Modern Art: An Exhibition in Criticism
Modern Art is antique.
Modern Art is old.
Modern Art is so last century.
Modern Art is an oxymoron, neither modern nor art.
Modern Art: An Exhibition is Criticism is a book of
invective,
satire,
mudslinging,
ridicule,
and other devices of respectable pedigree.
Modern Art: An Exhibition in Criticism is
a jokebook,
a critique,
a history,
a biography,
a gem of the poet’s craft.
Modern Art: An Exhibition in Criticism is a lesson in
wounding your enemy.
Modern Art: An Exhibition in Criticism is available
here,
there, through The National Civic Art Society.
Modern Art: An Exhibition in Criticism is a book you should own.
Modern Art: An Exhibition in Criticism has a pedigree
in invective; this from W. Shakespeare:
A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a
base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited,
hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a
lily-livered, action-taking knave, a whoreson,
glass-gazing, super-serviceable finical rogue;
one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a
bawd, in way of good service, and art nothing but
the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar,
and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch: […]
-from Shakespeare’s King Lear
Modern Art: An Exhibition in Criticism has a pedigree
in satire; this from J. Swift:
And could he be indeed so old
As by the newspapers we’re told?
Threescore, I think, is pretty high;
’Twas time in conscience he should die
This world he cumbered long enough;
He burnt his candle to the snuff;
And that’s the reason, some folks think,
He left behind so great a stink …
from J. Swift’s “A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General”
Modern Art: An Exhibition in Criticism has a pedigree
in hyperbole; this from W.H. Auden:
I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street.
-from “As I Walked Out One Evening”
Modern Art: An Exhibition in Criticism has originality
in style; this from M. Curtis:
Few things are more snoozy than birds by Brancusi
except for his other whatsies and whosies,
the mish-mash of this and that stone and bright bronze
and other rough stuff that he would pile upon
the plates of the critics and the connoisseurs
who ate with delight this stuff from the sewers
and fed us the masses his smelly caprices
then bid we enjoy the great masterpieces …
-from “Brancusi”
Modern Art: An Exhibition in Criticism is educational, a must-have in
public libraries,
school libraries,
university libraries,
The Library of Congress, where it is,
and your library, where it should be.
Modern Art is a critique in rhyme.
* * *
Modern Art: An Exhibition in Criticism
Illustration credit: William Girard
Author: Michael Curtis
* * *
