Francis Berger
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Resistance or Collaboration?

4/4/2019

12 Comments

 
Imagine you are a sixteen-year-old aspiring painter living in communist Hungary in the early sixties. You are talented, ambitious, and yearn to have your art recognized and celebrated.

What are your options?

You could attempt to escape the country.
Or you could abandon your ambitions or just create art privately.
Or you could pursue your ambition within the communist system.

The first option would be dangerous, perhaps deadly.
The second will not fulfill your ambitions and perhaps make you miserable.
The third would amount to collaboration, but what other choice do you have? Communism is the only system open to you, and it controls everything including education and the art world.

And would it be genuine collaboration if you secretly resisted the ideology in your own mind and thoughts?

Are those who quietly resist merely deluding themselves or is resistance, regardless of how subtle, an act of immense spiritual courage?

I explored these ideas in a brief scene I have excerpted from my novel below. I invite you to read it if you feel so inclined.
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Under the watchful eye of Ms. Kálmán, Reinhardt spent several months slaving over paintings and drawings for the portfolio he would submit as part of his application to the University of Fine Arts in Budapest.

“The essence of socialism must permeate every last detail,” Ms. Kálmán said. She withdrew a large book from her desk and propped it open. Examples of socialist-realist art decorated the pages. “You see here,” she said pointing to an unnatural and idealized painting of a field with mountains in the background. “You see the pent up energy beneath the surface? The principals of socialism should be evident even in the composition of landscapes.”

Reinhardt took the book home and studied it meticulously. He absorbed the basic rules of socialist art and began sketching out some rough ideas of his own.

“What are these monstrosities?” Gertrude asked after Reinhardt had filled the table with sketch after sketch of robust, angular figures striding through fields of grain or striking grand poses before factories, shipyards, and train stations.

“Ms. Kálmán said I should idealize the human form and make every person I draw or paint should look like they had eaten communism for dinner.”

“Communism for dinner?” Gertrude said incredulously. She picked up a sketch of a masculine woman wielding a pitchfork. “In the morning, I bet this one shits nothing but red stars.”

A strange blend of shock and amusement overcame Reinhardt; it was the first time in his life he had heard his mother curse.

“I don’t approve of any of this,” she said as she placed the sketch back on the table. “It’s all lies.”

“It’s just a style of art.”

“It’s nonsense. If they accept you into this school, they’ll have you churning out this rubbish day and night until they turn your brain inside out and make you believe all of it is true.”

“I don’t believe any of this,” Reinhardt offered, his voice calm as he gingerly countered his mother’s objections. “I’m drawing these so I can get into the school.”

“This is a bad idea. I don’t know why I agreed to it. What will happen to you once you get up there?” Gertrude asked. She turned her back on Reinhardt and looked at the embroidered cloth containing the old town emblem. “Do you think they’re going to just let you do whatever your heart desires?”

“They’re going to teach me how to be an artist.”

“They’re going to teach you how to become one of them.”

“I won’t let them do that.”

“It is easy to say that now, but once you get up there they’ll figure out a way to put a red star in your head the same way the Germans who came to the village during the war succeeded in putting the crooked cross in the heads of so many. And what good did that do? Within a few months they rounded up the Jews in Pécs. Later, it was our turn.”

“I’ll pretend I have a red star in my head. I’ll play along so I can get what I need, the same way you do, the same way everyone does.” He paused for a second; Gertrude did not appear to be assuaged. “What other choice do I have? We all have to make compromises. And it’s not as bad as it used to be. You’ve said so yourself.”

“Will you be able to sleep at night knowing you’ve created nothing but lies and absurdities?”

“Will I be able to sleep at night if I don’t become an artist?” Reinhardt cried. “What will I do if I turn this down? Become a bricklayer and build garish eyesores for party members or the proletariat? It doesn’t matter because in the end I’d still be working for them, building up the world the way they want it built. You’re no different. Every morning you go out into the fields that used to be ours and you toil to fill the stomachs and fuel the hearts of true-believers and party members and Russian soldiers.” Reinhardt paused to regain his composure. He continued, in a softer voice, “Don’t you see, Mother? We like to think we’re not a part of it and that hanging a white stag on the wall and keeping our Swabian names somehow puts us above it all, but it doesn’t. We are all accomplices. Every last one of us.”

Gertrude became pale as she stared at the white stag in the old town emblem. Reinhardt shook his head and tried to refocus on his work. It took him less than a minute to realize he would be unable to do anymore that day. He dropped his pencil and grabbed his coat.

“I’m going for a walk,” he called back to his mother. “I need to clear my head.”
12 Comments
palintropos
4/4/2019 22:19:02

You are one the few – or maybe the only one – who writes sensibly about artists. Especially amongst those who identify as conservative. Tom Wolfe did a pretty good job, if somewhat overly excitable, in The Painted Word. However, I'd say the biggest concern for young artsy types is figuring out how to survive and pay the bills. I'm pretty sure if non-ironic, non-nihilistic art or non-special interest group agit-prop became the hot ticket in New York young artists would pick up on it immediately.

