Name: The New Philistines
ISBN: 9781785901270

Sohrab Ahmari

A passionate cri de c ur against the domination of identity politics in contemporary art and art criticism."

The New Philistines

Emmett

Last book to be finished as the year ends and I'm glad for it. It articulates a viable and elaborate response to the ulta-politicisation of art and the reduction of all art to the hip-and-happening buzzwords of 'politicisation' and 'transgression' and 'subversion'. Their dominance is palpable and observable (just compare the Tate Modern to, say, any art gallery displaying paintings up till the 1900s). I love how this collection of short arguments is described by its publisher Bite Back as a series of polemics; it is very thought-provoking, and puts it better in words any incipient second thoughts I have been having lately about the state of modern art and the worth of art and criticism. What is art and its relation to beauty? What is it modern art and their capitalisation on shock value until the knife edge is dulled? This slim volume echoes similar thoughts first introduced to me by the philosopher Roger Scruton on the current denigration of the worth of beauty, as reflected in architectural styles and modern art themes, and art critic Camille Paglia, on the contemporary mutilation of high/classical art and its mythological nudes by force-fitting them into the postmodern lenses of power dynamics and feminist theory. Why is art ultimately a matter of power? Should it be? What are other counter perspectives to current mainstream so-called 'subversive' thinking? The chapters are very clearly laid out, the reasons cogent. Ahmari's account of what it's like in the art world today a bit laborious and embarrassing to read, but a needful dip into obscurantism that plagues critical writing. He gives the reader substantial reasons to reject the contemporary approach and rethink the purpose of art and return and renew other dimensions of artistic pleasure into the spectator's encounter. The cover art, I think, deserves a special mention - people watching/looking at old paintings is an enduring affirmation of the lasting power, allure and enchantment of the old masters' handiwork. Why do their names endure, and their works continue to draw hundreds of thousands? May they live on.

The New Philistines

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