Saturday, October 24, 2015

The Extirpation of Man's Art? Not Really...

When I think of the great works of art that Man has created; and continues to do,  my memory serves up a number of examples of the utter indestructibility  of this particular human attainment:
Mozart's disdain  and  general dislike of  the Royal family at its unfavorable view, for example, of the brash young composer's stance on language choice in Opera.
Beethoven's stance on Authority- his statement "it is they who should bow to us" is, in actuality, a rather prescient example of the ultimate victory that man's art promulgates veritably every time. For example, Napoleon is a memory, but the "Eroica" symphony, which as we know was, for a brief period, dedicated to the tyrant,  can be heard or performed at any time.
Franco is a distant reminder of the Spanish agony. But Picasso's "Guernica" can be seen on any given day.
The obscene exhibit staged by Hitler in 1937 he named 'Entartete Kunst' (degenerate art) is, I believe, still the most largely attended art exhibit of all time (millions went to the 'museum' it was housed in)  - this exhibit had paintings and sculpture of many of history's great artists; some deliberately hung upside down, was, for me, one of the strongest examples of the elemental fear(which Hatred so often is begotten from) that Adolf Hitler had for The Artist; simply because the imagery  of  illimitable power of  Message that the great artist possesses cannot be altered;  no matter what form of tyranny surrounds it. This power of message  cannot be extirpated, except by the elimination of that artist. We know that Hitler was in constant search to eliminate the art AND the artist who did not conform to his brand of reality concerning existential reality. That's why such heroes as Varian Fry, who saved great numbers of artists and writers from Hitlerism, constitute such an important part of human history.
And there other examples, of course; but, enough for now...

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