Opening page…
The blade and the canvas
If you were angry enough at what it stood for, could you ever be right to put a blade through a painting?
A work of art can be beautiful, offensive, and irreplaceable at once.
Your answer
A little context
A statue of someone you think did terrible things stands in the square you cross every morning. You have never thought of damaging it. But when the news shows a crowd pulling one down somewhere else, you notice that you are not sure what you feel.
Read alongside it4
ReadingThey are not oursWe have no right whatever to touch them. They are not ours. They belong partly to those who built them, and partly to all the generations of mankind who are to follow us.
We have no right whatever to touch them. They are not ours. They belong partly to those who built them, and partly to all the generations of mankind who are to follow us.
ReadingWho destroys a good bookAs good almost kill a man as kill a good book. Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book kills reason itself.
As good almost kill a man as kill a good book. Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book kills reason itself.
ReadingWhere they burn booksWhere they burn books, they will, in the end, burn human beings too.
Where they burn books, they will, in the end, burn human beings too.
ReadingAll art is quite uselessAll art is quite useless.
All art is quite useless.
Nearby questions
- Does knowing change it?A piece of writing moves you to tears. Then you learn a machine wrote every word. Does that change it?
- What would you still love if no one could ever see you loving it?Private pleasure, public approval, and the preferences that survive without an audience.
- Can something ugly be great art?Goya's black paintings, a scream in a symphony, a novel built to bore you. Some of the most admired work is hard to enjoy.
- The aura on your screenYou know the Sistine Chapel from images. If you went, what exactly would you be going for?
- Can you separate the art from the artist?The work that changed your life was made by someone who did terrible things. Nothing in it has changed, except what you know.