I'll have to read your book to see if the hero becomes a bohemian.

Here's a modern day version of Reinhardt, a movie called Art School Confidential:

Plot: Jerome is bullied as a kid. Discovers drawing talent attracts girls. Goes to art school where he attracts Audrey and verbally attacks fellow student, the nordic Jonah (who it turns out is an undercover cop investigating a serial killer.) Through a chance encounter, Jerome assumes the identity of the serial killer in a bid to win Audrey. (As we know, chicks dig serial killers.) After she believes Jerome is a killer she retrieves his kitsch portrait of her in the trash. He’s now a famous artist on the cover of art mags and a celebrity; his former roommate filmmaker makes a movie or documentary; his art professor (Malkovich) is interviewed and gains his own notoriety himself by association, etc. Jerome’s work, the work of another artist he kills by accident, is shown as a 1st Amendment fight.

While in jail awaiting trial his lawyer and art school director pay him a visit. Both know he’s innocent. The lawyer asks him if he wants out now. But Jerome goes along with the director’s plan for a long, drawn-out trial, further milking the publicity for himself and the school. The final scene is Jerome and Audrey kissing through the plexiglass preceded by Jerome gazing into a distorted mirror.

Theme: Certainly, the narcissism of a Warhol world. But a lot of anti-white stuff too. Jerome is Antifa. He equates the normal white Jonah with Nazis. He’s full of bitterness and resentment, driven to succeed as an act of revenge. The art world scenario falls apart as bathos would never gain entrance to the realm of emptiness and irony. More like pop culture scenario of fan mags and tabloids. Still, the interest in shaping culture through images, gestures and exploiting mass media are very good.

Rather surprised by 6.3 rating at IMDB.

Reply
Francis Berger
4/5/2019 09:05:06

@ palintropos - "You are one the few – or maybe the only one – who writes sensibly about artists." Thanks for the compliment, kind words, and great comment.

Making a living as an artist has always been a challenge - I have not succeeded at doing so myself as a writer. This used to bother me when I was a younger man - late teens, early twenties - but by my mid-twenties I stopped obsessing about it.

The movie you mention sounds interesting. I'd never heard of it before now.

Art is a strange position in our contemporary world. So much of it is hyped-up, politicized nonsense. Sadly, I'm of the opinion that most people wouldn't recognize genuine art if it bit them on the ass.

Are you an artist, palintropos?

Reply
palintropos
4/5/2019 14:54:07

Yeah, I've been involved in various capacities for decades.

White men better figure out how to think symbolically, in my humble opinion. They are way too abstract and technical in a world more and more inundated with images and gestures. They are way too culturally passive, constantly whining about various cultural products made by people who hate them. They should learn how to make their own culture again. They are culturally backward. They spend hours carefully crafting essays that preach to the choir while their enemies are able to sway millions with a single photo. White men have been routed by their own culture and don't even know it, and are completely unable to unify the spiritual, material and intellectual symbolically. Sad.

For your information (I didn't know this myself until I saw a documentary) Warhol produced the most Christian art of the 20th century – in terms of numbers of objects I guess. He was a devout Catholic who would volunteer at his local church's soup kitchen. I think he had an immigrant's distancing perspective on the USA, his parents coming from Slovakia.

I saw a few of these images, very dark icon-like things with gold paint and dark Christ, in his trademark mass produced silkscreen format.

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Francis Berger
4/5/2019 16:34:09

@p- If by white you mean European, I agree. Most Europeans view their artistic heritage with a strange blend of guilt and shame. I imagine this is due to success of the postmodernist movement and associated philosophies that viewed European culture and, by extension, art as oppressive. At the very least, Europeans should drop the guilt and shame, but this is difficult to do if you subscribe to the current secular-humanist dogma and are essentially spiritless.

I view American culture as a unique blend of influences. Perhaps there had been a time when the wounds between black and white may have been healed through art, but this seems impossible now given the current cultural/political milieu.

Warhol was an interesting character. He was Ruthenian Catholic, but attended Roman Catholic mass where he reportedly crossed himself in the Orthodox way.

Reply
palintropos
4/5/2019 17:40:19

Yes, European I meant.

Shouldn't American blacks thank God their ancestors were taken from Africa? I mean how many risk their lives today trying to get out? And they have to pay! Obama's dad got out (briefly) on a scholarship to Harvard, true, but he was upper caste in Africa and probably had a relatively high IQ.

Here's something that's quite illuminating about where things are going:

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/artist-paints-dana-schutz-s-child-in-response-to-controversial-emmett-till-work

This is a tale about an up-and-coming white American feminist artist who tried to exploit the black shake-down market for her own benefit. Black activists and artists quickly cut her off. Her main opponent was/is a "Somali-Australian" who creeped her and all the liberal whites out by making a portrait of her 5-year old boy, probably getting the image from Facebook. So, a half-Euro Somali living in Australia (unlike Obama he looks somewhat Euro) identifies with American white-racist-victim icon Emmett Till.

