In a fit of madness on this day two years ago I started this blog. That's scary thought number one.
I've just watched the saddo arts programme Frontseat (which always annoys me, but I enjoy being annoyed every now and then - any excuse to rant, rave, shake my fist, and swear a lot after all). They've started a poll to find NZ's greatest painting, which of course is bloody stupid (not to mention being scary thought number two - just look at their list of suggestions). It's like art awards. You're not comparing apples and oranges, more like comparing apples and orangutans. However, I have absolutely no compunction in declaring Piero della Francesca's Baptism the world's greatest painting, and have just voted for Gordon Walters' Te Whiti as NZ's greatest painting.
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© David Cauchi 2001-2011
2 comments:
Whereas I thought it was Curnow who came across as the plonker. Although his was certainly an old fashioned point of view, and I by no means subscribed to all his tenets, Seifert had a consistent, coherent, and cogent argument and completely blew Curnow out of the water. Curnow was visibly struggling. Not only was he reduced to repeating his one assertion but he had no answer to Seifert - saying that things that stand the test of time are those that were fashionable in their time is patently absurd. There's any number of examples that disprove it. A pathetic showing indeed.
As we've so nicely demonstrated, different people always see different versions of the same thing.
You don't, therefore, pay any attention to the results of these best of type things. What they're good for, if they're handled right, is prompting a bit of thought on discriminating between things that you like - I like x, y, and z, but which do I prefer over the others and why do I prefer it?
Oh, and Curnow wasn't being provocative - his was a very canonical list for our times - he just didn't get it. The best evidence for this was at the end when he said 'If it has to be a painting...' and then, for some inexplicable reason, 'and if it has to be a McCahon...'. Bizarre.
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