Creating a Counter Art Movement
As I sit here writing this, I’m reminded of all the tawdry and outright vile aberrations we call art in the 21st century, the beautiful and sublime lay beaten and bloody on the battlefield, trampled over by nihilism, degeneracy and narcissism, the many masters of Western art turning in their graves in unison, as yet another degree in fine art is handed out to a blue haired, shrapnel faced harpy, who believes beauty is painting with her own menstrual blood. It is for these reasons I think we need to create a new art movement, one which fosters true creativity among artists across the Western world. Believe me when I say that artists who strive to create beauty do exist in this world, oh no the art establishment don’t bother promoting them, and you’re not likely to see the Tate in London or the Agora Gallery in New York fawning over them, but they do exist.
Operating in unassuming corners of major cities from St Petersburg to Chicago, Edinburgh to Rome, they create their beauty with little praise nor financial rewards. Instead they get the odd commission from that one individual who sees their potential, that one businessmen who doesn’t go along with the trend of the rich paying a king’s ransom for some Jackson Pollock monstrosity.
It was back in 2010 when my opinions on modern art shifted, once and for all. For many years I had been parroting what the Cathedral had taught me, such as Andy Warhol was a visionary, it’s not about what a piece of art looks like but the meaning behind it etc. That soon disappeared like many childish notions I’d once held as sacrosanct. To be honest, I had never really believed all of that, the shock and awe of course made some impact, but it receded like many irrelevant memories in my mind recede. What has always stayed with me however is the otherworldly beauty of a da Vinci or Michelangelo painting, a Bernini sculpture or a Bronzino sketch.
At the 2009 Turner Prize, an awards ceremony set up by the establishment to reward the establishment, a miracle happened, after many years of hideous excrement being awarded countless thousands of pounds, a painting from an artist rooted in the fine art tradition won the £25,000 prize and press attention. Richard Wright’s ‘Untitled’, painted in gold leaf, echoed the rich and illustrious history of Western art, like a baroque fantasy it was if the nightmare of modernism never happened. A fleeting moment of course, but it put the final nail in the coffin for my view that modern art is somehow worthy of attention.
Richard Wright’s Turner Prize win has always stuck in my memory, it’s a reminder that at certain points in history, true beauty always wins out in the end. Taking that as an inspiration, those of us who appreciate aesthetics need to utilise these gains and set about creating a counter movement, a movement with its own galleries, it’s own grants etc, rewarding and promoting art that uplifts our societies, praises our history and illuminates our cultures. Whether inspired by Paganism, Christianity or Humanism, all would be welcomed and given a place in the public sphere.
Like Richard Wright and his golden wonder, it takes just one instance to change an opinion, to dispel a lifetime of lies that modern art is somehow the pinnacle of human achievement, the upper echelons of all creativity. So, it would only need one gallery filled with beauty, one grant that offers money and promotion to worthy artists, and the lies would fall once and for all.
