I still vividly remember watching Robert Hughes' The Shock of the New - a magnificent TV series where he charted the development of what we still, 45 years later, would call Modern Art. After eight one-hour episodes, he summed the whole movement up in one devastating comment: "What is the purpose of modern art? It is to hang on the wall and appreciate in value."
We're so lucky to have that trilogy of great art programmes: Shock of the New, Civilisation and Ways of Seeing. The hosts would probably have vigorously disagreed with one another
Thank you for reading. If you do make the leap to a dumb phone I'd be interested to hear how you get on. There is a forum on Reddit I found very helpful
I'd recommend 'Things I Didn't Know' by Robert Hughes; more accessible than 'Nothing if Not Critical' and the (unfinished) memoir of a complicated and fascinating life.
Yes Robert Hughs was great. Deep knowledge and strong opinions, he knew what is good and why. What made him particularly compelling was a confidence that meant he didn't have to be angry or theatrical to deliver trenchant arguments.
Robert Hughes is magnificent. I read Nothing if Not Critical recently the bit that really stuck in the memory is about how until very recently all artists, even modern abstract painters, had a grounding in the hard graft of traditional forms. But no more and without that grounding, art has lost its foundations, its frames of reference. And when you look around, you see that it applies to everything, not just art.
I still vividly remember watching Robert Hughes' The Shock of the New - a magnificent TV series where he charted the development of what we still, 45 years later, would call Modern Art. After eight one-hour episodes, he summed the whole movement up in one devastating comment: "What is the purpose of modern art? It is to hang on the wall and appreciate in value."
We're so lucky to have that trilogy of great art programmes: Shock of the New, Civilisation and Ways of Seeing. The hosts would probably have vigorously disagreed with one another
A super read as ever, James.
As if I needed further persuasion that moving to the Qin F21 is the only answer:
'...the story of your life, truthfully told, is in great part the story of what you’ve been doing on the internet'.
The coup de grace, however, was your EI Talks episode on the post-literate society: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Xzn9l3ps0AW8afGEtJz7R?si=U8HaoxYZTmOeWIGaG0lIQg
Thank you for reading. If you do make the leap to a dumb phone I'd be interested to hear how you get on. There is a forum on Reddit I found very helpful
I'd recommend 'Things I Didn't Know' by Robert Hughes; more accessible than 'Nothing if Not Critical' and the (unfinished) memoir of a complicated and fascinating life.
Funnily enough I ordered this last week - looking forward to reading it
Yes Robert Hughs was great. Deep knowledge and strong opinions, he knew what is good and why. What made him particularly compelling was a confidence that meant he didn't have to be angry or theatrical to deliver trenchant arguments.
Robert Hughes is magnificent. I read Nothing if Not Critical recently the bit that really stuck in the memory is about how until very recently all artists, even modern abstract painters, had a grounding in the hard graft of traditional forms. But no more and without that grounding, art has lost its foundations, its frames of reference. And when you look around, you see that it applies to everything, not just art.
I’m a huge fan of Ong and coincidentally just did a piece yesterday that looks at what he can tell us about today’s “politics of rizz”!
https://unherd.com/2025/02/the-rise-of-yuppiefuturism/
politics of rizz is a superb phrase
Spoken like a true wordcel!
Marvellous
thanks for reading!
Thank you for your enlightening column James! I’m now going off to read Robert Hughes whom I was only vaguely aware of…
I think Nothing if Not Critical is the place to start. Or his fantastic TV series The Shock of the New if you haven't seen it