Denver Art Museum
yesterday I went with my mother to see an exhibit of items from the Louvre at the Denver Art Museum which was very cool. What struck me was how very little actual art is in the museum. There are a few floors of contemporary paint-blobs on canvas; there are a few examples of handicrafts from aborigines; there are a few of pop-art of the crudest kind; but there are only two floors with art proper: one of European and one of Far Asian. The European is most interesting to me, particularly the Holbein portrait of Edward VI. That’s real art: in this case, it depicts someone of importance (Edward VI, duh), it has historical significance (I was inches from a canvas that Henry VII almost certainly touched!) and it’s attractive and executed with skill.
I’m not against non-representational art; I’m not against
abstract art; I’m not against random art. Some of the greatest
art of history is non-representational (just look at the Anglo-Saxons,
the Celts and the Greeks!). But most of what passes for art
these days is far from the ding an sich—it’s pure
dreck.
That said, it was absolutely glorious to see the relics of the ancien régime and to breathe on a few great works of true art. When my readers and I are dust, those works will remain—and the dreck the Museum collects will be dust to. The eternal things will last so long as there are those who appreciate beauty, skill and true art.
