and there's a good reason for that - though my thoughts at time may be garbled they are my thoughts
On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 2:46 PM, joseph berg <[email protected]> wrote: > On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 4:11 AM, William Conger <[email protected] > >wrote: > > > After the first sentence or so I was so bored by the article Berg points > > to that > > I gave up. I thought that this is only a redux of John Dewey's > > "progressive > > education" philosophy, or learn by doing idea. That was of course a good > > idea > > that was more or less the concept that later undergirded the Bauhaus > > curriculum > > and still inform the curricula of many schools world-wide. > > > > There are always several sides to any issue, including anything to do > with > > art. > > For instance, I like much of Jed Perl's writing because he is so good at > > getting to the heart of the decadence of contemporary art while holding > to > > the > > enduring ideals of high art. But I also like a lot of what his exact > > counterpart, Jerry Saltz, writes as the reigning champion of low art and > > popular > > culture, the cutting rawness of vulgarity and of all things profane. > > Somewhere, > > mixing the two together helps to locate the real condition of art -- and > > of our > > times. > > The same dialectic is true when it comes to creativity. The > > free-experimentation with an eye on a goal or problem to solve is surely > an > > important aspect of creativity as is the intelligent and practiced use of > > materials, tools, and rule-based methodologies. That's really quite > > elementary, > > isn't it? > > > > Berg's insistent desire to raise one side up -- always the most > > conservative > > tradition-bound side -- and to push the other side down -- always the > > irreverent tradition-bashing side -- reveals his aversion to the use of > > dialectic which is necessary to any intellectual search for truth. > > > > Saul's idea that seems to claim many 'discourses about art' each one > > embracing a > > tradition and each one at some great or small odds with the others is > > really a > > plea for a highly developed dialectic and, to me, offers the best albeit > > very > > complex access to what the art of our times is really about. It's a > > multi-faceted dialectic. I'd like to see Berg pay more attention to that > > level > > of thinking and much less attention to the daily deluge of journalistic > > dumbed-down re-hashing of well known ideas, like John Dewey's. > > > > Let's go to the thick soup, not the watered down soup of the soup. > > wc > > > > You always like HIM better than ME. > > -- S a u l O s t r o w *Critical Voices* 21STREETPROJECTS La Table Ronde 162 West 21 Street NYC, NY 10011 [email protected] www.21stprojects.org
