Postmodernism

My first computer was an iMac and I've only used Macs ever since. This is one decision I've never regretted. Although I'm by no means a cultist, I admit I follow the company's fortunes in a way that would never occur to me in connection with, say, a maker of toaster ovens. I admire the way Apple Inc always innovates even if sometimes the innovation flops. And then there is the phenomenal Steve Jobs. If Steve Jobs ran for president I would vote for him in a minute if I could, whatever party he represented. He's a problem solver who can grasp both the details and the big picture at once, make decisions about which direction to take, and even when he's up to his ass in alligators he never forgets he's there to drain the swamp.
Often on Apple's website cutting edge artists explain how Macs help in their work. For a high tech company like Apple it's innovate or die, but innovation in art usually makes me cringe. I was reminded of that when I had the opportunity to spend some quality time in the presence of some of the great masters of Western art. Paintings by Rubens, El Greco, Rembrandt, Poussin and several others were on loan to the Victoria Art Gallery from the National Gallery. I've never been especially affected by paintings as such but even I was awed by the way the colours seemed to have an inner glow. My favourite was by an artist I had never heard of before, one Paulus Bors. It depicted an unusual subject, the annunciation to the Virgin Mary of her imminent death. An angel hovered above her and an ethereal light from heaven bathed them both. It made me think of my mother's brother who died only a few weeks ago. Death, struggle,love, birth, creation, the themes of art always remain the same and to some extent every age is judged by how it reinterprets those themes.
How will our age be judged? I think we may be the laughing stock of history if the exhibit in the adjacent room is any indication. I'm sorry if these words hurt the feelings of the artist but it can't be helped. Her work, installation art I believe it's called, consists of piles of fabric arranged in painstakingly contrived ways on the floor or tables. The one that stands out most in my memory resembled the contents of the stomach of some huge prehistoric bird, emptied after a bad meal, furred with putrefied mold. Vague shapes suggestive of decomposed body parts protruded here and there. I'm sorry, but if this is going to be called art then we're going to have to think of another word to use to designate the paintings of the 17th century Flemish masters.
Postmodernism is a philosophy that claims there is no absolute truth...and they are absolutely sure of it. They think that truth is whatever you want it to be, provided you have the power to enforce your version of truth on society. That's why modern artists are politicians and salesmen, but not really artists. They trade in whatever is grotesque and shocking, but they have been doing it for so long now that even they must be bored with their own productions. Far from being the heroic rebels they like to think they are, they have become the elite, the mainstream. They are in positions of power and their art their art is prescribed for us like an old time medicine: it may taste awful but it is good for you. But of course we poor plebians are incapable of knowing what's good for us without the guidance of their superior wisdom.
Naturally, these elites do not like traditional art...probably because they are made to look so bad by comparison. They especially despise anything to do with Christian symbolism, which is why they are so eager to remove crosses from public spaces. It isn't necessary to be an avowed Christian to acknowledge and appreciate the riches of our Christian heritage
Isn't it time for us plebians to push back? But we who venerate our magnificent cultural legacy must employ the methods that made it so great. Although postmodernism is the enemy we cannot hate it. We have to engage its arguments with reason and logic, and we have to use persuasion rather than force and political power to counter the Talibanization of our cultural monuments.
Closely related to postmodernism, utilitarianism has also had a corrosive effect on our society by insisting that survival and the needs of the body are all that matters. On the contrary, I believe the reason we want to live has more to do with the needs of the soul than the needs of the body. Rather than being merely something peripheral to life, the search for beauty and truth is central. We don't live to eat, we eat to live, and we live not just to find pleasure and happiness but to enrich our souls and try to make our own contribution to that legacy handed down to us by our parents.
Innovation in art has been mainly concerned with technique. In the 18th century the innovation of equal temperament tuning made possible the exploration of key signatures in the 19th century possible. The innovation of the Internet has made it possible for people like me to bypass publishing houses and editors. But the themes of art and thought remain the same throughout the ages and are only reexamined and reinterpreted by each generation as perspectives change. We are thereby deepened in our understandings.