Tag Archives: Donald Kuspit

spiritually diseased please

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Dave

There was a famous line attributed to Walter Benjamin that captures somewhat the problem the Nazi’s had with what they termed “degenerate art,” which lacked the necessary material underpinnings to easily transform itself into unchallenging kitsch. Benjamin’s “logical result of … Continue reading →

Posted in Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Modern Arts/Craft | Tagged alexander mitscherlich, David Grubin, Degenerate Art Exhibit 1937, diane thodos, Donald Kuspit, el lissitzky, Emil Nolde, gitta sereny, godley and Creme, Leni Riefenstahl, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Marg Moll, Max Horkheimer, Naom Slutzky, Otto Dix, Otto Freundlich, Peter barnes, Peter Barnes plays, Philip Larkin, T.S. Eliot, Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin | Leave a comment

jarring sales hustle and aesthetic goals

Posted on July 14, 2012 by Dave

“Art in the native American mind enjoys the dubious importance attached to the devil in the medieval mind” – Alexander Harvey The artistic imagination enters only rather furtively into economic life. Artistic truth is still revealed not by the artist … Continue reading →

Posted in Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged Alexander Harvey, amien Hirst, Andy Warhol, Arnold Hauser, Dean Valentine, Don and Mira Rubel, Donald Kuspit, Henry Ford art collection, Jackson Pollock, joseph duveen, Marcel Duchamp, Mark Rothko, Mira Rubel, Mugrabi art collection, Norman Rockwell, Robert Hughes, Van Gogh Arles | Leave a comment

the myth is not invulnerable

Posted on July 14, 2012 by Dave

Aesthetics and economics. As with the farmer, so it generally went with the small businessperson: dealer, salesman, contractor,and small merchant. Their income may be considered handsome when compared to past standards, but they are, collectively, a group that has to … Continue reading →

Posted in Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged Arnold Hauser, David Geffen art collection, Donald Kuspit, Francis Bacon artist, H.L. Mencken, Henry Clay Frick art collection, Jan van Goyen, Jeff Koons, jeffrey deitch, Marcel Duchamp, Sinclair Lewis, Sir Joseph Duveen, Steven A. Cohen, willem de Kooning | Leave a comment

muse and the economy

Posted on July 13, 2012 by Dave

Or is it the economy and the muse? When individuals are fighting tooth and nail for a living, they look on the arts as a thing apart. Has our affluent society today carried over some of this disdain into a … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Modern Arts/Craft | Tagged Andy Warhl business art, Andy Warhol, Arnold Hauser, Bob Diamond Barclays, Clement Greenberg, Damien Hirst, David Geffen art collection, Donald and Mera Rubells, Donald Kuspit, Ernst Ludwig Kirschner, Gustav Klimt, Hobbema, Jan Steen, jeffrey deitch, Jerry Saltz, john singleton copley, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Marcel Duchamp, Meyer Schapiro, Peter Plagens, Steven A. Cohen, Timothy Geithner, Van Goyen painter, willem de Kooning, Winslow Homer | Leave a comment

united we stand: complications of moral inversions

Posted on July 13, 2012 by Dave

Its been a bit dicey ever since Maimonides ( Rambam) pronounced perhaps hat many had thought, but lacked the intestinal fortitude to say: Muhammad was false prophet and an insane man.Even criminally insane. The scathing remarks also included the assertion … Continue reading →

Posted in Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged Catherine Ashton, Donald Kuspit, ethiopian jews, EU Arab formula, European Union Israel, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Gamal Abdel Nasser KGB, Giulio Meotti, Joseph Stalin, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Maimonides, Maimonides guide for the perplexed, Marcel Duchamp, matisyahu, Matisyahu Bal Shem Tov, Mughrabi Bridge, Rambam and Islam, Shabbetai Tzvi, The Euro crisis, UNESCO Israel | Leave a comment

modernism: press the refresh button

Posted on July 1, 2012 by Dave

Modernism as a ready made. The break with the past; the discarding of tradition. The shock of the new. Modernism struck at the heart of the conventional wisdom in the arts which meant that an aesthetic of plot, dramatic incident … Continue reading →

Posted in Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Modern Arts/Craft | Tagged Andy Warhol, anna freud, Art modernism, Damien Hirst, Donald Kuspit, Francis Nauman, francis p. nauman, Franz Kafka, Gustave Courbet, Janis Gallery, John Maynard Keynes, Leonardo Da Vinci, Marcel Duchamp, sidney janis, Walter Benjamin | Leave a comment

the kids are alright?

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Dave

The spiritual in art. Is it important? Is innovation and form enough? Traditional images had outworn their time, but did it mean that a maturing spiritualsm had to be discarded as well? That an invisible, transformative energy had to be … Continue reading →

Posted in Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Modern Arts/Craft | Tagged Donald Kuspit, lawrence Alma-Tadema, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Marcel Duchamp, Pablo Picasso, William-Adolphe Bouguereau | Leave a comment

kitschy-goo

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Dave

This is a great quote from art critic Donald Kuspit. Kuspit is something of a traditionalist; or rather looking for the old sense of spirituality and insight into human nature to be found in art, a kind of sane dignity … Continue reading →

Posted in Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Modern Arts/Craft | Tagged Clement Greenberg, Diego Velazquez, Donald Kuspit, joel-peter witkin, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Pablo Picasso, Theodor Adorno | Leave a comment

medieval freedom: bypassing divine ordinance

Posted on March 24, 2012 by Dave

The more things change, the more they stay the same. The old wild men were more uncanny and unpredictable than they were given credit for. The old order was not that orderly after all. There is no such thing as … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged Andre Breton, david finn photographs, Donald Kuspit, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Marxist art theory, Mayer Schapiro, medieval art, mozarabic art at silos, romanesque sculpture souillac, souillac and silos | Leave a comment

school’s out: very blue notes

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Dave

Its always been acknowledged that there are intrinsic qualities to the study of music. But to go to school and make a career of it has always been a questionable decision. The precarity of employment juxtaposed with the liberty of … Continue reading →