We need Moral Art

[axolotl]

in this dark times we live "art" has been so divorced with teaching values... we need artists that make art for teaching, art with politics. that's the only possible beauty.

[Clopin]

So go make some. Also what dark times?

[mona amon]

And whose values and morals are they supposed to teach? Bowdler's? The Women's Christian Temperance League's?

[Iain Sparrow]

And whose values and morals are they supposed to teach? Bowdler's? The Women's Christian Temperance League's?


Perhaps what was meant is we need more artists like Norman Rockwell... to promote a more wholesome existence, where everyone knows their place and there's never a need to feel uncomfortable.:)

[Pompey Bum]

Perhaps what was meant is we need more artists like Norman Rockwell... to promote a more wholesome existence, where everyone knows their place and there's never a need to feel uncomfortable.:)

Or to disguise the fact that we don't live in such a place anymore than Norman Rockwell did? :)

[Melanie]

in this dark times we live "art" has been so divorced with teaching values... we need artists that make art for teaching, art with politics. that's the only possible beauty.
Good idea but Expressionism does that already…unless you mean solely with "good moral" images. Like rhyming poetry, there are some who just stick their fingers down their throat because it's not "cool" to be a "goody-two-shoes" or "singsongy" or seeing the world "through rose-colored glasses". Expressionism is for good and bad and everything in between so there's something for everyone.

Since you mentioned politics, I assume "morals" includes the corruption of public morals as well? We have political cartoons already so it would have to be a more sophisticated style of art which has also been done in the past during the Depression and WWI andII and the industrial age. I saw an excellent exhibit recently of Black Artists that centered mostly on civil rights. Some images were disturbing but very moving. The founding artists of unique movements in art, if they strike a chord with the public, make it big.

Every piece of art teaches us something, even abstract art. Take a basic piece, a black square on a white canvas for instance. It teaches us spacial interaction, composition, the relationship of how black relates to white, reflection, value, absorption of color. It teaches us something about the artist and his study of the subject.

[stlukesguild]

in this dark times we live "art" has been so divorced with teaching values... we need artists that make art for teaching, art with politics.

There is plenty of contemporary art that deals with the socio-political issues of today: racism, sexism, corporate greed, the wars in the Middle East, etc... What makes you assume, on the other hand, that Artists "should" be making such art or that Artists are qualified to act as prophets or visionaries or political leaders?

...that's the only possible beauty

According to whom? I find much beauty in the world beyond the realm of politics and social issues and imagine much of this inspirational to many artists.

[ajvenigalla]

What stlukesguild and Melanie said

[ennison]

The Women's Christian Temperance League? I wonder if they had a recommended reading list. I probably would have read some of it.