Journal - June 21 2010

Really don't have anything to write about. Of course that's a load of bull, I can write most days about absolutely nothing for hours on end. I always have things which pop up to think about and wonder about. Usually its what's happened at school or what I have next to speak about at church. I've done that and now I am waiting till the art exam on Wednesday, so yeah just sitting around reading the class notes, looking at the works of art that were used. To do this without using the internet I got 2 books out of the library. One of them being Sister Wendy's Grand Tour which is absolutely wonderful, she is effusive and detailed in the history and context of the works of the great artists. Have a look.


The other book is the complete opposite This is Modern Art with Mathew Collings.

This series explores what has lead to what is now modern art. Of course the art is different but context and story behind the art and artists is somehow similar. Collings passion is restrained and subdued in contrast to Sister Wendy's love and enthusiasm and that leads me to think about the difference between the two ages.

For this we need to watch some Francis Schaeffer. Schaeffer's wonderful series "How should we then live?" holds some real gems and this one is an explanation of the development of thought that leads us from Sister Wendy's art to Collings. Basically there is a hopelessness in human thinking a despair which leads to the decay in beauty and truth.



I wonder if the modern artists are trying to get to that place of beauty but cannot get there and in desperation grab hold of anything. So to this we have Warhol who eschews his entire person for some vapid famous genius. There is nothing to hold onto but the vapours of fame and the icons of the age. As Schaeffer says there is no hope and no reason, man is just a machine. There is no real beauty. But we look at the works on Sister Wendy's Grand Tour and we recognise the beauty of them but do we understand the context of belief and hope that existed in the artists who made them. Back then they had a classical understanding of God and the world and Mankind as a created being. God existed and beauty was possible, truth was possible and the art was stunning. Now the art is still stunning but rarely is it beautiful and true.