One Response to “Weekly Meanderings”

1. Sarah Clendineng on June 29th, 2009 7:27 am

   Probably just a coincidence but, it’s interesting that you would have linked to a commentary on Serrano and Kinkade in the same week. Even more interesting is what the commentators have to say about the respective artist’s, Kinkade who is so popular in the christian community, is commented on as follows:”The cottage is a self-contained safe place where the viewer can shut himself in and get away from the harsh realities of creation, particularly away from other people.” And this is contrasted with Serrano commentator, “I become very familiar with my symbols; I anaesthetise them, I dust them, I make them into gold and precious ornaments, and they become something safe on my shelf. And he reminds me that Jesus actually died and bled and suffered, and that this is offensive and grotesque and difficult.” (Though I question if this is what the artist had in mind when he created the work)

   I think there is a place for the soothing and the comforting, we need, and even long for, places of retreat where we can be at rest. Inviting new neighbors into a living room which you had decorated with instruments of torture as a reminder of life’s suffering might be a little off putting. I guess my questions is, where is the middle ground between art that is little more than pablum and art that will be highly offensive to many, many people?

   PS-In the interest of full disclosure I must state that I really don’t care for Thomas Kinkade’s art. However, I did really like his painting of the Chicaco water tower from 1998.

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