Who knew there were still smart non-crazy people in England?
I'm now making a project of watching every Scruton video on Youtube.
And I'd really love to read his books about art and beauty.
(For the slower-witted amongst y'all, that's a hint.)
H/T and thanks to John Jalsevac for the tip.
He blogs: http://rogerscruton.wordpress.com/
ReplyDeleteHmmm... not really. The dates of the posts seem to be all over the place, with the top post dated 2008, but under it is one for March 2010. He's not really blogging, just archiving now and then.
ReplyDeleteHilary,
ReplyDeleteThis is quite interesting, although Mr. Scruton is firmly resting in the ideas of the Enlightenment, however, this is an improvement over the Marxist ideas now current. Consider the woman who did the rumpled bed: she declares that it is art, because she is an artist. This "institutional" definition of art is Marxist when you consider who controls the institutions and so who gets to be called an artist.
I think the truth rather settles in the definition that everything made by the hands of man is art, and that some people have more virtue in making particular things than others. But I won't discard every newer idea: moderns are very good at finding the details while totally missing the big picture.
Scruton is important because you ought to read history backwards to see where mistakes have been made and backtrack from there; he identifies current mistakes and is looking earlier for the truth.
I wrote an article where I linked to lots of primary documents on art theory as used in the 19th century. You might find some of these interesting:
http://www.romeofthewest.com/2009/05/photos-of-tower-grove-park.html
So, you've finally managed to find about the only smart non-crazy man in England. He I've got some lovely books of his, but I'm not letting them out of my sight!
ReplyDeleteGood books on art: Da Vince wrote a book, available on Internet; Cennnini, gets down to the practical matters; and Salvador Dali, don't be surprised too much, wrote a book called "50 secrets of Magic Craftsmanship" that is thoroughly and ingeniously classical, though he tries to obscure that fact a little with stercor tauri. (Some of the word verifications are getting to me: this one was SUFFISH -- a reference to Islamic mystics who were influenced by Christianity?)
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