Ways Of Seeing

[poliphilo]

Reading John Berger's Marxist critique of the western tradition of oil painting makes me want to go out and torch the art galleries.

And then I remember an academic friend of mine (not a Marxist- but similarly in the grip of a world-view) confessing that the habit of deconstructing art works meant he couldn't enjoy them any more-and this makes me want to go out and burn down the universities instead.

Comments

[wolfshift.livejournal.com]

Seems to me that if deconstruction ruins one's enjoyment of an art form, one is doing the deconstruction wrong. Done properly, analysis of good art (literature, music, painting, architecture, cuisine, etc.) illuminates the subtleties and nuances that are missed if one "simply enjoys" them.

At least, that's how I approach the study of literature. I enjoy books more once I've discovered the many layers that can be found therein. Perhaps I've a touch of the hubris, but I think I probably enjoy novels a bit more than people who only read pulp fiction and Harlequin romances---because I get much more out of them.

But then, I don't believe that "enjoying" art precludes analysing it.

That said, it does depend on the quality of the art. I would probably "get more out of" the Twilight series than your average adolescent girl, but a lot of what I would "get" would be recognition of its shortcomings, so I wouldn't enjoy it as much as she would, in the same way that I don't enjoy reality television or Big Macs. I don't think, however, that's any significant loss on my part. I don't mind not enjoying cultural artefacts of such calibre.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think my friend's problem was not so much that he was analysing works of art as that he was having to do it for a living.