Living in a winter nation I get to see a lot of Russia these days, that is; Russia as it likes to present itself through the Olympics. Living in a society praising equality, there are several things about Russian leadership (as presented through media) which strikes me as rather odd… The Philosophers Mail claims that authoritarianism…
Tag: Alain de Botton
how to be alone
Some years ago I read Sara Maitland’s book A Book of Silence. It’s a beautiful book based on Maitland’s own experiences of living alone in the Scottish highland. Now she is out with a new book, in a way it’s a continuation of the first, but How to Be Alone is also an attempt to…
art as propaganda –
– on behalf of the good: Art is a living resource for our heart. Mark Rothko: You’ve got sadness in you, I’ve got sadness in me – and my works of art are places where the two sadnesses can meet, and therefore both of us need to feel less sad. Richard Long: highly irregular…
having a vision
apropos the didactic – once again … I have read a short piece by Frank Furedi today. Not necessarily an antidote to de Botton’s art-therapy-project. But definitively a problematization of governmental utility thinking. Here are some thoughts to share from one of Furedi’s texts: There was a time when, as the Oxford English Dictionary stated, vision meant…
apropos the didactic
There should be no doubt, De Botton has a totally instrumentalist view of art, which many of us – especially artist I would believe, oppose. But it might first be necessary to amplify, it is not art, but the art world, that should be didactic: DE BOTTON: There are lots of attacks on the art world, from…
– to muddy pure and sacred waters
Last week I wrote 4 art reviews. Which meant little or no time for reading. Hopefully this week will give me some time to catch up. As stated before, I am as a critic (by the definition Alain de Botton and many others operates with) a part of the art establishment. I agree with this…
Art should be didactic –
Some may call this approach naïve, but I believe that art is more valuable to us than we are lead to believe. So a new approach should be given consideration: – and I must admit, do really love de Botton’s enthusiasm!
if art is to matter …
Continuing yesterday’s post – here is Alain De Botton, arguing for an instrumental use of art: The idea that one might use art for a purpose, for “instrumental” reasons, tends to set off alarm bells. Art is not an instrument, comes the almost automatic reply. It shouldn’t be thought of as some kind of tool. It’s…
… art as therapy?!
What is art for? It’s a difficult question, a question we tend to ignore in the sphere of contemporary art and theory. We, the establishment, find it rather naïve to ask such a blunt question. We are sometimes very unsure of ourselves as artist (why am I doing this? Am I good enough?? etc.), but…
‘The question of what art is for has for too long been needlessly treated as obscure: it is to help us live and die.’ – Alain de Botton …
sub rosa 