I think you're both wrong and greatly suffering from hubris-fever. The is a dialectical relationship between the view of art as art and art as culture. These two positions need to be continually negotiated. The best artists and critics have always recognized that. A great portrait is a universalist symbol; it suggests something shared by all people through the lens of a particular culture and time. All paintings are such fusions and in that respect all a paintings are portraits. wc
----- Original Message ---- From: Chris Miller <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sat, February 20, 2010 9:56:38 AM Subject: Quitting Berger OK, I admit it, I've given up on Berger. (the urge to pick him up again has just never returned) Having suffered through the early chapters about his psycho-analytic theory of posing, I had been looking forward to a discussion of actual paintings and their historical context. But Berger's absurd pre-occupation with posing (including his own) undermines the value of that presentation, and I would much rather go directly to the history books. Cheerskep had it right from the very beginning: "The pose was NOT usually a product of the sitter but of the portraitist" and "It has all the trappings of an academic's effort to find a not hitherto appreciated profound insight, at the usual cost of lumbering us with all sorts of imaginary new entities." Not that all those ornate, complex trappings are without their own value, as a nice snapshot of literary, academic life at the end of the 20th C. But, at this point, I would rather read Berger writing about episodes in own life, rather than the lives of great artists or art patrons of the past. Of course, if anyone else wishes to continue reading/discussing his book, I would be happy to continue. But I will be shocked if anyone does. ____________________________________________________________ Diet Help Cheap Diet Help Tips. Click here. http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL2231/c?cp=qAfzAy2Lxjye6EYFo0CfjwAAJz6c l_zTaptgNR5c8Mer1v9kAAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYQAAAAAA=
