--- Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu> wrote:
> Justin:
> > Socialism and Art. He thought that the problem
> with
> > capitalism was that it made everything ((including
> > people) ugly, and that the working class deserved
> > beauty and style.
>
> I do not think it is capitalism per se - some of the
> ugliest creations were
> made under the Soviet style socialism.
>
> The problem is not the mode of production itself,
> but populist tendencies
> embedded in it that drive everything to the lowest
> common denominator
I did not say that the inly think that makes for ugliness is capiutalism. I said that Morris,w ho never got to see Soviet socialism in action, thought capitalism promoted ugliness. A sufficient bur not necessary condition, in my old jargon. Morris' points apply quite well to Stalinism too. Howevera caveat about Soviet socialism and art. As everyone here knows, the Soviet futurists of the 1920s were passionately interested in beauty and style -- and for the masses, not the classes.
I dunno if I share Woj's contempt for the inherently low taste of the working masses. I think that if you never teach people to appreciate beauty and art and creativity, they will not learn about it. And even then the impluse keeps breaking out. Stuff Paul Whiteman down people's throats cause it sells and Bix Beiderbecke and Frankie Trumbauer will appear. Or the stuff collected on Harry Smiths Anthology of American folf music was every single recording a commercial enterprise, some of which was successful. Armstrong, Ellington, Basie, R&B, Elvis, Dylan, Kern, the Gershwins, Porter, Rogers & Hart, Sondheim (sometimes) - popular commercial ventures all. I think it's great that Martah Stewart successful markets designer stuff in KMart and Target does the same with Micheal Graves.
If we had serious art classes and crafts classes, if we make efforts to take kids to museums and craftspeople's shops, if we subsidized the good stuff -- I don't mean avant garde, though why not, are you so convinced taht most prople would prefer trash? I' am not.
jks
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