Stoddard on real and fraudulent art

From Andrew Cusack via Hilary White (no relation), Alexander Stoddart on art in an interview with The Scotsman:

Modern art is “rubbish”, narcissistic, snobby, devoid of skill, ignorant of taste, gripped by “nostalgia for the future”. But it goes deeper than that. It’s a difference of opinion about what art should do. Art, he says, has always been about “trying to alleviate the pain of existence”. Modern art “collaborates with misery as opposed to trying to oppose it”.

“A painting by Titian is like a Leningrad, holding out against the forces of the world. Even if they’re having to eat rats in there, they still will never surrender to it. Whereas the art of Tracey Emin is a complete capitulation to the world. Cutting a shark in half and putting it in a tank of piss is just art giving up. I find it very odd when they describe art as challenging, because I always thought art was meant to calm you like a lullaby, not challenge you like some skinhead in an underpass.”

Law and virtue

Ann Althouse recently said, "A love of autocracy often lurks beneath the liberal veneer." The inimitable Andrew Cusack gives us further light in a single simple sentence: "...the government is attempting to solve a problem with a law, when really the only solution is a virtue."

Narrative interlude #3

NARRATOR: "After a short absence, Andrew Cusack and his dot-com returned, the latter sporting a lively and attractive new header, and there was much rejoicing."

ALL: "Yay! Yay!"

Nameplate fun

I've spend odd moments working on a blog redesign in drupal. Here's a possible nameplate centered on a funny bird I found in an old book at Project Gutenberg; the font is Windsor, which I discovered via the inimitable Andrew Cusack. The notion of putting a large thingamajig between the words came from Mr Cusack's own blog design and his note about the International Herald Tribune's evolving dingbat.

Small-town news

From Lüderitz, Namibia: Music Instructor Revealed as Con Artist, and other fascinating small-town headlines. I had to look up Lüderitz after its recent mention at Andrew Cusack's fine blog.