The Banishment of Beauty

The Lady of Shalott, by John William Waterhouse 

  More often than not it's very discouraging to visit our museums of art and our public places where art and sculpture are being displayed, or to go to an art show or gallery exhibition and feel so alienated, or even insulted, by what is being presented for our acceptance as art.  It's evident that one of two things is happening:  either there are no longer contemporary artists who understand and appreciate aesthetic principles and have the skill to create their work using these principles, or there has been a conspiracy to expunge Beauty from the major modern art museums or to exclude art that is based on aesthetic absolutes from the same type of public or private funding programs or media support that the more "progressive" art and the artists who perpetrate it receive.  

So it is heartening to me whenever I hear someone speaking up in a public forum and pointing out that the Emperor of Modern Art is not wearing any clothes.  

Scott Burdick, a contemporary traditional artist who himself is a disciple of Beauty, is one of those artists who are beginning to speak out against the monolithic art establishment, and we must take seriously our responsibility to listen and to respond with our support of their endeavors.  We must cheer them on!

Burdick has taken it upon himself to create an exposé of what has been happening in the contemporary art world, in fact,what has been happening for a very long time in the world of museums, art critics, university art departments, the media, and the NEA, etc.  Burdick rightly points out that when you control these things, it is relatively easy to advance your agenda:  

"Their power lies in their total domination of what will be seen and heard by the wider culture.

They do not stifle expression by having someone arrested, but merely by their lack of notice they banish an entire artistic movement to invisible irrelevance, literally written out of the books like the History of Modern Art [the most prevalent textbook in university art history programs.] 

The power to ignore is their weapon and it has been wielded with devastating effect."

What is the agenda of the art establishment?  He argues persuasively that it is the banishment of Beauty.  Modern art is all theory-based, he explains; it's all about isms. It's an anti-aesthetic movement whose rationale is that we have "progressed" beyond the need for aesthetically beautiful art.  Beautiful art is not to be taken seriously because it has nothing to say to the human condition of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.  Beauty is no longer valid.

But Burdick gives us hope when he reminds us that there is "an aesthetic underground that has kept alive the principles of beauty and technical excellence during the past century of artistic madness.”  But they must work “under the public radar, selling their work, pursuing the age-old craft of aesthetic excellence, and essentially ignored by the artistic establishment and critics, invisible to the larger society.”

In his presentation, he takes the viewer through the sad history of the past century in art by alternating between modern "masterpieces" and lovely works of art that have been created concurrently with those modern pieces but essentially have been ignored by the curators and critics.  But it is so heartening to see the wealth of beautiful art that has been being created all along.  However, it is sad that the general public doesn't have the access to these works that they should, or that we cannot take our children to see these beautiful works of art hanging in our public institutions.  It is as if after the Impressionists very little worthwhile beautiful art has been created.  

However Burdick encourages us:

Beauty and Truth have been driven out of the temple.  But despite the most ardent efforts of the art establishment, the flame of beauty has been kept alive by the members of an unofficial aesthetic underground who simply refuse to fall for the nonsensical theories of art that seek to degrade rather than elevate the human spirit.  

The change will come from the ground up, like all revolutions, with the general public demanding control back of the hijacked institutions their tax dollars support.

We all owe a debt of gratitude to those artists who have kept the classical skills of painting and aesthetic expression alive during the dark years of the anti-Beauty movement that has so dominated our century.  Most of them will not see the promised land, but it is their clear vision of the truth that has kept Art from dying out.  In the meantime, let me say, ‘Long live Beauty and Truth.’” 

Click HERE to enjoy Scott Burdick’s program on The Banishment of Beauty.  Yes, it’s an hour long, but it’s divided into four 15-minute segments, and there’s so much to learn about what has been happening right under our noses for the last 100 years.

The bonus is that you will see wonderful examples of beautiful art that you might never have access to otherwise.  I do not know if Mr. Burdick is a man of Faith, but he is certainly engaged on the side of Truth.

As people of Faith, we understand the world spirit that is behind and animating this banishment of Beauty.  Our contribution to this aesthetic underground movement is to stand for Truth, Beauty, and Goodness in our own lives in the choices we make and also to diligently reclaim our heritage for our children so that they are not victims of the culture. 
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