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Fantastic and plastic mimicry in a tropical vineAs if it weren enough that Alain de Botton tells atheists that we need atheist church equivalents, and how to set them up, he now doing the same in the art business, at least according to the Guardian.
canada goose uk outlet I visited the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam a few years ago, and had a great time seeing what few Rembrandts were on display (it was being renovated). Now, however, the museum has reopened, but there a skunk in the woodpile: a canada goose outlet florida Mephitis mephitis named de Botton. For some unaccountable reason the Rijksmuseum has agreed to allow de Botton canada goose outlet uk (below) to put up giant Post It style notes next to the paintings, telling the viewer how he/she is supposed to react to the paintings. canada goose uk outlet
buy canada goose jacket cheap de Botton at the Rijksmuseum. Photo by Vincent Mentzel buy canada goose jacket cheap
A flashing neon sign hangs over the grand entrance to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Art Is Therapy, it reads, mirroring the cover ofAlain de Botton recent book Art as Therapy, written with the philosopher and art historian John canada goose outlet belgium Armstrong.
canadian goose jacket The Rijksmuseumreopened last yearafter major reorganisation and restoration, to almost universal acclaim. It had more than 3 million visitors in 2013. They thought they had a museum; what they have is a crammed to the gills tourist attraction. It the Tate Modern effect. canadian goose jacket
suffer from fragility, guilt, a canada goose outlet toronto address split personality, self disgust, reads a note next to canada goose outlet Jan Steen 1660s genre paintingThe Feast of Saint Nicholas. are probably a bit like this picture, the label goes on. are sides of you that are a little debauched. The labels tell us what wrong with us, and how the artworks and artefacts they accompany canada goose outlet uk sale can cure our ills.
uk canada goose In front ofRembrandt Night Watch, the crowning glory of the collection, another big yellow label tells us what it believes we are thinking: can bear busy places I wish this room were emptier. De Botton sees the Night Watch as an image of canada goose uk communality, which I suppose it is. There not much fellow feeling in the audience around it, and I guess that the point, too. uk canada goose
canada goose uk shop Here another one, completely superfluous. Perhaps it went next to a Mondrian. canada goose uk shop
More from Searle toVermeer Woman Reading a Letterand his quiet Delft street scene, beside teapots and Chinese gods, alongside anYves Saint Laurentdress and aRietveld chair, the labels proliferate. De Botton canada goose outlet reviews is trying to mend what he sees as a disconnection between art and life, between past and present. This is an unexceptional ambition. Artists and designers do it all the time. Why do we need De Botton? In adisplay of 19thcentury daguerrotypes, under the curatorial theme of memory, we are told we canada goose outlet locations in toronto are in of the saddest rooms in the museum. You might want to cry. Why? All the people in the pictures are dead. They generally are in photographs this old.
Banality and bathos are the stock in trade here. De Botton curatorial rubrics as canada goose outlet boston well as memory, there fortune, money, politics and sex are anodyne, canada goose clothing uk his insights and descriptions shallow and obvious. De Botton insists that art can tell us how to live: should heal us: it isn an intellectual exercise, an abstract aesthetic arena or a distraction for a Sunday afternoon. His petulant tone is wearing. I also dislike the self improvement shtick. In front of an athletic bit of statuary, a label canada goose parka outlet inquires why, if we can accept going to the gym to improve our bodies, we don visit the museum work on our character. He has no eye, canada goose factory outlet vancouver and no ear for language. With their smarmy sermons and symptomology of human failings, their aphorisms about art leading us to better parts of ourselves, De Botton texts canada goose outlet online feel like being doorstepped. But art contains concentrated doses of the virtues! You could coerce any art at all into his cause of mental hygiene and spiritual wellbeing. De Botton reduces art to its discernible content. He doesn make us want to look at all.
