The issue of an artist's politics is an interesting one. On th eone hand it seems likely that a person's worldview will find its way into that person's art. But on the other hand, it may also be true that art has a certain autonomy and develops according to laws of its own to a certain extent. A lot of persons considered good or even great artists had really abominable politics. Not only Wagner but Pound, Eliot, Yeats, Nabokov, Richard Strauss, Mishima, the Italian Futurist painters, and I am sure, many, many others. I must admit that I have enjoyed work by such writers, though I generally enjoy great radical artists better, like Pisarro, Brecht, Dos Passos (before he became a right winger), Mayakovsky and the like.
What does the left have to say about art and artists? What does a Marxist analysis of art look like?
Michael Yates
Rosser Jr, John Barkley wrote:
>
> When I was young, Wagner was the first case presented
> to me of someone who had produced something that was
> beautiful, yet who was personally utterly despicable. I
> happen to like Wagner's music, at least most of it, but I
> continue to find myself torn by the paradox between this
> beauty and of some of the awful implications seeping
> through some of his operas, the racism and German
> nationalism, etc.
> I would note that there is somewhat more of a
> progression (actually regression would be more accurate) in
> Wagner's work as time passed. His earlier works are more
> progressive and socialist/revolutionary, with Der Ring des
> Niebelungen still largely in this vein, despite some clear
> racist elements within it. But as he aged, Wagner's
> megalomania and his racist nationalism worsened until they
> became far more explicit by the time of his final opera,
> _Parsifal_, although I find at least the music of that
> opera still beautiful, if not the full content of the opera.
> BTW, one of the best essays on Wagner and his
> convoluted contradictions to this day remains Nietzche's,
> "Nietzche contra Wagner."
> Barkley Rosser
> On Fri, 11 Dec 1998 20:11:17 EST Apsken at aol.com wrote:
>
> > Henry wrote:
> >
> > << The blemishes in Wagner's life were his alleged racism and anti-Semitism.
> > Yet
> > well respected Jewish musicians have separated the genius of his music from
> > his
> > misguided affliction. After all Wagner was merely a product of 19th century
> > Europe. >>
> >
> > Not being a Wagner aficionado myself, I defer to Mark Twain's wisdom:
> > "Wagner's music is better than it sounds."
> >
> > Ken Lawrence
>
> --
> Rosser Jr, John Barkley
> rosserjb at jmu.edu