History and art are two very different subjects and it is frustrating to see them getting so entangled here, when some insist on confirming the validity of the term aura.
When the English Puritans pulled down entire churches, forced the dissolution of the monasteries and destroyed Christian iconography during the English reformation and civil war (1534 - 1651) and when ISIS destroyed Muslim, Christian and Buddhist places of worship, statues, monuments. sculptures and even ancient palaces and historic cities across Libya, Iraq and Syria during their bloody jihad (2014 - 2017), it was not for the sake of art that these religious zealots destroyed such vast amounts of irreplaceable cultural wealth, they did not have a travelling panel of art critics deciding whether an object would be obliterated on aesthetic grounds, that's something we can leave to the Nazis and their theory of degenerate art (1920 - 1945), but rather it was the history associated with those places and objects that sealed their fate. The art so to speak was an innocent victim of their ideological lunacy. Despite being hewn from the same rock the art in those statues, monuments and sculptures have always been truly separate from the history. Thankfully with the blessing of modern technology we have been able to reproduce some of the lost art from the middle east in the form of film, pictures, casts and scanning has allowed 3D printing to bring back to life the art created thousands of years ago, while those countless numbers of artworks destroyed during the English Reformation have been be lost to eternity. The ability to copy and replicate is an amazing human invention that we should cherish and celebrate.
Statues of saints in Durham Cathedral, UK beheaded by the British puritans.
Remnants on a museum floor of a statue, destroyed by Daesh.
https://www.durhamworldheritagesite.com/history/reformation
https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/world-history/church-desecration
https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/04/12/unesco-united-nations-isis-islamic-state-cultural-antiquities-trade-irina-bokova-refugees-heritage/
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/09/150901-isis-destruction-looting-ancient-sites-iraq-syria-archaeology/
Wow Russel, that is a really interesting perspective and you do bring up a really valid point. For one, you are absolutely correct, whenever ancient objects are destroyed for the sake of politics or religion, without any copies that "piece" of history would be gone forever. In this case reprinting is actually a beneficial act, because it does offer a chance for people to discover about that obliterated past. If it was't for those copies that piece of history might be gone forever. However, by creating a bunch of posters of say Monet's "Sunrise' or a pocket size statue of "David," for the sake of a "mighty" dollar. Would it not inadvertently turn all the copying into a "double age sword" by desensitizing the masses?
ReplyDelete"Desensitizing the masses?" Listen to yourself ... you and I and everyone in this class are the masses and if you've been desensitized to art simply by viewing a copy of an artwork then I think you're definitely in the wrong class.
ReplyDeleteYou need to ask yourself the following two questions:
1. How many people do you know that have been lucky enough to have seen a genuine Monet painting, let alone the Sunrise? How many of those people are attending this class? If we haven't all been lucky enough to see every painting that has ever been reproduced then;
2. How on earth would we even have this class without those copies of art to look at and discuss? The answer is that we'd all have to be wealthy enough to have the time and money to fly around the world together visiting each painting or sculpture in situ before class could start each week.
The danger of the passage that our professor has asked us to read is that if you agree with his horribly outdated views on art is that you're in danger of becoming a self loathing art snob arguing that only those who are wealthy enough to travel the globe and see the originals have the privilege to enjoy world class art, while the likes of you and I have been ... um ..well how did you put it? Desensitized.