But tell us how youreally feel, Mr. Searle! All I can say is that I very glad he had the temerity to call this bovine guano exactly what it is.
cheap Canada Goose de Botton has an obdurate streak of both pedantry and self styled superiority canada goose outlet miami that we learned about from his interaction with the community of nonbelievers. Do we really need someone canada goose outlet store quebec telling us how we supposed to feel in an art gallery? And who has theright to tell us how we supposed to feel? The good thing about art is that each person brings his or her baggage and history to each work of art, imbuing it with different meanings. Imagine what would happen if de Botton went next door and got his sticky fingers on the Van Gogh canada goose shop uk Museum! cheap Canada Goose
canada goose What baffles me is why this man has canada goose outlet in usa any reputation at all. I suppose it because Brits, like Americans (and now presumably the Dutch) like self helpy stuff, too. And apparently de Botton official canada goose outlet runs a of Life in London whose purpose is to teach students the way to lead a meaningful life. canada goose
canada goose clearance In short, he appears to be Britain answer to Deepak Chopra, without the quantum stuff and merchandise. I take my art straight, thank you. canada goose clearance
canada goose coats Professor Ceiling Cat has arranged a demonstration of what would happen were de Botton to get hold of literature in the same way. We likely canada goose outlet real see stickers in bookstores like this: canada goose coats
Canada Goose Coats On Sale Granted that this exhibition is terrible and takes away from the experience of the artworks on display, I think that his ideas are a little more interesting than is let on here. Canada Goose Coats On Sale
canada goose coats on sale While canada goose outlet winnipeg we don need someone to tell us how each artwork relates to psychotherapy, many members of the general public do need assistance in understanding the meaning that artists intended their pieces to evoke. de Botton method of telling us that the work exposes some inner flaw in us is ridiculous, but a method consisting of explaining the artist mental state at the time, the themes of their works and the meanings of symbolic imagery invoked could definitely add to people experience in a museum. canada goose coats on sale
Canada Goose Parka de Botton had another idea, to group paintings based on the emotions they portray, rather than the time they were painted or the style canada goose premium outlet that they are categorized into. Exhibitions based on themes of love, isolation, fear, awe, etc., would be definite improvements on the current academic presentation of museums. Canada Goose Parka
Canada Goose Outlet I think he has good ideas marred by really terrible execution. Canada Goose Outlet
Canada Goose Jackets So, I would be fine with the museum officially offering de Botton notes as a printed guide or an audio tour or the like, but the whole thing with the giant yellow stickies is over the top, obnoxious, and a curatorial disaster. Canada Goose Jackets
uk canada goose outlet It does, however, tangentially remind me of the last time I was at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. https://www.canadagoosestorevip.com They had some modern minimalist works in one room, including a blank canvas several feet big with just a 1/4 black border painted around it (or some variation on that theme). The curator who did up the little labels on the walls next to the paintings either was the most PoMo of the PoMos or, as I suspect, had canada goose outlet phone number a good sense of humor about it and was trying to inject as much snark as possible into the labels as he or she thought she or he could get away with. In other words, there were a few paragraphs of existential angst for said blank canvas. I had published two modest books on Art History many years ago. Both the ‘expert’ view and the ‘I don’t know anything about art, but I know what I like’ view fall short. But canada goose outlet shop this ’emotional guidance’ presumption has something going for it. De Botton set himself up and has been dutifully knocked down by the usual suspects who contribute to this website. By putting his own neck on the line he has allowed us to express our own superior sensitivities, and reveal our own deep belief in our innate superiority when confronting great art. uk canada goose outlet
I read some of de Botton’s comments, and they really do add depth to our experience of the work.
canada goose clearance sale The French do this all canada goose outlet in montreal the time on their classical Music radio channels where Beethoven sonatas, Schubert and Chopin are interrupted by swooning voices telling you canada goose outlet canada what is happening and how you are supposed to feel, bar by bar. At first I used to sneer; but then canada goose outlet in new york I kinda liked it. I am all for ‘critics of gesture’ canada goose clearance sale.