There's more going on here than something peculiar to the US I'm afraid. What's now called cultural appropriation (all one way) is probably going to be grist for the mills of justice for years to come. They grind slowly but exceedingly fine.

Francis Berger
4/5/2019 19:38:31

@ p - Art geared toward only material considerations is inferior art. That's my biggest beef with most contemporary art. It's all horizontal. Very little of it contains any vertical quality at all. It's all about society, race, equality, and the rest of that material blah.

Thus, it lacks a necessary dimension. Much of it is barely more than propaganda, in my humble opinion. Or cashing in on the latest pity/outrage trend, like the artist you mentioned. The transcendent in art is what makes it truly universal, and that is precisely what is lacking, in my humble opinion.

Great art needs to be a blend of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. Most contemporary art lacks at least one of these qualities. Some examples lack all three.

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palintropos
4/5/2019 21:12:55

"The transcendent in art is what makes it truly universal"

If you could give me an example of what you mean by universal transcendent art I'd greatly appreciate it. I am genuinely curious. Only whites and a few Asians buy Western art or go to western museums, classical music performances, opera, etc. The idea that someday black people are going to appreciate Richard Wagner is comical. If anything Wagner will be banned in a few years.

If I understand you, this is what you want: truth, beauty, goodness and some kind of universal culture. I don't. Universal beauty will be a dull totalitarian abstraction where no victim can ever feel threatened by racism, sexism or homophobia. To me, this is a kind of nightmare.

Reply
Francis Berger
4/6/2019 05:12:39

@ p- I never said anything about wanting a universal culture. If you read my previous comment, you'll see I believe art focusing mostly on things like race, society, equality (the things that would be required to build a universal culture) is inferior because it is horizontal. What you describe in your last sentence is what I am referring to as well, and yes, that kind of art is indeed a dull, totalitarian abstraction. How could it not be? Think Soviet Socialist Realism, for example.

Perhaps my use of universal is the problem. By universal I meant essence - something timeless and incontrovertible - not something that makes everyone hold hands and sing kumbaya.

Great art rises from an individual within a certain culture. If it is truly great, it transcends the artist and the culture from which it was born and appeals to higher things - it contains transcendentals people from other cultures can recognize and appreciate within the framework of their own individuality and cultures.

I consider Shakespeare's plays example of this kind of art (literature, drama.) Macbeth's Scottishness, though important, is not the most important or striking feature of the play. The themes in Macbeth, though grounded in Elizabethan values, Scottish culture, and classical/Christian influence, and written specifically for Elizabethan audiences, offer something to everyone toda as well, regardless of race/culture/gender, etc.

Macbeth transcends its time, place, and culture offers things people from other times, places, and cultures can appreciate. That doesn't mean Shakespeare wrote the play in an effort to create some kind of universal culture - quite the contrary. It was the furthest thing from his mind. He was probably more interested in getting paid and audience reaction than he was in anything else. Yet, he managed to create a work of art that is True, Beautiful, and Good.

As for who does and does not appreciate certain forms of art - much of this simply comes down to refinement and sophistication. Our modern world is so saturated in popular/tasteless culture that its ability to recognize great art has been greatly diminished. This applies to all groups, races, creeds, etc. If anything is universal in the applies to all people sense, it is that. Universal darkness, as Alexander Pope stated in the Dunciad.

palintropos
4/6/2019 17:14:38

"As for who does and does not appreciate certain forms of art - much of this simply comes down to refinement and sophistication."

Well, I have to give you credit for sustaining a deeply felt hope in the face of overwhelming evidence indicating the contrary. You are heading for bitter disappointment my friend. And, more likely, retreat into a make-believe world.

Reply
Francis Berger
4/6/2019 18:29:00

In all honesty, I'm terribly pessimistic about most things, but I don't wallow in despair. Goes against my nature.

As for retreating into a make-believe world . . . well, I hear that all the time from atheists, too.

Reply
palintropos
4/6/2019 19:12:35

Why be pessimistic? Relax. God created all the different races, creeds, groups. Let Him sort it out.

I'm going to The Shed in Manhattan in a few weeks. The venue will be an abstract painting by Gerhard Richter (a German), a piece of commissioned abstract music by Steven Reich (a Jew who hates Germans) and Arvo Pärt, whose abstract music will be performed by strolling groups of singers. I want to bask in the multicultural love fest at this $2 billion tax subsidised, abstracted building that could just as well be in Dubai. I will join the sophisticated consumption/production units enjoying the company of our fellow white lumps of protoplasm, as we sip Palazzo Antinori Chianti Classico.

Francis Berger
4/6/2019 21:30:48

@ P - What you describe sounds similar to the way I depicted the New York art world in my novel.

On the bright side, sounds like they're serving good wine.

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