How can the moral relativists live with themselves? Part II

"Mother with dead child" 1903 by Kathe Kolwitz (left) and "The Holy Virgin Mary" 1996 by Chris Ofili

"What I loved about the 'Holy Virgin Mary' [above right, the elephant dung-splattered, female-buttocks-and-genitalia-surrounded painting of the Madonna that was part of the "Sensations" show of Saatchi-owned art at the Brooklyn Museum in 1999] flap was the tidal wave of pretentious blather it induced from the intelligentsia, who cast themselves as usual, as defenders of free speech and great art from the mindless, puritanical mob, " writes Charlotte Allen of Inkwell at Independent Women's Forum.  We stumbled onto her essay the other day and have been holding it in our quiver for just the right moment (see previous post "Jesus wept"):

I admit it: I laughed, not cried, when I read that most of advertising magnate Charles Saatchi’s famous collection of "transgressive" art got burnt to a transgressive crisp in a London warehouse fire a few weeks ago . . . But as my favorite Brit cultural commentator Theodore Dalrymple notes in City Journal, even most Brit intellectuals weren’t quite swallowing this line. Dalrymple writes:

"The fire does not seem to have resulted in any national mourning in England. Indeed, there was speculation that a transgressive art critic, or even performance artist, might have sparked the fire; some even saw it as proof of divine justice.

"Important works by Chris Ofili, who won the Turner in 1998, have gone, some of them part of the personal collection of Victoria and Warren Miro. Among them is the first work in his 'Captain Shit' sequence, a parody of 1970s blaxploitation cartoons," the Guardian reported at the time with a straight face:

Yesterday, Ofili, on bullish form despite the loss, said: "The super hero Captain Shit has in-built protection against the flames of Babylon. He will return -- the saga continues."

Emin [a star of the then-hot, now-passe "Britart" movement of the 1990s whose other artworks include her own unmade bed] said: "This news comes between Iraqi weddings being bombed and people dying in the Dominican Republic in flash floods -- so we have to get it into perspective. But I am really gutted. I just thank God no one was hurt. I can't replace my works."

Ofili invokes the flames of Babylon, and Emin, Iraqi weddings being bombed (by you-know-who).  They've got the party line down pat:  It's all Bush's fault!

Comments

[Mostyn Birchenal]

Re: British Artist - Andrew Campbell

http://www.andrew-campbell.com

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