the snob would be forced to admit defeat and admit that, yes, when you remove all possible external variables and immerse yourself in the pure visual experience (or aural experience or whatever), it actually is just a dumb ugly looking thing. At which point Scott could claim victory and his assertion that the snobs were never worth listening to in the first place would be vindicated.
His incredulity is on display, for example, when he discusses Benjamin's essay on Angelus Novus:
I've actually brought up this painting once or twice before on TheMotte in the context of other art discussions, always to the same perplexed reactions. I'm quite fond of this painting, and I couldn't just let Scott dis it like that, which is part of what compelled me to respond to this post in the first place.
Scott raises a number of interesting points and arguments throughout the post; I'd be happy to discuss any of them individually, but, I don't think that a point-by-point breakdown of the post would actually be persuasive in getting anyone on either side of the fence in this debate to change their minds. So for now I'll settle for the more modest goal of trying to dispel some of the incredulity. Yes, I am a real living breathing human who thinks that Angelus Novus is authentically beautiful. Not for any particularly "intellectual" or "contextual" reasons either. This is, as far as I can tell, simply my "natural" response to the painting (as "natural" as one can get anyway, seeing as one's "natural" response is always already impacted by one's life history, cultural upbringing, background philosophical assumptions, etc). Similarly, my "natural" response to the Chesterton poems that Scott loves so much is that they're, well, I have to break out the word he dreads here: kitschy. I'm not even saying that to be mean! Either to Scott or to Chesterton. I have no agenda here (or at least, whatever agenda I have, there's a pretty large chasm between it and the agenda of the modal blue-haired MFA student). I'm just calling it like I see it. (Full disclosure, I only sampled a small selection of Chesterton's poems, and I'm not much of a poetry fan in general to begin with.)
An honest dialogue should begin with the recognition that people can have idiosyncratic or even "elitist" tastes that aren't just based on bullshit political signalling. Scott would of course be the first to acknowledge that "taste is subjective", but I'm not sure if he really feels it in his bones. He's still looking for the angle, looking for something that would explain why all these ivory tower types have seemingly conspired to convince everyone that these obviously-ugly artworks are actually good, because surely no one could just simply believe that. Of course it would be utterly naive to suggest that politics and fashion play no role in "high art" trends. Of course they play a prominent role. But at the same time, they're not the only factor. It shouldn't be surprising that the types of people who dedicate their lives to becoming artists or art critics would also tend to converge on certain idiosyncratic aesthetic tastes, naturally and of their own accord, due to whatever shared underlying psychological factors drove them into art in the first place.
One of these "underlying psychological factors" might simply be the desire to grapple with the complexities of aesthetic experience as such, and a willingness to allow oneself to be transformed by that experience in radical ways. Scott treats "sensory pleasure" as essentially an unexamined, irreducible primitive, the bedrock of certainty that would be left over once one has abstracted away everything "extraneous": as though it were simply obvious to oneself when one finds an artwork to be "pleasant" or "beautiful" in the first place, as though it would be impossible or undesirable to call these modes of experience into question, to become unsure of and estranged from one's own perceptual experience. Tellingly, he does include "Ability To Profoundly Affect Or Transform You" as one of his markers of artistic quality, but suggests that it may be "emergent from some combination of sensory delight, novelty and point-making." But, the authentic work of art opens up the possibility of transforming what you experience as delightful in the first place, what you experience as a "valid point" in the first place. Conceptual groundwork of this nature calls for phenomenological experiences that are multilayered and complex rather than merely "pleasant"; it calls for engagement with the world and other people.
For understandable reasons, non-leftists get anxious whenever anyone brings up words like "historical" or "transformative" in relation to art and culture; any call to be mindful of "context", especially "political context", is seen as somewhat threatening. For decades in the West, these concepts have all been associated with the forceful imposition of leftist political strictures and leftist assaults on traditional (especially religious) culture. "You're asking me to 'be open to' being 'transformed' by art; so you're asking me to allow myself to be transformed by these people? The ones who run our universities and art galleries today? Really?" I'm not saying that your concerns are entirely unfounded. All I'm saying is that it doesn't have to be this way. Recognizing that art is ineluctably embedded in its social and political context is intrinsically neither left nor right; a more holistic way of appreciating art that goes beyond simplistic notions of "art for art's sake" can and should be reclaimed.
I don't possess the inclination to write a full in-depth response, but it would be helpful if people would spend more effort trying to define the words they use. Let's take "kitsch", which is how you describe Chesterton's poems. I don't necessarily disagree, I agree a lot of Chesterton's writing comes off as "kitsch". However, saying so does not really carry the discussion anywhere. It is a word different kinds of elitists all use for things they dislike, but if you scratch the surface, you find they are different kinds of elitists and often have slightly different complaints. Members of realist schools, modernist and "post-modern" schools can complain and have complained about "kitsch" tastes of the petite bourgeois, but modernist and post-modernist would call many realists "kitsch".
So what is "kitsch"? Is it synonymous with overtly cute? Overtly common? Biedermeier? Overtly nostalgic? Overtly sugary? Overtly earnest? Overtly Disneyland? Cheap and ornamental? Revival styles that are badly executed by the original standards? Unsophisticated according to All definitions I have seen. One common thread to those all that the social context of the art is part of the definition is that "it's too much of something", so you cannot define "kitsch" in vacuum. You need a reference point. So wouldn't it be better to talk about the reference point and what you are measuring? Just stating that art is embedded in social context is a true sentence, but so general statement that it does not really say that much until you start making more specific claims.
I think Angelus Novus is "kitsch". I suppose it could be unremarkable but acceptable illustration of how kabbalaistic symbolism can manifest as artists finding deep meaning in naivistic scribble * if presented as part of a work about kabbalaistic symbolism*. If presented as an artwork, a stand-alone piece, it is far too cute in a naivistic way. Perhaps the artist was earnest, but it feels like a work that has appreciators who come off as faux-earnest.
As an artist, I would disagree. I could spend a week studying the painting, by which I mean attempting to redraw it accurately, drawing variations on it, etc, and I am confident I would be a better artist at the end of that week, and art I made drawing on the lessons I learned from it would be better drawings than what I would have produced before.
The linework is very definitely not naivestic scribble. You can do really neat things with the techniques he's using there, whether you agree that he's done neat things with them or not.
Your reply illustrates my first point, about definitions of words. You seem to use "kitsch" as if, "studying the work will elevate my skill as artist". I think of "kitsch" as a word that describes social or emotional context, ie, vibes. According to Wikipedia, it is a some sort of lithograph, so I have little technical skill to judge. (It is also quite telling that Wiki has lots of text about the history of the painting and nearly nothing to say about the printmaking technique. [1]). So I concentrate on what I see. Big, vulnerable eyes. Large mouth. Small wings, tiny legs. It looks like the artist tries to be naive, and present something that is simultaneously weird and cute. Child-like, but I agree the artist had more skill than a child. It is not a scribble that child would make. Evocative, true, but quintessential kitchy reproduction paintings of kittens and dogs are also evocative.
[1] But if I would study printmaking, I hazard a guess I would benefit more from studying Durer and Rembrandt.
P.S. I feel I should add an exemplar of work that has naivist vibes.
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