/381/ Contemporary Art: Inane Spectacle & Pompous Discourse, ft. JJ Charlesworth (Patreon)

On contemporary art.

Critic and editor at Art Review, JJ Charlesworth, joins us to talk about why so much contemporary art is bad. We discuss:

• Why is art no longer about beauty?
• Are we stuck between art that is either superficial or hyperpolitical?
• Why has there been a turn towards the mystical and irrational in art?
• How are ideas of the indigenous and the ecological represented in art today?
• Is there a romantic revolt against reason and is it new?

Links:

• Criticism, Art and Theory in 1970s Britain: The Critical War, JJ Charlesworth
• The Return of Magic in Art, JJ Charlesworth, Art Review
• Gabriel Massan’s Decolonial Games, JJ Charlesworth, Art Review
• The naked truth about Marina Abramović – her ‘art’ is a joke, JJ Charlesworth, Telegraph