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For almost two thousand years, great artists have set the standards for beauty. Great masters such as Leonardo, Rembrand or Michelangelo, have produced works of art that have inspired and delighted our senses, being demanding with themselves and bringing their own contribution to their creations, creations that have constantly stood at standards of excellence, thus improving the work of their predecessors.
In today’s world, these standards have disappeared. Modern art has become a competition between ugly and aberrant so that what is more shocking and grotesque to win! What happened? How did the beauty come to be mocked, and what is in bad taste to get to be raised in glory?
<>Michelangelo sculpted “David” from a rock, today the los angeles museum, offers us as a “work of art” a 340-ton stone that reigns imposingly in a place of honor, so far it has reached the unprecedented drop of artistic standards.
Everything that was once PROFOUND, INSPIRING and BEAUTIFUL, has come to be NEW, DIFFERENT and UGLY today!
We live in an age where spiritual decay has come to be reflected in the reversal of values in art!
In the opinion of Robert Florczak, renowned contemporary American artist and teacher, the moment that was the turning point in the history of arts was at the end of the nineteenth century, with the birth of the impressionist current. Impressionists rebelled against the classical standards of the Academy of Smoky Arts in Paris, coming up with modernist ideas that disregarded these standards. These modernists introduced the idea of aesthetic relativism and the fact that “Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder”. Their works were eventually accepted by the majority of the public, and today impressionists are extremely well rated in the art world. Impressionists such as Monet, Degas, Renoir are the ones who have maintained certain standards of discipline and execution, but with each generation of artists, the standards have fallen, until they have not exsitated standards! All that was left was the personal expression.
The great art historian Jacob Rosenberg stated that ” In art, quality is not only a personal opinion, but to a high degree it can be pursued objectively.” The idea of a universal standard of quality in art currently encounters a very strong resistance.
How can art be measured in objective obd? One method consists in comparing universal artistic results with relativistic ones.
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For example, by comparing universal works of art like: “The Birth of Venus” Botticelli’s, or “The Death of galdiator” –the famous marble sculpture, from the Roman period, with the relativistic ones from the contemporary era such as: “The Holy Virgin Mary” oil painting, mixed with cow dung, containing pornographic images, or “Petra” the sculpture of a policewoman surprised when she urinates!
In the absence of aesthetic standards we have no way to determine the quality or lack of thesetakes, to determine what is superior and what is inferior in art.
In the past, artists are the ones who have made their contribution by giving integrity and substance to lietraturii, history, religion or mythology, today, artists use art only to make decalrations, with the intention of shocking as much as possible, without bringing any kind of intrinsic value.
Not only artists are to blame for this fact, but also those who supported and encouraged the development of art, such as artistic communities, museums, gallery owners and art critics, who have encouraged and financially supported the unprecedented development of unsightlyness in art, or rather of this “garbage” with artistic claims. Who would spend 10 million dollars on a rock, believing it to be art?
Do we really have to be victims of this insulting bad taste?
Of course not! From patronizing our museums to buying from art galleries, we can not only make our own opinions known but also felt. An art gallery, after all, is a business like any other. If the product is not sold, it will not be produced. We can also support artistic organizations that work to restore objective standards in the art world. We can also advocate for the teaching of classical art and its appreciation in our schools.
Ultimately it is in our power to change this paradigm of the ugly. It begins right now, when we choose to celebrate what we know is good and beautiful and ignore what we know is not.
Source: https://www.prageruniversity.com/