Gheez, is such an act proper in England, to attack an art exhibit? The subject was art that itself was under attack, and now compound that with an attack on the “iconoclasmic” exhibition itself.
“i·con·o·clasm
īˈkänəˌklazəm/
noun
the action of attacking or assertively rejecting cherished beliefs and institutions or established values and practices.
the rejection or destruction of religious images as heretical; the doctrine of iconoclasts.”https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&ie=UTF-8#q=define%3A%20Iconoclasm
Reading an art review from The Telegraph is refreshing as it is mind stirring, and that may well be what makes a review worthwhile. This week, addressing a group of art peers, I said: Writing about art is much easier than the act of making and showing it.
Having spent the past couple of weeks pulling together an art show it is honest testimony that it is very hard work. So, reading a nasty review of an art exhibit that strikes at the curator and the idea itself is disheartening.
Oh, here is an indication of where such indignant behavior comes. The Telegraph reviewer, Richard Dorment is an American, who is also highly credentialed.
“Born in the US in 1946, Richard Dorment studied art history as an undergraduate at Princeton University (BA 1968) before starting post graduate work at Columbia University where he wrote his dissertation on Burne-Jones’s Mosaics for the American Church in Rome (MA 1969; MPhil, PhD 1975).
After three years as assistant curator of European painting at the Philadelphia Museum of Art he moved to London to pursue a career as a freelance writer on art and exhibition organiser.”
Here is a couple of things that Dorment doesn’t like about the Tate Britain show.
- Items are displayed that are remnants of times gone by when art objects were intentionally destroyed. He says that these items and photos of them are not themselves art. True, maybe, with caveats, but are they not art educational?
- He presumes that dissolution of monasteries in Great Britain by Henry VIII is very old news, and therefore, no one is interested in that subject.
Well, much to his chagrin, the Dorment review actually inspires one to want to see what Tate Britain has served up. They may have done better by engaging assistance from Antique Roadshow.
My Lord, have you no respect for the magnitude of such an act.
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The review is most informative.
“Art Under Attack, Tate Britain, review
Richard Dorment learnt nothing new from Tate Britain's show about art iconoclasm - plus there's pernicious drivel in the catalogue essays.
Spectators in front of 'Piano Destruction' by Raphael Montanez Oritz, which is actually about a piano being destroyed, not art Photo: Christopher Pledger
2:13PM BST 30 Sep 2013
When some bright spark at Tate Britain came up with the idea of doing a show about the history of Iconoclasm in this country why wasn’t the plan strangled at birth? Was there no one around to point out that the story of the dissolution of the monasteries has been told so often in books like Eamon Duffy’s The Stripping of the Altars that there isn’t a lot that’s new to say? Even if it proved possible to update the story to the present day, most of the visual material has long been destroyed or defaced. Did anyone at Tate think to mention that looking at photographs of works of art that no longer exist rarely makes for a satisfactory gallery-going experience? And finally, did it occur to the director to take the curator responsible for the section on modern art aside and explain to her what the word “iconoclasm” is usually taken to mean?
