|
|
Article: Those Maxfield Parrish Blues.(Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA)
- Article from:
- The Horn Book Magazine
- Article date:
- January 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Horn Book, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
The question of what is and is not fine art is on everyone's mind in galleries and museums these days. A shark immersed in a vat of formaldehyde in the Brooklyn Museum exhibition "Sensation" is shocking, but is it art? Is the picture of the Virgin Mary composed in part of elephant dung and body parts snipped from pornographic magazines in the same show art or blasphemy, as the mayor of New York City claims? Can there even be an avant-garde when young artists are immediately blessed with government grants and corporate sponsorship? Indeed, the very name modern art seems obsolete as the Museum of Modern Art de-accesses some of its older works.
The tiresome division ...