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
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?
- Is your taste yours?What would you still love if no one could ever see you loving it?
- Must great art be beautiful?Can something ugly be great art?
- The aura on your screenYou know the Sistine Chapel from images. If you went, what exactly would you be going for?
- The maker inside the madeCan you separate the art from the artist?
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.